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Lawn advice
steve forbes
Posts: 4
Hi , I'm sure this has been asked many times before, but I have just reseeded my lawn and to my surprise the bare patches have reduced, I would now like to de-moss and feed the lawn to keep on top of it. Please can somebody tell me what is the best way of doing this and what chemicals to use to feed it. Cheers for any tips given
0
Posts
Hi Steve
Best to use a "Feed and Weed" solution.If you use the above treatment it will kill the weeds and promote the grass to grow. In the first few days after you use the solution the weeds will have a growth spurt before dying off. Meantime the grass will start responding to the nutrients and green up. Careful after applying the solution if you have pets or children though
Happy Gardening
Use a garden fork , stick it in the ground half way, give it a wiggle and repeat over the lawn.
This will improve drainage and potentially cure the moss issue.
Then scarify with a wire rake- pull out lots of moss this way.
Then weed and feed.
Assuming you know when you seeded, check that a combined weed and feed is suitble - most specify how many weeks you should let a lawn establish before using them. If it is too soon you could try using a fertiliser only at this point (suitable for young grass) and leave the weed/moss killing until later. Moss doesn't need to be dead to rake out, I would advsie you steer clear of the former bare patches to avoid disturbing young grass, but you can rake moss out of the rest any time.
Aerating is also worthwhile as mentioned, but again try to avoid trampling the new areas too much until they are growing strongly. It seems that annual aerating may be a waste of time, monthly will probably make a difference but like I say you might want to skip the newly seeded areas at first. Heavier soil will need aerating most often.
Steve, all the above advice is relevant, however, if the new seed has just taken it won't have had enough time to establish a good root system that will put up with scarifying and a weed and feed. You never weed and feed a lawn in it's first year or the bare patches.
Truth is you should have started with scarification then weed and feed, then reseeding. If you apply a weed and feed now or a moss killer, it will weaken what you've just seen come up and the previous contributors have made the best point in aereating which should be done after the scarifying.
Dave - I didn't realize it was as long as a year before you should use weed and feed or moss killer (is it iron phosphate that does the moss killing? I did read up but it was a couple of months ago!). Luckily my weed and feed got damp and had to be binned so I'll be using the soluble seed friendly feed for the rest of the year anyway.
A good lawn takes a year to form the root systems needed to really endure what we do to them. Iron sulphate is the ingredient in moss killers. Iron phosphate has been trialed as a slug and snail killer. I always find plants do better in second and subsequent years as it takes a year to get a good root system. Grass is no different.
We had a new lawn laid in the back garden on the 8th April, went on holiday for 2 weeks and came back the 13th May, and the neighbour had watered the lawn and the garden, although apparently it rained while we were away. On our return the grass was 18" high, we measured it, so it was cut very high twice and the third time again on No. 7. Three weeks later and it's looking very sorry for itself; the turves are separating despite being watered and the heavy rain we've had in Kent recently, and it's not very green looking in patches. It has been cut again on No. 6. We also found about 15 ants nest after it was cut the first time, which have left bare patches in the grass. I say it still needs lots of water and we need to fill in the joints with soil; he says if it rains it doesn't need watering. We use a sprinkler and move it down the lawn abut every 10 minutes. Just how much is enough water to bring it back to the condition it was when it was first laid, and what can we do to green it up please? It is about 107 sq.meters and cost a LOT of money to lay it.
Well if the turf's separating it wasn't laid properly in the first place, simple. Turf should be butted up very tightly and watered daily for at least two weeks and more. Ants nests are a natural hazard, lift them with a fork and sprinkle in ant powder. Turf takes a while to settle and will lose condition in the initial phases until the roots take. Even if it rains water it and I mean soak it, an hours water a day maybe more. As for your gaps, brush in compost mixed with sharp sand and seed. It will fill the gaps, but from a professionals view it wasn't done properly in the first place.