What wrong with my lawn

Hi guys,

Another year and another cry for help.
I regualry cut my lawn using sharp blades and i regular feed my lawn Evergreen all in one (April & June) and this is how my lawn is looking:
Thanks.

 

Hi GF

I am currently pampering my lawn having initially despaired at the post-winter condition which was similar to yours. After having done lots of research in how to improve the condition, I have gone the full hog and invested in new tools and products to do the job properly (hopefully) and have so far followed these steps which you may want to employ:

To remove moss and thatch:
- scarify/rake
- apply lawn sand/MO Bacter to kill moss
- rake
To improve condition of lawn:
- apply pellet-form fertiliser
- rake again to remove more thatch and moss
- sew lawn seed
- water for 2 weeks for seed to germinate

It's taken me over a couple of months to do the above. Very time consuming but I hope to be able to admire a lovely lush lawn one day...
S

 

Any chance you are cutting it too short (for the grass type)?

Important not to cut off more than 1/3rd of the height at each mowing.

 

Thanks guys,
I plan to remove moss\thatch and reseed in September or October as I have heard either Spring or Autumn best for this and hopefully get a Green thick lawn for 2015.

Kristen - I did cut it once real short in April but could this be a result of that one cut 3 months ago?

Some of this damage may been from the all in one as it seems to be in strips which is how i laid the fertilizer. I did want to move away from the Evergreen all in one as someone on another topic suggested but as I have tons it I thought I'd use it. I was very careful not to use too much and I don't think I have but maybe I did or maybe used it too soon after the previous use. Also must add I used Verdone weed killer which worked great as I weed free lawn at least...

Anyway i guess its safe to say, this is dead grass and scarify and reseed is the only hope for next year?

 

On a newly laid lawn maybe, but on an established lawn, with all the rain we then had (presumably you too) then I doubt it.

The only thing I think is wrong with it is that you are paying to put weed killer on the whole lawn, whether it needs it or not. So my preference is separate [selective lawn] weedkiller, use that only on the areas / spots with weeds, and then a regular lawn fertiliser - which is thus cheaper.

Is there a number of days from Last Mow to Apply, and from Apply to Next Mow? There certainly is with Verdone / other selective weed killers, so make sure you observe those intervals.

The other things which I think is key (with any granular fertiliser) is that it gets rained in within 24 hours. If not then water the lawn (reasonably heavily) instead.

Last up would be the type of grass. Maybe the mix of grass seed is not idea, in which case over seeding it (i.e. with varieties of your choice ) will, over time, correct the proportion / ratio of grass varieties