Thought I had them under control a few weeks ago, but clearly not 😭 The roots on these things are absolutely ridiculous. Every time I pull one out, half the root stays behind and another one pops back up a few days later. What’s actually worked for people long term in UK lawns? Proper weeding tool, selective weedkiller, something else?
Hi All,
As you can see from the photos my lawn seems to have 2 distinct types of grass. The darker green lush looking areas and then the thinner yellowish anaemic looking areas. The dark green patches are currently producing many seed heads because I haven't mowed for a while. The yellow patches aren't really doing much. I would be very happy if the whole lawn was covered in the lush dark green type of grass but I'm wondering why the lawn is so patchy like this and what the different grasses are? It's clay soil which is pretty hard at the moment because it's been quite dry for the last few weeks. I overseeded last autumn with some A1 seed which I think contains dwarf rye, various fescues and a small amount of bent grass. I have had a significant Poa Annua problem in the past. Could it be that the yellow areas are just too compacted and poorly drained, and the nice green areas just have better soil/drainage? What sort of grass is the dark green areas or is it too difficult to tell?
Thanks!
So I scarified this grass about a month ago, and now there are dark brown patches scattered in many different sections of the lawn. The build up under the grass was very thick so I done about 5 passes with the aerator and a little bit more probably would of even come up if I done a couple more passes
The fifth picture shows the brown patches where the red squares are, but there are many more sections of those patches in the grass. The pictures after that show close ups of the brown patches.
I never aerated, topdressed or overseeded it but I've decided I will do that this week
My question is, with those brown patches, should I fork them over or just scarify those sections? I just want to be sure the seeds will catch and come through in those sections but its a large area of grass with those patches in many different spots so I dont want to have to fork it over if I dont need to.
Thanks.
Hello,
Looking for a some advice of what I can do differently probably consider next time for my lawn.
Had the house for a year, rear lawn very mossy and so many weeds growing. Spent a while digging out dandelion plants. Did some prep work, scarified plenty, tried with some gypsum, lawn feed, Boston grass seed and compost. Lots of watering and approaching 3 weeks in noticing that richer green colour.
My lawn towards the back was filled with weed plants/daisy's and dandelions. I didn't rotavate the soil or add weed killer, and I had hoped resseeding would 'out compete' growing weeds.
As the new grass grows I've noticed that towards the back there's still a noticeable number of weeds. I don't mind daisy's and I don't care for a perfect 100 per cent grass lawn, but would like a bit more control.
Not going to do anything drastic, but any advice what I can do, beyond apply weed killer?
I pulled up old slabs from this area (and old rotted decking in the back), dug up a lot of the old soil, pulled up as many roots I could find, raked, lay down a lot of top soil, raked again, scattered grass seed and added a thin layer of top soil over that and lightly watered. 2 weeks have passed and so far nothing. What did I do wrong?
Hi, recently posted some pics of my newly seeded lawn. I gave it its first cut at the weekend and now I have these appearing.
I’ve done some googling and it is suggesting bittercress or broadleaf.
Any help would be appreciated.
Not the first post I was hoping to make but I moved into a new 70s build house with a dire lawn so decided to make it my hobby to turn it around. 9 months later and it was starting to look lush and green, even if there was a few weeds still.
But today I've spotted these burnt patches that made my heart sink.
I think it may of been a feed I used (Flower Power's All in One Lawn Feed, Weed & Moss Killer). I was gifted it and it had been sat in my garage for a while but having only used organic/pet-safe stuff it was an experiment.
Question is, how do I recover? 😰
I was looking doing a deep scarify and reseed in the autumn to introduce a single grass type (looking at the A1 Clay Master or Ornamental) but wondering if I need to do it sooner than later, a la now, before the weather get too hot?
Happy to take any advice.
https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/shop/garden/weather-measurement/115488-4-in-1-digital-soil-meter
Does anyone have experience using these? Are they just as good as doing a more standard pH test on soils, or is it more of a gizmo that will never leave the drawer it rests in?
UK based- bought a house but the lawn is terrible, all weeds and sticks. What would the best way to start a proper lawn?
Would just covering with topsoil and seed be okay or would all these weeds come straight through?
Instead of 70/30 sand/soil can I use sand/compost on my lawn? I have a load of sand and compost I can mix but if I absolutely have to buy soil I will, just trying to keep cost down if possible.
Please can someone help me identify the grass in the photos. I seeded with fescue and bent, but I don't think it's bent grass. the base of the stalks literally comes out of the ground and does a 90 degree random turn. any help Is very much appreciated
Hi,
I've bought an old farm house, the garden has been left to ruin. It's approx half and acre and relatively square.
I'd like to get it back to a nice basic lawn. I don't need bowling green, I'm not worried about a few dips or a bit of weeds (I can fix those over time)
I've had loads of building work done, it's now largely mud mixed with loads of stone, brick, glass etc.
I think what I need to do, is pull the top layer off, remove all the brick and stone. Then level it and then drop a lot of good fine top soil. How do I do this at quite a big scale? Anyone got any good videos or articles covering this challenge?
I think with it being square and open I could get a compact tractor in but something smaller would be better. What attachments should I use, I tried a petrol rotavator but this just turns all the mud over and surfaces more bricks and glass.
I have quite a bit lot of retrieved soil spare, I have a scheppach soil sieve that I could use to make fairly good fine material (albeit probably weeks of effort)
It's a wonderful problem to have but it's overwhelming at the moment.
Thanks
Any insights into what this is, growing at the edge of new lawn and new bed? Dig up, prune, kill with fire?
Posted a while ago about my overseeding project and now had first mow. Very happy with results. To recap I scalped, scarified, aerated, levelled and overseeded in late march and covered with horticultural fleece. It's been out of the fleece about a month with watering 2 to 3 times a day.
Still a fair amount of meadow grass in there despite the scalping but I'm fine with it. Main thing is it's full and the ground is no longer bumpy!
Before and after pics attached.
Hi all, any ideas on what this could be, it's in patches over newly seeded lawn, worse in some areas. Thank you
Ok, so coming up on 3 weeks ago I scalped my lawn (laid last year as turf rolls), scarified, sprayed with seaweed extract, levelled with top soil, overseeded and covered with compost. The seeding being mostly ryegrass.
Unfortunately, the last 2 weeks weren’t as ideal as I hoped with regards to weather so temps have been a bit lower than I expected and results not as good as I expected. I have many bare patches where I did some weed pulling prior to the tasks above.
I could stay the course and hope the germination starts in the next week and I can see evidence or I could take some preemptive action
I have a moisture sensor in the lawn linked to sprinklers so it’s stayed moist and not allowed to dry out.
Unfortunately, I work at sea and in about 10 days I will be away for 5 weeks so I’m stuck at what I should do. Any advice?
Option A - I cut the lawn again to stop it becoming unmanageable while I’m away and re seed the bare patches with some seed and top soil (weather looking better once I go away). Then just let it sit in the sun and be watered for the next 5 weeks and hope for the best
Option B - I leave it and hope for the best. I come back to a lawn that’s had 8 weeks of growth un cut and then spend the next 5 weeks slowly bringing the height down.
I plan on buying a robot mower next time I’m home to keep a better manage on cutting the lawn as 5 weeks is seemingly too long to leave it
I know the best way to get the brown spots to go away is to stop her peeing in the garden but that’s not possible. What’s the best way to stop the brown spots or help them bounce back?
So I bought my first house November last year (new build) which came with a jungle for a garden. A few weeks ago my neighbours had turf put down and I asked them on how much it had cost (professional landscaping) and it was around £5k. I thought to myself how hard can it be and decided to do it myself.
I’m not from the UK and honestly there is hardly any DIY culture in my home country so I basically had 0 experience.
I basically asked chatGPT about how to do my lawn cheaply and followed whatever it suggested. I’m now 3 weeks into this project and after countless backbreaking hours of work I think I’m ready to lay the turf.
1st picture - Before picture
2nd picture - 2 weeks after spraying weed killer
3rd picture - weed pulling and stone removal (part I found the hardest)
4th picture - putting down compost and topsoil
ADVISE NEEDED : Being a complete newbie I’d appreciate any tips and tricks for the turf laying part and anything I can do before the turf arrives.
TIA 😃
Currently levelling the soil ready to lay rolls of turf. Trying to get it so that when I lay the turf, it lies flush with the top of the bricks (please see second photo). What height should I bring the soil to? Something online suggested I bring it to the same level as the bricks and that the turf will then sit slightly proud but then bed in. I’m not sure this is right. Feels like the soil should be maybe 10-20mm below the bricks. What do you guys think?
I over seeded 5 weeks ago along with pre seed fertiliser. Watered twice a day for 4 weeks, then dropped it to once a week after. I’ve mowed the tops off twice. It was growing tall and green.
This and another small patch have started yellowing - am I doing something wrong or could it be due to the soil?
Thanks