GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post

28-11-2005, 10:50 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening

wrote:
[...]
However, it doesn't appear to be normal grass !
It's very elongated, almost wiry and grows sideways over the holes
left in
the grass.. I didn't actually see the holes initially as I wasn't
scalping the grass due to hot summers etc. Once I cut the grass
back
to a short level it was very obvious that a huge part of the lawn
is
infested with this " wild grass"? Long stalks that are almost woody
with broad leaves coming off higher up. At the top there was small
seeds.

When I dethatched today, it brought up stalks from 3 to 6 inches
long
all over the place. It appeared large areas of the grass were made
up
of
this long stemmed grass, not the nice stuff I initially thought.
It
lies down flat and generally appeared to grow from the edge of old
dog
p damage across the hole that was burnt into the grass.

Given the scope of the problem I was keen to hear your thoughts and
advice on wether I should kill off the grass towards the end of
summer
and re-seed or will I get good results working with what I have.
Some
of the photos will show the problem over a small area. This is
magnified across the whole lawn.

I am looking at Hydro turf which is seed sprayed onto the bare
earth.
Its held in a solution of wood fibre and fertiliser and apparently
has
a higher hit rate than normal seedin. Any thoughts on this as
opposed
to normal seeding. Cost sits between normal grass seed and
readylawn.

Thanks for any advice. Please ask anything you need from the
photos.

G'day from across the Tasman! (Actually, I live in England now, but
same difference.)

I can't identify the species, but that looks like a native grass
which had been held in check by sown lawn species until native
conditions were restored by the bitch's contributions. Reasoning from
first principles, I suspect that it's an opportunist: if a lawn is
started from bare earth and maintained, the stuff may not normally
get a foothold; but once a bare patch appears, seeds blow in and romp
away. Once established from seed, of course it'll creep vegetatively.
I don't like the sound of those seeds you saw: if you've seen them on
the plant, you can bet there are plenty more dropped on the ground.
The sideways habit sounds nasty, too: could be mower-proof.

What I'd do is give it an experimental year. Rough up the bare
patches and sow some lawn seed. If that's doing well after six months
or so, you may be in the clear. Perhaps the stuff will blend in well
enough with the introduced kinds for you not to worry about it. If
it's awful after a growing season, you may need to get rough.

But what's happening for your neighbours? Do they have the same
problem? If so, what do they do about it? If they say you can't get
rid of it, then you probably can't get rid of it, and I'd stop
thinking about any solution which costs money. Maybe the menace is
good enough for family games (if it's like buffalo, it'll be very
tough).

I don't go for fancy solutions to seed-sowing: the Hydro-turf thing
sounds like a bit of a racket to me. Normal seeding works perfectly
well (Nature worked it out a few years ago), and leaves you in
control. If normal seeding won't fight off the menace, be sure that
blowing seed on with some fancy concoction won't, either. _And_ it
looks as though this menace grass likes extra nitrogen, which
Hydro-turf is going to bring in, courtesy your cheque-book, to help
it along just as the seeds it's dropped are sprouting.

--
Mike.