Lawn help - What is going on?!?!

Evening everyone, hope you are all well.

I've got on-going issues with my lawn, and I've absolutly no idea what I'm doing wrong.

My turf, was from online turf, named the following:

Now this is all well and good, and a good feed with high nitrogen gets it looking green, but then as soon as I even show it the mower, it dies. I've tried cutting close, far away, i've sharpened my mower blades (Elan 32 mower cylinder) but no matter what I try, it still seems to die off, always comes back mind, but looks terrible in between.

This time, cut it as normal, down to 27mm (wasn't too long before), day 1, looked good, day 2, still looked good, day 3, hard almost what looked like a grey/silver dust on the lawn, but it wouldn't come off, day 4, lawn looks more dead than it ever has, yellow dried up grass, but if you look close, its only the top 1cm of the blades which have died, and underneath looks absolutely fine. The yellowness isn't uniform, and doesn't cover the whole lawn, bits of it are still green.

Now, i've heard my mower is a bit rubbish (to put it mildly from some of the reviews i've read), hence why I bought a sharpening kit as most of the reviews were to do with not cutting well, so perhaps its that, but would it really make that much difference?

We have no dogs to kill the lawn, just a rabbit who enjoys eating it, it has regular feeds in both spring, summer and autumn, and still, the majority of the time looks rubbish.

I will try get some pictures tomorrow, its gone a bit dark now, but anyone any initial ideas?

 

Ok, some images to show you better. Here is a pic of the lawn before a cut (admittedly not this time, but its what it did look like)



and a picture of now after cut



Please ignore the washing lol

 

how often do you water your lawn? ...

one of these may do the trick:
http://www.easywatering.co.uk/acatalog/Hozelock_Pro_Metal_Aquastorm_XL_2in1_Sprinkler.html

 

Looking at pic two, and the dried rectangular boxes, so you move bunnies cage around the lawn, it looks like he eats more than your mower

Jack McH

 

Hi Mike. I use the concorde 32 ,and i have been for this year since the first cut ,and my lawns are looking great. After every cut i hose the lawns with a shower attachment fitted to the hose
and i have found it works wonders repairing any damage that has been done to the lawn during cutting .

 

The silvery bits that wont come off will be the fibres from inside the blades of grass, having dried out they go silvery and look a bit like cotton wool fibres.

I've seen it on mine, and if you look closely you might see that the effected blades of grass look more like they've been ripped than cut cleanly. Its a bit like when you cut celery with a blunt knife, the knife goes through ok but you get some fibres hanging on.

My mower cuts quite well, so the ripped bits are few and far between and it doesn't seem to be causing a problem, but it is possibly that your grass is more sensitive to this than mine (mine is the hard wearing lawn with rye grass).

I always get the sprinkler on the go on the evening if I've cut the grass that day, unless it rains of course.

 

It dries out quicker during the summer months, therefore doesn't grow so quickly. Give it a slightly higher cut when mowing and water more regularly. Grass is pretty hardy and it will take a lot to kill it completely.

 

this is what I would do:

firstly, I would mow the lawn again to pick up the dead grass

then use a garden fork and pierce some holes approx 1/2 an inch deep

buy 1 box of Scotts lawn bulder (for 100m squared which will cost under £10) ... apply to the lawn, and water every evening for 1 week ... this will be a 'quick fix' to green it up

If you cannot find Scotts, use something similar

after 1 week, mow the lawn, but set your mower to cut the grass at approx 1 inch high ... if your mower has an old blade, take the blade to a lawnmower service centre and they will sharpen it and balance it for a few pounds while you wait

after the 1st cut, buy a box of Scotts Autumn lawn food (under £10) ... apply and water every evening for 1 week ... this will build the root system and is slow release

then, mow once or twice a week, but continue to water the lawn on a regular basis (especially after mowing), until the rains come, and try keep the grass at 1 inch high (don't mow it too short)

no need to water too much, as grass has a shallow root system, but water regulary, especially during hot spells ... best time to water is early evening

the lawn should be fine until spring ... perhaps also look at greenthumb in the new year to sort out any weeds/moss ... from what I have read, they apply fertilizer for as little as £14 (depending on the size of your garden), and have a basic package where they fertilize your lawn 4 times a year

I have sorted a small lawn in the last 2 weeks ... it still has a few small bare patches, as it was neglected for 2 years, and most of the patches are from where I removed weeds that were as big as cabbages ... but it has greened up nicely and is looking lush ... another week or 2 and the last remaining bare patches should be sorted

 

Ahhh, I suspect my problem is underwatering, I hadn't watered the lawn for sometime before the cut, but since its turned like this, I've been watering on a night.

Can guarantee its not the bunny, he's only been out twice this year lol, he lives in the house.

The cut then water tip sounds like a good one, will bear that in mind! :-)

 

here are photos of the lawn I have been 'greening up' for the past 2 weeks ... so, with a little fertilizer and water, it's easy and cheap (this lawn was yellow/brown a few days ago and there were loads of weeds which I pulled by hand)

went there today, and managed to mow the lawn with the client's mower (grass was wet, but if I don't mow, no-one else will, and I only go there on thursdays) ... used a little Bosch electric mower .... brilliant and picked up all the wet grass with no problems

these photos were taken straight after mowing, so there are a few stripes from the wheels as the grass was still damp

 

Now that looks a really nice lawn!!

Mines come back green again, mowed it the other day and then put the sprinkler on, and it seems to have stayed the right colour this time. There are a few patches which haven't come back at all, so I've bought some lawn seed and some seeding topsoil which I intend to use soon so that the grass has time to get going before any frost.

 

I wonder if it's a watering related problem.
As someone has replied.
Furthermore, i guess that mowing the lawn implies some shorter grass leaves and - as a consequence - a less amount of shadow on the roots of the grass leaves themselves.
Maybe, when you mow the lawn, then you have to counterbalance the lower amount of shadow with a higher amount of water.
I think so.
I suspect that a fine results consist in the right balance of light/shadow and amount of water (other than other things).
Still i guess that the best thing would be if the watering would be by atomized water. As it were "drizzle" or water from a gayzer.
The best result consist on reproducing the weather conditions as in autumn days in Britain (drizzle-day) or - if you want - in San Francisco...
Fancy about those green golf-playgrounds in San Francisco where it's steadily a foggy-wet-drizzling-overcast day with temperature never higher than 20 C.
I guess that's the way it is...
Conversely, a large water flux is not the best way to water one's own lawn.
As far as i think, drizzle is much better than heavy rain/shower to have a fine green lawn...
So i think that one has to concern not only about the watering but also the way how he or she supplies watering.

 

Hi Mike ,
When I saw the second photo of your lawn I would have said mown to close... Someone also mentioned torn grass ,It is difficult to see clearly on a photo. You also mentioned your mower possible not being sharp enough ,this obviously would give that torn grass look .
You say you sharpened the blades , have you also ajusted the blades so they are cutting right (they should cut a piece of paper cleanly )

Dave

 

Will check this out, thanks for the info :-)