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#1
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Lawn care
Hi,
Back in August when it was still wet, I sowed lawn seed in my front garden, covered the lot in 'fleece' and watered daily (if required). After about 10 days, I replaced the 'fleece' with a netting (the fleece and netting was to prevent birds eating the seeds and foxes digging/doing their business). After a short holiday, I returned to find the grass quite long (almost like a deep green luxury pile carpet) - I mowed it with the mower on its highest setting. A week later, it was getting a bit untidy so I mowed it at the next height setting down. Since then (about a month) it seems to be growing in patches - some patches are much longer than others whilst others seem to remain quite short. The shorter areas are also showing a bit of yellowing. From a distance it still looks very nice but close up I am worried. Perhaps the second cut was a bit too short/close? Any ideas of how to get the whole lawn growing at the same speed and how to stop the yellowing? Thanks in advance, Kroma |
#2
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Lawn care
"Kroma" wrote in message
... Hi, Back in August when it was still wet, I sowed lawn seed in my front garden, covered the lot in 'fleece' and watered daily (if required). After about 10 days, I replaced the 'fleece' with a netting (the fleece and netting was to prevent birds eating the seeds and foxes digging/doing their business). After a short holiday, I returned to find the grass quite long (almost like a deep green luxury pile carpet) - I mowed it with the mower on its highest setting. A week later, it was getting a bit untidy so I mowed it at the next height setting down. Since then (about a month) it seems to be growing in patches - some patches are much longer than others whilst others seem to remain quite short. The shorter areas are also showing a bit of yellowing. From a distance it still looks very nice but close up I am worried. Perhaps the second cut was a bit too short/close? Any ideas of how to get the whole lawn growing at the same speed and how to stop the yellowing? Thanks in advance, Kroma I think that you will find that the difference in grass texture is due to the soil conditions. Do the yellow patches suffer from poor drainage, soil compaction or both? Regards, Emrys Davies. |
#3
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Lawn care
On Oct 10, 12:31 am, "Emrys Davies" wrote:
I think that you will find that the difference in grass texture is due to the soil conditions. Do the yellow patches suffer from poor drainage, soil compaction or both? My lawn has pretty much all the same conditions as the soil was "new". It has patches and I think it's because of the grubs. |
#4
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Lawn care
On 10/10/07 17:53, in article
, "adder1969" wrote: On Oct 10, 12:31 am, "Emrys Davies" wrote: I think that you will find that the difference in grass texture is due to the soil conditions. Do the yellow patches suffer from poor drainage, soil compaction or both? My lawn has pretty much all the same conditions as the soil was "new". It has patches and I think it's because of the grubs. Is the lawn new because it's a new build house? Builders or renovators could have left bricks, cement etc. lying around in odd corners and then just covered them with topsoil. -- Sacha http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk South Devon (remove weeds from address) 'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.' |
#5
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Lawn care
The house is about 20 years old and I believe that the first owner had lawn
here. The second owner replaced it with tiny stones (which seemed to attract the local cats). We got rid of the stones, dug over the underlying soil, added more soil and finally seeded it. I don't think that drainage is a problem and it shouldn't be particularly compacted - in fact when mowing, the soil felt rather spongy. I do have some soluble lawn feed - would it possibly help or is the lawn likely to be too young for this? Thanks, Kroma "Sacha" wrote in message . uk... On 10/10/07 17:53, in article , "adder1969" wrote: On Oct 10, 12:31 am, "Emrys Davies" wrote: I think that you will find that the difference in grass texture is due to the soil conditions. Do the yellow patches suffer from poor drainage, soil compaction or both? My lawn has pretty much all the same conditions as the soil was "new". It has patches and I think it's because of the grubs. Is the lawn new because it's a new build house? Builders or renovators could have left bricks, cement etc. lying around in odd corners and then just covered them with topsoil. |
#6
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Lawn care
On 10/10/07 22:58, in article ,
"Kroma" wrote: The house is about 20 years old and I believe that the first owner had lawn here. The second owner replaced it with tiny stones (which seemed to attract the local cats). We got rid of the stones, dug over the underlying soil, added more soil and finally seeded it. I don't think that drainage is a problem and it shouldn't be particularly compacted - in fact when mowing, the soil felt rather spongy. Ummm. I'm no lawn expert but spongy usually means wet. Could something be preventing drainage in that area? Not many plants - including normal lawn grass - like to have their roots permanently damp. That's why worms in a lawn are so important and why golfers have spikes on their shoes etc. etc. All help to aerate and drain the soil under the grass. I do have some soluble lawn feed - would it possibly help or is the lawn likely to be too young for this? The generally received wisdom is not to feed a sick plant. To revert to the old days "the answer lies in the soil" - I'd suggest digging up that particular area of lawn and seeing what is underneath it and dealing with that first before going into expensive treatments which might do more harm than good. IF you have a boggy area that won't drain well, you can make a bog garden, for example. But have you asked any neighbours to either side of your area if they have a similar problem? It may go with the territory. -- Sacha http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk South Devon (remove weeds from address) 'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.' |
#7
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I was thinking that the sponginess was due to the soil being fairly new and
not really walked upon. Would this not be the case? The lawn was watered extensively for the first few weeks without any sign of distress, only after the second cut did anything untoward start to happen. BTW, the area of the lawn is quite small - less than 20 square metres. Kroma "Sacha" wrote in message . uk... The generally received wisdom is not to feed a sick plant. To revert to the old days "the answer lies in the soil" - I'd suggest digging up that particular area of lawn and seeing what is underneath it and dealing with that first before going into expensive treatments which might do more harm than good. IF you have a boggy area that won't drain well, you can make a bog garden, for example. But have you asked any neighbours to either side of your area if they have a similar problem? It may go with the territory. -- Sacha http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk South Devon (remove weeds from address) 'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.' |
#8
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On 10/10/07 23:30, in article ,
"Kroma" wrote: I was thinking that the sponginess was due to the soil being fairly new and not really walked upon. Would this not be the case? Not that I know of - a lawn expert might tell you otherwise. The lawn was watered extensively for the first few weeks without any sign of distress, only after the second cut did anything untoward start to happen. It's certainly possible you cut it too close but then why didn't the rest of the lawn react the same way? BTW, the area of the lawn is quite small - less than 20 square metres. The builders could still have plonked spoil in one place OR you could have a naturally boggy area there. Is it remotely possible there's some sort of drain or pipe that's broken just under the surface there? -- Sacha http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk South Devon (remove weeds from address) 'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.' |
#9
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I suppose there is a slim possibility that there's a drain etc underneath
although, after the stones were removed it laid dormant as just soil for a while and appeared to have the moisture content which I would have expected. It would seem that the yellow tinge is spreading throughout the lawn now - just the tips in some areas. It's not all bright yellow by any means - still looks really nice from a distance. Kroma "Sacha" wrote in message . uk... The builders could still have plonked spoil in one place OR you could have a naturally boggy area there. Is it remotely possible there's some sort of drain or pipe that's broken just under the surface there? |
#10
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On 11/10/07 09:12, in article ,
"Kroma" wrote: "Sacha" wrote in message . uk... The builders could still have plonked spoil in one place OR you could have a naturally boggy area there. Is it remotely possible there's some sort of drain or pipe that's broken just under the surface there? I suppose there is a slim possibility that there's a drain etc underneath although, after the stones were removed it laid dormant as just soil for a while and appeared to have the moisture content which I would have expected. It would seem that the yellow tinge is spreading throughout the lawn now - just the tips in some areas. It's not all bright yellow by any means - still looks really nice from a distance. Kroma (we tend not to top post in this group, so I've realigned your post) It's beginning to sound as if there's something in the soil - chemical?, mineral? - that's affecting that particular area, don't you think? I wonder if you could take some samples and get them analysed. Do any neighbours have this problem? You don't have a dog that 'goes' in one area do you? ;-) -- Sacha http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk South Devon (remove weeds from address) 'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.' |
#11
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"Sacha" wrote in message . uk... It's beginning to sound as if there's something in the soil - chemical?, mineral? - that's affecting that particular area, don't you think? I wonder if you could take some samples and get them analysed. Do any neighbours have this problem? You don't have a dog that 'goes' in one area do you? ;-) Whoops - sorry for the top posting - I'm normally very good about such things but am obviously out of practice! The soil (well, apart from the very deep layer of soil which was originally beneath the stones and which we had to dig over) is new and all from the same source. All of our neighbours seem to have tarmacked over their front gardens to allow parking for multiple cars. We, on the other hand actually use our garage and still have space on our driveway for another car so we thought that we'd return our garden to the 'green' variety (although it's more of a yellow)! No dogs. Maybe I'll try to take a snap later on which should speak a thousand words. Kroma |
#12
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Lawn care
On 11/10/07 09:53, in article ,
"Kroma" wrote: "Sacha" wrote in message . uk... It's beginning to sound as if there's something in the soil - chemical?, mineral? - that's affecting that particular area, don't you think? I wonder if you could take some samples and get them analysed. Do any neighbours have this problem? You don't have a dog that 'goes' in one area do you? ;-) Whoops - sorry for the top posting - I'm normally very good about such things but am obviously out of practice! Don't worry about it - different groups go about things different ways! URG has tended always to bottom-post as it makes it easier for others to follow a thread as they would a conversation. The soil (well, apart from the very deep layer of soil which was originally beneath the stones and which we had to dig over) is new and all from the same source. All of our neighbours seem to have tarmacked over their front gardens to allow parking for multiple cars. We, on the other hand actually use our garage and still have space on our driveway for another car so we thought that we'd return our garden to the 'green' variety (although it's more of a yellow)! No dogs. Maybe I'll try to take a snap later on which should speak a thousand words. Kroma -- Sacha http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk South Devon (remove weeds from address) 'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.' |
#13
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On 11/10/07 10:00, in article
, "Sacha" wrote: On 11/10/07 09:53, in article , "Kroma" wrote: "Sacha" wrote in message . uk... It's beginning to sound as if there's something in the soil - chemical?, mineral? - that's affecting that particular area, don't you think? I wonder if you could take some samples and get them analysed. Do any neighbours have this problem? You don't have a dog that 'goes' in one area do you? ;-) Whoops - sorry for the top posting - I'm normally very good about such things but am obviously out of practice! Don't worry about it - different groups go about things different ways! URG has tended always to bottom-post as it makes it easier for others to follow a thread as they would a conversation. The soil (well, apart from the very deep layer of soil which was originally beneath the stones and which we had to dig over) is new and all from the same source. All of our neighbours seem to have tarmacked over their front gardens to allow parking for multiple cars. We, on the other hand actually use our garage and still have space on our driveway for another car so we thought that we'd return our garden to the 'green' variety (although it's more of a yellow)! No dogs. Maybe I'll try to take a snap later on which should speak a thousand words. Kroma Tsk. I hit 'send' before I meant to! I wonder if there could be some effect on your lawn from your neighbours' tarmac? You can probably tell I'm getting desperate here! If the very worst happens, perhaps you could pave or gravel your current lawn area, put in a small pond or bubble fountain and some attractive pots or a raised bed and be the envy of those who have bowed to the great god Auto. ;-) If you take a photo and put it up on tinypic you'll probably get plenty of ideas. -- Sacha http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk South Devon (remove weeds from address) 'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.' |
#14
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Lawn care
The house is about 20 years old and I believe that the first owner had lawn here. The second owner replaced it with tiny stones (which seemed to attract the local cats). We got rid of the stones, dug over the underlying soil, added more soil and finally seeded it. I wonder why the previous owner put tiny stones down. Perhaps they had similar problems. Just a thought Probably not a very good one . JOHN |
#15
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Lawn care
On 11/10/07 17:51, in article , "John
White" wrote: The house is about 20 years old and I believe that the first owner had lawn here. The second owner replaced it with tiny stones (which seemed to attract the local cats). We got rid of the stones, dug over the underlying soil, added more soil and finally seeded it. I wonder why the previous owner put tiny stones down. Perhaps they had similar problems. Just a thought Probably not a very good one . JOHN I think it's a very good thought - stones help with drainage! -- Sacha http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk South Devon (remove weeds from address) 'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.' |
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