Lawn Problem from wet winter

Lawnman

Hi All

This is my very first post as I need some advice on what has happened to my lawn. Last year I spent alot of time aerating, overseeding and fertilizing. I did the last cut around 3rd week of November and it was looking really nice. I decided against a winter feed as I had done one around end Sept / early Oct as the weather was still nice. Then during the very wet weather at the start of the year I have been left with thick horrible grass scattered across the lawn and seems to grow twice as fast as the normal grass and looks like this:

I've done some research and am thinking it may be tall fescue. I also have clumps of it that look like this:

Below is what the whole lawn looks like and if you zoom in you should be able to see that it is twice as tall as my normal grass. I only mowed it on Saturday and you can see this grass is already much longer than the normal grass:



Any advice would be appreciated in what I've done wrong. Is it a matter trying to kill off this grass? It does seem quite stubborn as I've tried to pull some of them out of the soil but most of the time they snap off leaving the root in. Could I possibly have overseeded too much in certain areas. 

I'm quite frustrated this has happened after how it was progressing last year and they was no sign of this type of grass at all.

Thanks in advance

Rich

JoeX

Could it be that you’ve seeded with a different variety of grass to that which was there?

Either way I find it hard to believe that one type of grass has grown so noticeably quicker in four days - how’s your mower maintenance and mowing protocol?  I’m not casting doubt on you, but there must be something odd going on right?

foxwales

Don't be hard on yourself, it could be seed that's blown in or mixed with the seed you bought.  The pursuit of perfection is a labourious road.  You could always get a trowel and dig them out, it will leave lots of patches, but it would mean the surrounding grass may out compete any roots that remain. Or just regularly mow and live with it

Lawnman

Hi Tinpot last year I bought two bags of seed from the Lawnsmith and bought the same variety each time, I also bought Spring and summer fertiliser. I overseeded in Apr/May and again around late Sept. Having spent alot of time researching them seemed to offer good products and it did show as the lawn was lovely last year and nice and lush. The area is about 70 sq metres and I was getting about 1-2 bags of cuttings as I was mowing twice a week. After moving I would run the sprinkler for about half hour to keep it hydrated. There was no sign of this typre of grass last year at all. It's only reared it ugly head since the very wetspell we had at the start of this year. It has literally grown twice as fast as the normal grass so leads me to suspect it's some sort of weed Grass and is driving me nuts. If it would have been in with the seed then surely it would have shown last year or is there anyway it could mutated (don't know if grass can change?).  

Lawnman

Hi Foxwales. I'm thinking that's what I'll do. Will be a laborious job but may just do so may each day and do it over a period of weeks. If I leave it it will drive me nuts as will not look right. Would so much of that have blown in over the winter. Seeing it grow I was so disappointed after last year.

Lawnman

I've just had a suggestion from someone that it may be Couch Grass? Would that be correct?

Big Blue Sky

I have the same problem - my lawn is made of soft fine grass but there are patches of the same type of strong rough grass as on the picture above. Not sure if it was put there on purpose by the previous owners or if it is indeed some kind of weed. 
In any case I would prefer not to have those rough patches - so trying to figure out how to replace it without having to have bold spots for months. 

Lawnman

@Big%20Blue%20Sky After looking at this type of grass in the lawn and after removing a fair bit of it yesterday after I cut the lawn I'm pretty certain it is some sort of weed grass due to it's behaviour. With that in mind I would suggest removing as it seems to grow flat out from the centre with multiple blades. I used a 2 prong weed tool and dug in just under the centre of the root to pull up. I pulled some of the blades up to separate from my normal grass before removing. It does have a lot of root so I'm not sure if it will return.

As for the single thick blades I have tried removing some of these and they are quite tough to get out. I can only assume these will develop into these tight clumps of weed. I would like to think that a spray weedkiller would kill them but not tested yet.

Big Blue Sky

Thank you for sharing your experience @Lawnman I shall try to pull out a few and sprinkle some regular grass seeds to make sure there are no bold patches. Sounds like a long project, especially if this weed will keep coming back. 😩

Lawnman

@Big Blue Sky I will keep you updated. I did sow some new seed last week just after I cut it and can see the seed coming through. I'll keep on overseeding and keep taking some of this grass weed out bit by bit. I've come to the conclusion it is seed that has been blown around and settled in the lawn or it was in a seed mix. I do remember I did buy some tesco seed when I overseeded in Sept last year so perhaps it didn't mature until this season. I did buy some of the lawnsmith classic seed in April last year and that seed has top reviews:

https://www.lawnsmith.co.uk/prod/lawn-grass-seed/classic-lawn-grass-seed.htm

Will probably just purchase from there now. Just really disappointed as it was looking so nice last year.

Lawnman

@Big Blue Sky I've just found some resolva lawn weed killer which I had left over from last year and tried it on a couple of patches to see if it kills it. This is the one I've used: