New lawn with some yellow in it - what have I done wrong?

Evening all.

Some of you might know that I set about creating a new lawn a few months ago. Its doing really well, and I'm very pleased with it so far, but there seems to be a slight problem.

While most of the grass is a lush green, some of it is yellow. Not patches of yellow, just like one blade in every 10 (or thereabouts, I haven't counted them ), is yellow.

If I tell you what I've done, maybe one of you knowledgeable folks might be able to spot where I've gone wrong

Around late january, I prepared the ground. It was all poor quality clay with no organic matter left in it, but I'd dug it last year so it wasn't compacted. I dug it again, and raked and walked it flat.

In late feb, I sowed grass seed. I loosely raked it in. Then nothing happened until mid march. My dad had warned me I was too early for our area but I ignored him in my haste. It turned out ok though because it did germinate and grow well. So well in fact that I had to ignore the usual advice and give it its first light haircut in early april. I did this with a strimmer. I took it down to about 3 inches / 8 cms. I did this again every couple of weeks.

About a month ago, I scattered some silver sand over it all, and then a couple of weeks ago I put a dusting of spent mushroom compost on it, but I sort of rubbed it in so that it wasn't burying the grass.

Then tonight, its had its first cut with my brand new lawn mower that I only bought today, and the yellow speckles are more apparent.

I'm still very satisfied with its progress so far, but the yellow bits are a bit of a worry.

Oh, and I haven't let it dry out at any point. I had the sprinkler on it during the dry spell we've just had.

Any ideas? Should I even be worried?

 

Hi You are doing well
I think it needs a feed as it sounds like lacking in Iron , a quick trick I use is tea spoon of epsom salts in a gallon of water will help green it up, then you will know

But reading your post hungary not diseased, DONT get a weed and feed only the feed as you may scortch the new grass
I dont think I would of bothered with the spent mushroom compost or the silver sand ???

Hope this helps

Intrested to see what others may sugest

Spruce

 

Clueless, I think perhaps you've given it to much tlc. It would have been better to have left it to it's own devices for the first year apart from keeping it watered.

I'd be inclined to leave it for a few weeks and just keep it mowed and see what happens. I personally wouldn't use a strimmer on a new lawn as it tends to rip at the grass. If necessary use the mower on a higher cut until it's well established.

The weather conditions so far this year have played havoc with everything so there's a chance it may have affected your new lawn. See how it goes and shout us again if it doesn't improve.

 

I'll give that a go. Thanks for the tip.

Not my post, I'm not a fan of weed and feed products (I don't believe they work), and wouldn't use weedkiller on a young lawn because even weed killers that wouldn't normally affect grass, might affect young grass.

I only did this because the soil I sowed into was so depleted. I was absolutely skint when I did it so couldn't even afford to improve it (other than digging it) at the time. Then my finances sorted themselves out, so I decided to do the conditioning after rather than before sowing. Its mainly because the soil is just clay, and was so depleted that I figured it would just quickly turn back into the solid block of granite it was before I dug it

My original plan was to not cut it much at all this year, and certainly not so early. I had hoped to get something of a poor lawn for this year, as a temporary measure, then I was going to blitz it and do it again properly in autumn, but it grew faster and better than I dared hope. So I thought I'd be bold and try to get it nice for this year after all.

That's good advice, I think I'll do that. You're right about the strimmer, and lots of people warned me about it but as usual, I didn't listen (I keep telling myself to start listening more to the wise words of others, but I guess I don't even listen to myself ).

 

That's ok Clueless, I think we all have a tendency to try and do our own thing first, we all learn by our own mistakes, which a lot of the time is the best way and then kick ourselves for not listening to others.

 

I had some yellow areas on my grass about 3 weeks ago, but I aerated it, then put in some seeds and it's all coming back to its more natural green.