New Lawn

Hey all,

I had my lawn laid about 3 weeks ago, everyone who has seen it has commented on how nice it looks but I have concerns.

I am slowely on my way down to the recommended 1" height recommended by the company I bought it from, the lower I get the browner the grass looks.

It looks a lovely dark green on top, but underneath it looks brown and horrible, todays cut took it down to 1.5" and in places I have reached the brown, so what was nice and green an hour ago is browny in colour now.

Is this normal for new lawns? I have now given it a water with the miracle grow liquafeed lush lawn to give it a boost



Thanks in advance.

 

The maximum to reduce lawn by each cut is 1/3 of its height. When you say slowly reducing how often are you cutting, I would cut on a new lawn no more frequently than weekly and perhaps even 2 weekly. When laid reputable contractor will probably have fertilised turf so do not apply any more fertiliser or you could well overdose. I would be inclined not to reduce height further 1.5 inches is good height and will develop sward and help lawn in times of drought and also discourage moss.

 

It looks like you've got a lawn that's mostly a rye grass mix, which is quite good for a hardwearing lawn, but it can get a bit "all stalks no leaves" when mown down from long.

Basically what's happened is that the grass was used to being nice and tall, with lush leaves on top. These naturally shade out the lower layers of the plant, causing them to go brown because they don't see the sun. Then when you mow the top leaves off, all you see are brown stalks.
It is perfectly normal and the grass will grow new leaves from lower down the plant to compensate.

Your lawn is very new, so I would be concerned about mowing it that much, that early. Giving it a feed may not have been the wisest thing to do either, especially if new lawn fertiliser was laid down with the turf.

Patience is all you need for now. Keep your mower high, and mow regularly, and it will come through and, provided it has been laid with a nice deep root run, it should thicken well.

Kris

 

Thanks for the replies all, we laid the lawn ourselves, it is the Rolawn Medallion turf.

The Turf was layed on sandy loam with no fertiliser and rooted quite quickly, Rolawn say on their website "Be prepared to mow a new Medallion® lawn within as little as 3 days", but I waited a week before testing a small section with the mower,all was ok so I completed the mow.

I mow it every 3 days at the moment as it is growing very fast, Rolawn say that medallion turf is used to being kept at 1" and that is their recommended height.

I move the height down 1 notch every mow which is about 0.5cm, im currently at 3cm and to be honest think ill leave it at this height as 0.5 cm less wont really make much of a difference to how it looks (I think).

The liquafeed bottle suggests that it should be used every 7 to 14 days, hopefully adding it now wont cause any problems and will help the brown bits recover faster, ill probally liquafeed it every 10 days until September.

I can actually see a lot of brown/dead leaves at the bottom (which were not visable when the grass was a little higher), I guess this was caused by the stress of being cut up, transported then layed. As well as the lack of light getting down that low as the grass grew higher.

 

I've only laid turf once (always seeded before/after then ...) and it was later in the year than this, but it took me ALL of the rest of the season to try to get it down to a sensible height ... and realistically it wasn't until Year Two that it was at the height I wanted it.

The problem started with the initial period of getting it established, and not being able to mow during that period, so it was quite long when I started and the turf grew so quickly (the fertiliser it came with I expect) that I just could not reduce the height at all without taking too much off. I even cut it twice a week to try!

Probably easier to "live with it long" for the first year (so long as that is not going to encourage it to be too coarse I suppose ??)

 

although it may already have had some applied before the turf was lifted?

They are a reputable company, so I guess they know what they are taking about, but I have to say I am surprised. I thought you were not supposed to cut a lawn until the roots had knitted into the soil (the test being whether if you give it a little tug the turf lifts ... or not).

My problem was definitely because I did/could not mow it for a couple of weeks.

Are you watering it? Depends if you get rain of course, but you need a lot of rain in order not to have to water it. I reckon it wants 1/2" of "rain equivalent" 3 times a week?? perhaps only twice a week if you don't see the sun much in that time

(A quick sprinkle will not get the water to soak through the turf to the roots; what you need is the soil under the turf to be wet enough that the plant is encouraged to grow its roots down into it)

Sounds like they are concentrating more on Selling and what the grass Needs!

"Over feeding" will make the plants weak and susceptible to disease. Better to underfeed rather than overfeed IMHO.

 

Thanks, Im at 1.5" in height as of today, the lawn doesn't look terrible, and its not huge brown patches, but the brown tinge is noticeable in areas.

It would seem my impatience has caused me to take too much off with each mow. I had to empty the 40l grass box twice, the lawn is about 32m2. When it got its first cut the grass was at 3.5" in height, over the course of 7 cuts it is now down to 1.5" in height.

As I have already reached this height I will not take it any lower as per lawnmans recommendation, I guess keeping it at this height from now on wont do it any harm? if any harm has been down I assume keeping at this height with 2 mows a week will help the grass recover from any stress.

Cheers

 

Yup sounds fine to me.

Only issue I perceive is that longer = allows rougher grasses to prosper. No idea if that is a problem, and I think only likely to be a problem if you have bought "fine grass turf" ("bowling green turf" for want of a better phrase! or at least something approaching that). If you have "hard wearing" turf for kids to play football on etc. then I can't see it being a problem at all. Wait to see what the others say though, they have more knowledge then me

 

In case helpful to others I looked up the Spec for Rolawn's Medallion Turf:

Typical sown seed mixture:

• Dwarf Perennial Ryegrass 40%
• Chewings Fescue 20%
• Slender Creeping Red Fescue 10%
• Strong Creeping Red Fescue 30%

So that's in the "Hard Wearing" bracket then


5. Immediately after laying – Watering is the single most important step you need to take to establish a beautiful and healthy lawn

5.1 Start watering on the day turf is laid. On hot days, you may need to commence watering large lawns prior to laying all the turf.​

5.2 Ensure that the new lawn is never short of water. Lift corners of the turf to confirm water has percolated through to the underlying soil.​

5.3 Water repeatedly until the turf is well established.​

5.4 If rainfall is experienced you still need to check that the lawn is receiving sufficient water.​

5.5 It is best to water turf in the early morning or during the evening so that less water is lost to evaporation.​

5.6 Once established, occasional watering during dry periods should be adequate.​

​

6. Soon after laying – Mow

6.1 Be prepared to mow a new Medallion® lawn within as little as 3 days, provided this can be done without disturbing the turf.​

6.2 If turf is dislodged, replace it and allow the turf more time to establish before recommencing mowing.​

6.3 Don’t delay. Most people allow turf to get too long. Mowing encourages establishment. Although this should be the only traffic in the first few weeks.​

6.4 Never remove more than one third of the grass blade length.​

6.5 For the first few cuts remove just the top quarter of the grass blade.​

6.6 Over the next few cuts gradually lower the mowing height down to 25mm (1”).​

6.7 Alternate the direction in which you mow the lawn.​

6.8 Clippings do not have to be collected if they are minimal, provided sunlight is reaching the blades of grass. Clippings in small amounts return nutrients to the soil encouraging a healthy lawn.​

7. Maintenance

7.1 Mowing​

Medallion® turf is used to a cut height of 25mm (1”). You should aim for the same without ever removing more than one third of the grass blade length at any one time. Adjust how often you mow your lawn dependent on how quickly the grass grows. In the peak growing seasons frequent mowing can dramatically enhance your lawns appearance.​

If the lawn becomes too long gradually bring it back down to the correct height. Mowing a lawn from 75mm (3”) down to 25mm (1”) in one cut will result in a weak, sparse, pale lawn.​

Whatever type of mower you have it must be well maintained, with blades sharpened at least once a year.​