Grass

Have inherited a huge garden, there is an old patch with fruit trees and redcurrent bushes in it and 100 million weeds, its now out of hand. How does grass seeds work, do I just get rid of all the weeds and throw them down? at the min its just soil. No idea about gardening whatsoever, I need help!!

 

Sadly not! For a new lawn you need to dig, or rotavate, the area thoroughly, level, firm, and then sow seed - and, at this time of year, then water and mollycoddle. Waiting until the Autumn will be easier (weed seeds will be shutting down, so the newly germinated grass will have all winter to get going and will steal a march on the weeds next year). Preparation is the same for turf, so no quicker solution by going the Turf root

If you are not adverse to using weedkiller then letting the weeds grow (they need to be actively growing for weedkiller to work) and spraying them with weediller (repeat after two weeks for any bits you missed, or that have not gone yellow) will help reduce the weed problem you have after sowing. Use a glyphosate based weedkiller (such as Roundup). This does not persist in the soil, so you can cultivate etc. "immediately" but better to let it be absorbed and work to kill the plants (from the roots) for two weeks before cultivating (that's 4 weeks total if you make a second applications after 14 days). Glyphosate weedkillers will kill anything green they touch, so don't spray on any plants you want to keep, nor allow the spray to drift (a still-clam day/evening is required ...). Do not use if it will rain within 6 hours after application.

If the soil it all lumpy-clods, after digging / rotavating, wait for rain, then a day or so after the rain the clods will break down (picking just the right time is critical, its the moment between it still sticking to your boots and setting hard like concrete! - the clods will then break up if you rake it back and forth (with a ridgid-tined rake, not a spring-tined one)

If it is stony pick up the worst of them - hopefully you have kids of an age that think that a quid-an-hour is a good wage!

To firm it walk over it in your boots, shuffling your feet as you go. It takes a while ... don't dig your heels in, it only needs to be lightly firmed so that there are no air-pockets that will sink after the grass has grown

To make the area smooth drag a ladder over it (rope tied to the rungs at each end, and you tow that. If it skates over the surface put some blocks on the ladder. It needs to pull an inch or two of soil with it, that will drop into hollows, and scrape off humps. A pallet will do instead of a ladder.

Make sure you choose the right grass seed mix (anything from bowling-green to hard-wearing kids-football-pitch, but also including various shady-mixes (which you might use, in small qty, under trees and so on)

You need a seed spreader (might be able to borrow / rent one from the place you buy the seed from). Check out the application rate of the seed (grams per square meter). cut open a big plastic bag, lay it on the garage floor, measure & mark a convenient length on the bag (e.g. one metre ) to make the maths easy. Run (backwards and forwards) the seed spreader over the exact length numerous times (10 minimum, but until you have "plenty" of seed on the plastic sheet). Gather up the bag, weight the seed on the kitchen scales, and work out hoe many "passes" it takes to get the right qty of seed sown. My seed spreader was cheap, and is poxy, and needs about 20 passes - I kid you not! Hopefully yours will required fewer, 'coz it is very tedious!

Apply the seed in rows half of the passes front-to-back and the other half left-to-right. If you only need two passes Lucky You! If you need 4 then overlap the wheel-tracks of the seed half-a-width - so first row from front-to-back, turn round at the end, overlap the previous run by half, and so on. Once you have done the whole area repeat left to right.

If you need 20 passes, like me, then repeat the whole game another 5 times ...

I put a bucket at each end of the plot, and when I get to the end I move the bucket just the right amount to the side for the next row (in that direction). So basically I just push the spreader heading for the bucket at the far end, and when I get there move the bucket across "the right amount", turn round and aim for the bucket at the far end. Sticks, boxes, etc. are available instead of buckets

Yeah ... quite a bit of work I'm afraid.

When you say "100 million weeds" is there any grass in there? What I mean is might it be easier to convert the weedy stuff into a lawn without recreating it from scratch?

 

Hi,
Very helpful thankyou.
No there is no grass at all, it was used as a fruit garden, there is 2 apple trees, a redcurrent bush and rhubarb other than that its just mud and my 100 million weeds

 

How about selling them on eBay? Careful wording of the advert might be required

How big an area is it?

 

lol could do. its about 14ft x 14ft. its a bungalow plot we got so the whole garden is huge, mostly grass with borders front and back with dug out bits in the middle filled with plants I know nothing about, a slabed patio out the back as well covered in weeds and another area with a greenhouse next to the alleged fruit patch. driveway is also a mess, tow strips of pathing leading up to garage with old thin on the ground stone chips in between also covered in weeds. Tis all out of my league and is starting to look scruffy, old lady that had the house before us had a gardener but that's out with our means unfortunately. I think it was a case of oh look what a lovely big garden, lets buy it without thinking how much trouble it would be.

 

14 x 14 is not a large area to prepare for grass, although obviously helps if you know what you are doing, rather than being a beginner.

Given a choice ?? I wouldn't choose to do it now, Autumn would be easier (cooler, less dry so easier to work the soil, grass will establish better).

What are the strips made of? Concrete or somesuch? And how would you like them to look - a "drive" or stay as a couple of strips across the grass? If the latter then one option is a plastic honeycomb that you build into the lawn so that you have grass but it is reinforced where you want to drive on it. Not exactly cheap, but you might get lucky with a bin-end off eBay or similar.

The trick is to create what you want (to look at & enjoy) in a way that is the least about of work, going forwards. That might require spend-some to save-some ...

But, again, experience helps in that regard. Best to try to find out, in this forum, what would suit you best, and then give you some choices. For example: how often do you want to cut the grass? what sort of mower have you got / plan to buy? Then we can suggest a grass type, or something else!, that will suit.

Lets assume you are prepared to mow the grass once a week (anything less is going to look shabby ...), How much grass area do you have (or plan to have) on the other side of the house?

Then we can combine the size of that, with the type of mower, and see how long it is going to take each week.

 

There is, of course, the boredom factor involved with lawn mowing to be considered - personal opinion only here.

 

Boredom factor not a problem, I wont be the one cutting it