inchy said:

Hi guys,

Bought my first house and spent a few quid getting the garden sorted
which included levelling out the lawn and returfing it.

At first, the grass looked great but, a month later or so, there was
the odd weed popping up. 3 Months on and there's weeds coming through
everywhere, and now there even mushrooms growing. I've been cutting it
about every two weeks...

If you are only mowing every two weeks, you very likely aren't mowing
often enough and are mowing it too short when you finally do mow,
stressing the turf and opening it up to weeds. You have to let the turf
set the mowing schedule, if you want it to looks its best.

Mow at your mower's highest setting and mow often enough that the new
growth you remove is 1/3 or less of the set height. So if your set height
is 3 inches (not an unreasonable height for cool season grasses in the
summer) your clippings should be no longer than 1 inch. And, ideally,
the clippings are left on the grass.

And be sure to keep those mowing blades sharp.

The straight line difference between my lawn and my neighbor's lawn
isn't due to the difference in watering or fertilizing. My sprinklers (hardly
used this year) and broadcast spreader just are't that accurate. It's all
down to mowing. I mow tall, as often as needed (sometimes twice a
week) and he mows short, every couple of weeks.

Yes, I do a lot of mowing, but it's pretty good exercise--I substitute it for
one of my normal work-outs. And I use a smallish cordless electric
mower, so it's a lot of walking back and forth.

--
Pat in Plymouth MI ('someplace.net' is comcast)

After enlightenment, the laundry.