Leather Jackets

deano1098

Hi,

This is my first post, and I'm looking for advice to try and rescue our gardens grass. I'd like to use it as a challenge (picture attached) 

i have just just laid some nematodes to hopefully get rid of the leather jacket larvae that's currently in the soil, which is full of them! The soil we have is very much clay based so could anyone shed light on what to do from now on. I have forked the whole garden to try and aerate it as best I can. We also have a feed to get rid of the moss and weeds we have, but not sure if that will kill the nematodes, so it's knowing what best order to do things before looking to put grass seed down for the type of soil we have.

thank you

Theveggardener

Welcome the the forum. I can't see a picture. Please re post picture then someone on here might be able to help.

Dovefromabove

Hello
 If your photo won’t upload try reducing the size. That usually works 

deano1098

Pictures attached at last.

Dave Humby

Nematodes are not so effective in spring due to the mature nature of the grubs making their skin hard to penetrate for the nematodes. If you do apply it is recommended to use double the dose. I use them in mid-September and find them very effective. I use a combo for leather jackets and chafer grubs as we tend to get both. 

deano1098

Thank you for advice Dave. They’re down now so I’ll let them do the best they can then hopefully when we have grass back I’ll put some more down in September. We need to find a grass now that will suit the soil. 

Hostafan1

Was this lawn every in good shape? It looks to me as if it's a new build and they've used sub soil and not top soil.

deano1098

You’re right in saying it’s a new build property albeit coming up to 3 years old. Grass has never been great and it’s the 2nd lot of turf we’ve had as 1st batch burnt and died not long after it was laid by the developers. 

Hostafan1

I fear I'm correct and they've used subsoil. 
I've seen developers remove all the topsoil and stack it about 5 or 6m high and leave it there for a couple of years. If top soil is stored more than 2m deep for more than about 6 months it suffers from anaerobic compaction and ,effectively , become sub soil.

wild edges

deano1098 said:

You’re right in saying it’s a new build property albeit coming up to 3 years old. Grass has never been great and it’s the 2nd lot of turf we’ve had as 1st batch burnt and died not long after it was laid by the developers. 

Was it watered at all during that time? I'm amazed that leatherjackets managed to do that damage so quickly too. I guess if they had easy access to shallow grass roots with few natural predators then this is about as good as it gets for them. There's tons in my lawn and I don't even know they're there until I dig into the soil.

deano1098

I have to say the application of the turf was very sub standard and we did complain about it. With both applications of turf we watered it as recommended, but as the 1st lot was left on pallets in the July sun it curled up and died very quickly even after watering it quite a bit. The 2nd was better and eventually took but I think the roots were very shallow hence the grass being there in mid February and totally gone by March. Now it’s trying to get the process right to get some sort of garden back so any advice on how that would work I’d be grateful.