Want a New Lawn!
captain.kit
Posts: 3
Hey all.
I moved into a place several years ago that had a "garden" covered with liner and shale.
Having the horticultural knowledge and skill of an inebriated newt, I cleared the shale, removed the liner and turned the soil over, sewing it with a cheap box of grass seed.
....which turned out to be meadow grass! DOH!
Well I've been out there mowing away at it for the past few seasons but it grows back just far too quickly with very think stalky grass that is not to pleasing to the wife's ample attributes.
SO!
My question is, how do I go about clearing this oopsie and re-sewing with a decent grass seed without all that horridness growing back?
Many thanks for any advice
I moved into a place several years ago that had a "garden" covered with liner and shale.
Having the horticultural knowledge and skill of an inebriated newt, I cleared the shale, removed the liner and turned the soil over, sewing it with a cheap box of grass seed.
....which turned out to be meadow grass! DOH!
Well I've been out there mowing away at it for the past few seasons but it grows back just far too quickly with very think stalky grass that is not to pleasing to the wife's ample attributes.
SO!
My question is, how do I go about clearing this oopsie and re-sewing with a decent grass seed without all that horridness growing back?
Many thanks for any advice
0
Posts
....ummm... Spray it with what though?
(I did say I was a bit dense when it came to gardening! :P )
If you google "laying a lawn" you'll get some good advice. As with most DIY, the more time and effort you put into the preparation, the better the result...
if not tooooooooo big, i’d do it like this:
1. Cut the meadow grass on the lowest setting. Scalp it.
2. Rake the hell out of it to remove most of it. Compost the clumps you pull up.
3. This is where the area matters .... put down 2-3 inches of fine compost or topsoil, the Wickes stuff will do. Use a rake to spread it out and cover the existing area consistently.
4. Use a couple of planks of wood to flatten it. Work from one side to the other and walk across the plank. Don’t put even a foot on the soil, use the planks.
5. This is where the area matters #2 .... turf is loads more expensive then seed, so if you can splash, buy turf to over the area with 10% spare ... use the planks and work up and down kneeling on to planks to roll it out. Make sure gaps aren’t big. Now is a great time to do that.
5 (alternative). If area is big, seed. But it will take ages to come up as it’s a rubbish cold time of year for germination. Plus birds and weeds will become annoying. If you do this, sprinkle a thin layer of compost by hand over the whole area to mask the seed a bit (from birds).
6. Either way, keep moist. If it doesn’t rain, stick Wilko floor-standing £6 hose sprinkler for an hour or so every 5 days where it doesn’t rain and ground or seed seems dry. This goes for turf or new seed.
If you turf you’ll have a beautiful lawn by May. If you seed you might still be looking at bare ground with tufts and weeds come May. But equally it might work, but not until it’s warmer in April or May.
The area is 8m x 6m
...so I'll be going the seeding route.
Thankyou all again for the advice.
I was concerned about whatever I sprayed the lawn with to kill of the meadow grass would kill off any new seed I put down.
However low soil temperatures will prevent germination, so sowing too early will just be tantamount to scattering bird food ... most grass seed needs the soil temperature to be around 10C for germination.
It is said that ‘in the old days’ farmers would pull down their corduroys and sit bare-bummed on the soil to check whether it was time to sow! 😉
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.