This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.
New lawn
Hello,
I just bought a new house and it had nothing but topsoil.
I couldn't afford turf so decided to seed it. All necessary measures were taken to enable growth, but I can't tell if I've put enough seed down.
From these images is it possible for anyone to tell? The seed was down 16 days ago shoots 7 days ago. Im hoping the grass will thicken/spread.... but not sure!
(Used grosure fast acting seed)
Thanks
0
Posts
Zooming-in on your first pic it looks like most of the seed has germinated. You will probably have lost a fair amount of seed to the birds if it's anything like what happens in my garden. If you have any seeds sub-surface then they might still come through but it's getting late in the year now with the night temperatures in particular dropping and hence soil temps too. Might be a case of leaving it till the Spring now.
Dave, some birds were having a field day in there last week!
Verdun, wish I'd posted sooner I could have saved £20 on the seed.
I guess I'll leave it and address it in the spring.
Thanks
The birds are probably the answer Aleister. We have a couple of 'resident' pigeons that pretty much live and nest in our garden. It's like Pavlov's gong when the grass seed goes out! I've had to resort to netting mine for the first 3 weeks or so when seeding.
Just noticed you have quite a few stones on the surface. Personally I'd be tempted to try and remove a few of those as firstly there is no bed for the grasss seed to germinate and secondly you might be damaging your mower in the future although I'm sure most will settle into the ground in time.
Netting it is then. Or a couple of strategically placed stuffed cats.
The stones have been a massive problem, what you see is the last 5% of a couple of days raking. It was more like top stone than top soil. I will have to pick those out though, they do bother me.
Patience, patience, patience when it comes to sowing grass seed. People often expect an instant lawn when sowing grass seed but it actually takes about a year to get nice and thick and lawn like. As others have already said, it is too late for germination now. What you have sown will continue to grow during the mild parts of the winter. It actually looks how I would expect after only 16 days. Keep off it until the spring. Next March you could fill in the largest gaps by raking over and resowing. I speak from experience of sowing over the years, several acres In various gardens. Also my husband used to be a farmer and sowed many acres of grass. Removing the stones is also good advice. You will probably have a very nice lawn by the end of next summer.
I use the really cheap green netting that you can get on eBay - and everywhere for that matter. It comes in a variety of widths and lengths. I stick cut-down garden canes in every couple of yards on a grid with firstly cutting a small 'X' in the top that the netting can locate in. I pin the edges down with metal 'pegs' again from eBay. It's a bit of a pain but very effective. lets the wind, sun and rain in. Alternatively you could try some old CD's hanging down which folks say is effective. Not to my pigeons it wasn't!
Thanks Redwing. Its good to know it looks as it probably should after a couple of weeks. Patience is tough with just mud to look at. Although I have just planted 20 5ft leylandii!
Dave, nice nets and thanks for the advice on this.
Just to give you an idea of what you can achieve in 5 weeks my lawn renovation.
A little hard work and a lot of luck cheers lester
Wow, that lawn was in serious trouble. Nice job. Great garden.