New lawn issues.

D

DIWHY

Guest
Good morning all,

I have a new lawn that I'm trying to 'cultivate' which I may have just made worse and now I need some advice on how to solve the problem !

The seed was sown in late July so got a scorched a bit and was very slow to appear, however it did eventually start to come on and there is (was) now a decent covering a grass.

HOWEVER while the grass was struggling the weeds were absolutely thriving. I believe these to be Docks, Grounsel and a lot of Shepherds Purse - some of which were up to 3-4 feet high. I got a rush of blood to the head on Saturday and we ended up pulling up the whole lot.

This was probably the completely wrong thing to do, as the large weeds took quite a bit of soil with them and what I now have is a garden with quite a lot of grass which is about 5-6 inches long but also quite a lot of holes about 2 inches deep where the weeds used to be ! Yes I am an idiot and I'm sure I should killed/strimmed them instead of pulling them but as I said I am an idiot and I had a rush of blood, bad combination !

So now to fix the problem I have created .....
The options as I see them are:

1. Armegeddon. I use round-up to kill all life in the garden, get in a bit of top soil, roll/rake it level and start again. Question with this is how long would it take to kill everything and have the soil ready to seed again ? Would it be too late for this year ?

2. Fill the holes with topsoil, rake it level and plant some more seed. Is it ok to do this, planting new grass in the middle of the 'old' ? should I mow the existing grass back down before I sow so I can then leave it all for a couple of weeks.

3. Actually thats it, a short list ! Or has anyone got any other suggestions. Failing this and as gardening doesnt appear to be my 'thing' how much does gravel cost ? ;-)

Cheers,
DIWHY.
 
Option 2 is your best bet. Cutting the existing grass first of course.
 
Hi,
Not an expert but had a similar problem with a new lawn laid before I bought the house. Option 2 is probably your best option IMHO. Cut the existing grass and seed where necessary raking over with fresh topsoil. When the new grass grows you could try some "feed and weed". Little and often is the trick here. By springtime you should have a weed free green carpet!
 
Mix some grass seed with compost sprinkle over bad areas and then trample flat grass should start to show in a week and now is the time to do it.

Good Luck
 
My lawn is in the same state as yours was. Weeds are everywhere. Landscaper that put in the lawn was brought back in by the builders and just cut the lawn. She said that this would kill the weeds. Two weeks later and the weeds are still there.

What options do I have?
 
I go out with a kitchen fork and just pull the dig the swines up, making sure I get all the root. A bit of weed and feed should do the job when the grass is more settled.
 
Buy a small spray bottle of Roundup and spray the weeds individually take care not to get it in the grass as it will kill anything it touches. After a few days the weeds are dead and will rot away allowing the grass to take over the once affected area.
This method worked perfectly for me and I have a completely weed free lawn.
Any bald spots can be filled in by using the method I described in my earlier post below.

http://www.roundup.com/

[broken link removed]

Good Luck
 
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