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Lawn
ariadna.bakhmatova
Posts: 118
in Plants
Dear all, my lawn looks pretty awful despite that I water it regularly, but it has lots of bold patches and weed (daisies). I’ve sprinkled with “safelawn” 2 weeks ago but no improvement. Any advice ? 0
Posts
It depends on your stance on chemicals, but Weedol Lawn Weedkiller is fantastic stuff - one treatment will pretty much eliminate everything for an entire year. I used it a couple of years on the trott to get my lawn under control but for the past 4-5 years I've been chemical-free. I hardly have any weeds so I just pull them up by hard (you need to keep an eye out for them though, and catch them early). It also helps to cut your grass a bit on the longer side as it prevents weeds growing.
That's the weeds sorted. Next is moss and thatch - it's not a bad idea to scarify around now if you have a bad problem, otherwise wait until Sept. This will reduce the lawn's competition and allow it to thicken up and thrive.
Then you can focus on the grass. Reseed any problem areas ASAP before the summer comes, as you want new seed to establish before the long hot summer days (or else it'll need a lot of watering). Reseeding isn't hard - form a tilth from the soil, chuck down some seed, tread it in, water little and often to keep it moist while germinating. As it establishes, reduce the water to once a week. I find I get better germination rates if I use a little compost when reseeding/overseeding, but that's probably just superstition.
You'll also want to fertilise the lawn to improve its health. Use a nitrogen rich fertiliser. I favour pelleted chicken manure as its slow release fertiliser that improves the soil over time. Downsides are that it can encourage worm activity (making a lawn uneven, but worm activity is good for the soil) and fox activity but I've never had an issue with foxes despite living near lots of urban foxes.
Finally 1-2 gram per square metre of iron sulphate dissolved in water and applied with a watering can with a rose will really green up your lawn.
Oh and cut it once a week - it'll get thin if left, which encourages weeds.
If you do all of the above, it'll look great in 4-6 weeks.
If you let it grow a wee bit longer before cutting, and don't cut too short, that'll help. Once your toddler is bigger, you can spend more time on it then. Re watering - unless you water it for a very long time, it won't make much difference either. If you have a sprinkler , or even just a hose with a suitable fitting, you could leave it on for an hour or so at night, depending on how big an area it is.
It's not something I ever do, as we get regular rainfall, but it might help just for the next week or two.
To be honest - the daisies make for a lovely playing surface too. My girls loved them when they were little
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
This is what I would do based on 15 mins per day:
Day 1 - pull up as many weeds as possible. Use a trowel, try to get the roots, but don't stress if you can't get it all
Day 2 - Finish the weeding (you can achieve a lot in a focused 30 min of wedding!)
Day 3 - Rake over the bold spots to disturb the surface, add a layer of compost if you have some
Day 4 - Apply grass seed (a generic family lawn mix is probably fine - try to match it with the type of grass already growing), compact the surface, water briefly
Day 5-12 - Water briefly once a day to keep soil moist. After about a week you should see germination.
Day 13 onwards - Water every other day, moving to once a week for an hour if weather is hot (no need to water if weather is cooler and grass established and looks healthy)
At some point after that you'll want to apply a fertiliser. Pelleted chicken manure is safe, but puts the lawn out of action for at least a week (as it has poo on it...). Watering every day will helps the pellets break down faster. A chemical lawn feed would mean the lawn is out of action for less time. You're looking for anything that is high in nitrogen.