Just kill my whole lawn?!?!

Hi all,

I have several weeds growing on my unloved lawn. The worst is one that had taken over 60% of my small to medium sized lawn. It looks like very tall grass, but is a darker green and broader. It also has a long stem from which 2-3 long "grass" sprouts from. There's also quite a bit of bramble berry thorn I cut back from the year before. Plus other various weeds.

There's also a serious thatch issue. There's lots of dead yellow long matted grass across a lot of the lawn. (I think a lot of the grass and tall Reed weed grass is growing from the thatch.)

My aunt thinks I should just dig up the whole lawn and replace with rolls of new turf. I'm aware of using plastic sheets and mulch to kill of weeds. I plan on doing this for the perimeter of the garden, not so keen on doing this for the lawn.

Do I have any other options? Weed and feed? Using a liquid weed killer on the leaves? If I do this can I low the lawn first and wait a week or two for new growth to apply.

Should I avoid doing this at the height of summer and wait until September?

Thanks very much,
Shy

 

Shy
You want a nice lawn right? Hate what you have now right?
Wait until the end of August then spray with glyphosate. Kills grass and weeds.....the lot. Wait a couple of weeks and then dig it over.....turn in the top turf level by trenching it in face down about 30 cm deep. If you can incorporate some compost and fish blood and bone that would be good. Level, firm (use your heels) and level/rake again. This is something I do several times, viz. firming and raking.
Ideally in September sow fresh seed.....dwarf rye is excellent for a durable nice looking lawn...and water it in.
By the first week or two in October your lawn will start to look good
The alternative is to wait until spring but not my choice. Come spring you can overseed any areas not as you would like.

 

Great advice by @Verdun.

Some pics of the lawn would be ideal to guage how bad the problem is. Sometimes it can be less work than initially anticipated but the biggest dilemna (IME) is making sure the lawn is level and not covered in bumps and crevices. Bumps cause mowers to scalp the grass thus weakening it and subesquent thatch and moss issues will forever be a nuisance.

If it is a smooth surface, you've got a good starting point but otherwise it may require a major overhaul.

 

If someone had asked me this question just a few weeks ago, my answer would have been very similar to the ones given. Having said that, today it would be totally different.

First off, there is really no need to use weedkiller. There are other, more eco friendly and above all cheaper methods to do it.

Secondly, choice of grass seed will depend on quite a lot of different factors. Intended use, aspect, and so on.

I personally would make a start on getting rid of the weeds now, then scarify using knives, (not spring tines) then seed it using a suitable mix. That should give the lawn time to establish before it can be improved next Spring.

 

If you keep mowing it .....over time you will kill the bulk of the weeds and have something that resembles a lawn.

We bought a home with a rough field,maybe 2 acres in size...an utter wilderness.
A few years before we bought it it had cattle in it ..then nothing was done for several years.

We just started to mow the field...after strimming it down.

An acquintance who had seen it when we moved in, complete with nettles, docks, ragwort, dandelions, bracken, brambles, ground elder etc etc came to see us a few years later and wouldn't believe that we hadn't laid down turf. (No way could we have ever afforded to do that!)

We did spot treat the dandelions with weed killer once it looked like a lawn.
Mowing doesn't kill them.

Clover didn't worry us.
We even had wild Orchids that appeared and had to be avoided with the mower.

 

Not overly keen on chemicals either.....I grow veg and fruit organically as I do with most of the garden but using glyphosate is simple, effective and allows a new lawn sown in short time span.
Get a nice, level new lawn Shy and start loving it again

 

Stick up a photo, sometimes even a bit of modest work can turn a lawn around.
I've seen some awful looking lawns that can be saved.
As for thatch unless you lift a plug sample in several places it's impossible to know what amounts of the various types of thatch are present in the lawn.

Stick a photo up and that will help other see what you are facing.

 

Hi all,

So sorry for not replying - I ended up working an intensive job and wasn't able to do much gardening at all. Fast forward three years and I'm pretty much in the same situation, but the lawn is a little worse where bramble is sprouting all over.

The lawn is probably a little worse (usually only mowed once a year). As you can see from the pictures it's very uneven - but I think that's mostly from the grass being so matted rather than the soil not being level? The grass has gr(I'm not sure tbh.)

The perimeter is about the same, last fall I cut the bramble down to six inches to deal with this Spring.

I have a plan of action for the lawn as well as the perimeter. I'd appreciate it if you could advise if it's the right thing to do and on timings as well. I wonder if it would be better to dig up the whole lawn and start from scratch???

LAWN:
1) Rake dead leaves from last year, pull up larger and easy-to-deal-with weeds (DONE)
2) Scarify lawn with rake (I can't hire a scarifier during lockdown) - IS THIS NEEDED?
3) Mow lawn (today ideally)
4) Water lawn
5) 2-3 weeks later, apply SBK Brushwood Killer to bramble on lawn and seed lawn in bare patches
6) A week later reapply SBK if needed
7) A couple of weeks later mow lawn
8) Water
Repeat 6) and 7) every few weeks for the rest of the year


PERIMETER
1) Apply SBK Brushwood Killer to bramble as well as a couple of other weeds.
2) Re-apply in a week if needed
3) A week later pull up bramble roots
4) Lay down cardboard, soil, dead leaves (and top off with cotton fabric that I've been trying to get rid of for ages)
5) Leave for a year
6) Repeat 1) and 3) as much as needed
7) Would I be able to plant rose bushes or wait until next year?

Thank you!
Shy