new lawn not great

redriddick

Registered User
Messages
22
Hi Guys,

Need advice on my newish lawn.I sowed the lawn last april and im not impressed with the results.Some of it is green but most of it is not great at all.Wondering if i should put fertilizer on it or some of them weed and feed products.The lawn is approx 1 acre so will need alot of it.Will try and post pics to show.Thanx in advance.
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Its a bit patchy looking, but its early days yet as its only just up.

From the pictures it looks as if quite a lot of stones are poking through - pick them or risk damaging your lawn-mower or injuring someone.

Get a box of ready-mixed lawn-seed and fertiliser (Dunnes, Woodies DIY, B&Q, HomeBase), loosen the soil in the bald patches with a fork, sprinkle in lawn seed mix and cover over. Tamp the soil firm with your shoe.

When the new grass begins to sprout, set you lawn mower to its highest setting and give the lawn a once over. Leave it for a week and do it again.

Some of the grass looks like it might be dying - what's drainage and original soil quality like?

Is it my imagination or is the lawn saucer shaped (high at the edges, low in the middle)? If it is you will have ongoing problems.

The next job is a PITA. Pull weeds daisies, dandelions, docks, thistles (all have huge root systems) or treat each weed idividually with a systemic weed-killer from a squirty bottle. Treat white and purple clover with a dilute water-on weed-killer from a sprayer (more accurate) or watering-can with a very fine rose.

Before the advocates of meadow or wild-flower gardens lynch me, I need to explain that if you want a lawn of nice even, green-coloured grass (which is essentially an artificial creation), the other plants have to go as they (particularly the broad-leaves) will kill the grass either directly by over-growing or indirectly by robbing the grass of nutrients.

In the autumn, use an autumn lawn feed. This is nitrogen poor and feeds the root system. Next spring use a nitrogen-rich lawn feed which will turn the grass green, but don't over-do it or you will be cutting the grass every other day and then it will die back fairly quickly, unless you feed it again.

When using any lawn treatment, avoid cutting the grass for at least three days beforehand and three days afterwards. Don't compost the roots or flowers / seeds of weeds or any plant material that has been treated with weed-killer.

HTH.
 
It is recommended that when you put down lawn seed that you add a bit of nitrogen with it. I take it that this was not done and it seems that the lawn seed was a bit haphazard in its application. A light coating of 10-10-20 (around €12 a bag) would bring it on in leaps and bounds and the bare patches would close in. As Mathepac recommended, a non nitrogen fertiliser should be applied in the autumn — something like 0-7-30 — which will strengthen the roots. It is natural that every sort of weed will come up and an application of Verdone (spray) early next year will kill all those back. Hope you have a bit of time on your hands!!!
 


Thanks Mathepac for that.The lawn is resonably level and have not a problem with drainsge as the house in on a hill so have good run off.Have to say the soil may not be the best but a friend of mine is digging out his lawn and im getting his top soil so will spread it out on mine to beef it up a bit.Im not looking for a perfect lawn just one to keep her indoors happy and the kids.Can you or anyone recommend a total weedkiller for the lawn? The last thing i want to do is redo it.
 
Hold off on the weedkiller. Once it gets established, broadleaved weeds will be eradicated once theres a regular mowing regime in operation.