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Concerns over new lawn - I would appreciate your thoughts

beechcabinetbeechcabinet Posts: 1
in Garden design
Hello all,

We have just had a new lawn laid. It didn't go smoothly unfortunately.

It is now "finished" but we are concerned over the quality of the job, particularly the viability of some of the turf that was laid last, and had been standing for two or three days. It was left rolled up (soil side out) but had been watered.

Please refer to the pictures. Is this acceptable? Will the yellowed grass turf recover?

Your thoughts are genuinely appreciated.


Posts

  • MrsFoxgloveMrsFoxglove Posts: 180
    Not at all in my opinion. Did you pay someone to do it? If so they need to come back and do it again or refund you your money back. I laid a lawn last summer and it's so important that the grass is at least healthy to start off with as it takes so much watering in to help it establish so i'm not sure how those yellow patches are going to take off especially in this heat. What a shame as i'm sure this wasn't the end result you'd envisioned  :/
  • fidgetbonesfidgetbones Posts: 17,618
    Good turf should recover, so long as you keep watering it. This heat must be absolutely the worst time to lay a lawn. If you let it dry out, it will curl up like yesterdays sandwiches.  Take photos at weekly intervals. If it is no better in a month, I would want the dead patches relaid. It might be better to wait until September to do that.
  • BorderlineBorderline Posts: 4,700
    edited June 2018
    Watering is key to helping the lawn knit into the soil underneath. You can never under water in summer, especially a lawn. Water in the evening times or early mornings to conserve water. Laying any turf in summer will always be a challenge. Personally, I would not worry too much about the paler patches for now.

    When autumn arrives, any patches that fail to green up, spike into the areas, or score/slash deeply with a knife and then give the area a rake and sieve some top soil into the areas and water in or let the rain do its job.

    Most lawns respond well with a rake and spiking. If it doesn't improve, you can always patch it with some lawn seeds. This will always be an on-going job, having a lawn.
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    I would say it's the worst time of the year to try this and the worst summer.
  • Kitty 2Kitty 2 Posts: 5,150
    Some of the joints look a bit 'gappy', possibly due to shrinkage in the heat. Sprinkle some fine soil in to fill in the gaps, and as others have already said water, water, water.
    I'd concentrate on keeping it alive for now and look to renovate/reseed any bare patches in the autumn. 
  • ChrisWMChrisWM Posts: 214
    Hazel 1 said:
    I perhaps wouldn't worry too much as long as you water daily, really well.( not when the sun is on it) . Our sons lawn looked a little like this when first laid, ( which, like yours, was laid in summer, heat etc) but after extensive watering, very regularly, it did green up and bind together at the edges and looked very good.previous advise is good here though, so perhaps keep an eye on it. Good luck!
    That’s reassuring, as ours was laid in April in ignorance of the issues and the particularly hot and dry weather to come. This thread convinced me that the only answer is daily watering. Thank goodness for the sprinkler:
    https://forum.gardenersworld.com/discussion/1015369/new-turf-dieing#latest
    If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need. Cicero
  • Nanny BeachNanny Beach Posts: 8,719
    How are you going to mow, with the fact the grass is right up to the fence?  New lawns need a huge amount of water, really should be laid autumn or spring, pray we dont have a hoses pipe ban!
  • glasgowdanglasgowdan Posts: 632
    Nanny Beach said:
    How are you going to mow, with the fact the grass is right up to the fence?  New lawns need a huge amount of water, really should be laid autumn or spring, pray we dont have a hoses pipe ban!
    Lawns right up to walls/fences are the easiest to mow and get a nice clean finish... you just nip along it with a strimmer first. 
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