New Lawn gone wrong!

Mac22

Hi, 

A picture below of my 4 week only lawn. (Turfed not seeded)




See the brown patches..? 

My concerns:
1 - What is this stuff? Seems thicker that other grass and yellow/brown
2 - This is the second cut, the first very light, this one a bit shorter. Did I do wrong?
3 - Did i pull out the lighter grass? Maybe it wasn't ready for cut (but was very long)
4 - Did I leave it too long to mow the first time (3 weeks)? 
5 - Can this develop in 4 weeks, or was the turf I bought bad?
6 - Can this be salvaged or is it hundreds of pounds wasted?!

Any help greatly appreciated. I put a lot of time and research into the preperation and ensured I was watering correctly. A labour of love for the last month :-(


P.S: the lines are just the joints that haven't grown in yet

~Mac

Fairygirl

You've cut it too short - especially if it's only been down for a month. It's only just trying to establish, and get connected with the ground below.

Make sure those joints don't dry out. Bearing in mind how dry it's been everywhere in the UK, make sure all of it doesn't go short of a good watering at this stage. 

Mac22

Fairygirl said:

You've cut it too short - especially if it's only been down for a month. It's only just trying to establish, and get connected with the ground below.

Make sure those joints don't dry out. Bearing in mind how dry it's been everywhere in the UK, make sure all of it doesn't go short of a good watering at this stage. 

Thank you for the quick response. Can I rescue this do you think..?

Fairygirl

Leave it to grow a bit 
When you cut it - keep it on a high setting. That will let it have some time to thicken, and it's always better to cut little and often. Never take more than a third of the height off at one time. Ideally, you wouldn't even walk on turf for a good few weeks after laying, never mind cutting it. 

Grass thickens up by tillering, which just means growing sideways. Taking small amounts off when cutting encourages that.
It's a bit like pruning a shrub - nipping out all the tops encourages them to grow out, as well as up 

Mac22

Fairygirl said:

Leave it to grow a bit 
When you cut it - keep it on a high setting. That will let it have some time to thicken, and it's always better to cut little and often. Never take more than a third of the height off at one time. Ideally, you wouldn't even walk on turf for a good few weeks after laying, never mind cutting it. 

Grass thickens up by tillering, which just means growing sideways. Taking small amounts off when cutting encourages that.
It's a bit like pruning a shrub - nipping out all the tops encourages them to grow out, as well as up 

Great, thanks for your help.

Im more of a 'dig, move, build' type than a 'snip, treat, prune' type! :-D so apologies if my questions seem obvious! 

Fairygirl

Not at all @Mac22. Every question is perfectly sensible if you don't know the answers, or the reasons for something happening 
Grass is pretty robust, so I wouldn't worry too much about it. This is normally the perfect time for laying turf, but the recent weather has made it a bit trickier. A bit cooler, and damper is the ideal. 

I rather enjoy a bit of digging, moving and building myself!