Incompetent Gardener Needs Advice!
Dave_McNutts
Posts: 2
First, in mitigation let me just say that my involvement with the garden tends to be limited to mowing it once a week in the summer. Last autumn we noticed that the nominal summer scorch wasn't healing as it should do. We were advised that it was fusarium wilt (showed a photo to the guy at the local garden center). Anyway, I've tried treating it with bayer lawn disease control a couple times and it's come out as shown in the photos (just taken a few months after treatment). You'll have to forgive the weeds, I've been terrified to touch it in case I spread the infection.
My questions are:
1) Is there still a problem? I notice moss growing now which wasn't there before. Does Fusarium Wilt prevent moss growth? Moss is a separate problem, that I'll solve once I can again walk on my lawn.
2) If it's still a problem, should I bother treating it again or just rip up and re-turf?
Hoping someone can help me, I'm getting annoyed with it now and sorely tempted to pave over it all!
D_McN
Posts
I would treat your lawn by these means to improve drainage that is the major problem your have with moss and fusarium
Attempt to remove any overhanging growth from tree and shrubs. This will stop shade to the lawn and and dry up the affected area
Scarify your lawn-with a lawn rack to remove dead grass and moss
Creat aeration to the lawn by using a fork or better a hollow tine fork. Creating holes in the lawn will improve drainage and air to the sub structure of the lawn to promote new growth
Finally, reseed the lawn
Hopefully you will see your lawn come back
Forgot to mention that you will need to apply a weed, feed and moss killer prior to scaryfying the affected area
There is no over-hanging growth. Unfortunately, the garden is shaded on all sides by fence and spends a good deal of the day in shade. Ok, so feed, weed and kill moss. Is evergreen 4 in 1 ok for this? Did that earlier. Give that a couple weeks to take effect then rake over the dead moss and weeds with lawn rake.Then aerate. What if there's still some wilt lying in there? Concerned about making the fungal problem worse if it's still around.
The 4 in 1 should be OK as long as it kills moss. You will not make the fungal problem any worse by scarifying and aerating. The fungi is breeding because the area is damp. Aerating will basically improve drainage, particularly if you use a hollow tine fork that creates 15mm holes. If you then apply a top dressing of a mixture horticultural grit and sieved top soil and sweep this in to the holes, this will keep the holes esablished for air, light and water to promote new growth. It will take some time for the effected lawn to recover but if you reseed now it should improve .Also use a grass seed that is adaptable to shade
Also, looking at your photes, it looked as if you have over treated on the bayer treatment. Obviously, if he area of lawn that is effected is only a small area then it would be better to returf. If you do returf you will need to replace the top soil to that area to ensure that the fungi is removed