Looking for lawn advice please

I have just moved into a new house, and with it have my first garden to manage, been excited about that.

One thing that is bugging me is the grass though, it is looking patchy, with what I think are different types of grass, and clovers. I had this vision in my head that I would have this perfectly trimmed lush green grass, and it seems a way away from that.

So I was hoping to get some advice on initially how to fix the patchiness of it please.

Mostly the grass is a thin darkish green, a little burned I think, with patches of thicker light green grass, and patches of dark green clovers.

I have taken some photos to help explain, hopefully I have attached them properly.

Any advice would be welcome, or if you would like me to explain better, just ask.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

That's Annua Poa. Best to dig out and re seed those patches.

This thread may help..

http://www.gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/threads/rogue-grass-in-lawn.97993/#post-945181

 

Welcome to GC Rob. I agree with Guesty about the grass patches and clover will gradually take over too if it's not dealt with.

If you are happy to use chemicals I would start by using a weed killer to clear the lawn of the clover and other weeds then dig out and re-seed the grass patches. You can then finish by feeding it.

 

That's great, thanks very much, I will do as you have suggested.

Can I ask another question please, is there a particular type of grass seed I should use? And a particular type of feed?

 

A general purpose seed will be fine, it contains a mixture of grass seed that stands up to the normal everyday uses of a lawn.

Evergreen products are very good, for seed, feed and weed killers, but most products are pretty much the same. In recent years I have been using B&Q's weed, feed and moss killer in granular form but I'm not sure if they produce individual treatments. I used to use Verdone Extra lawn weed killer but that has now been taken over by Weedol.

Your best bet is to see what's available and make comparisons, you can't go far wrong with whatever you choose.

 

Hi Rob,

Don't mean to be an alarmist here but the grass in that picture looks an awful lot like the grass patch in my grandma's lawn. She's come across it before a few times and the trick is it to cut the grass in 2 directions to sever the surface roots otherise it spreads.

This time it failed and she dug out the grass patch but there must have been some roots left behind. It started out as a 1ft patch and once it started showing up again, it was a 2ft patch. It still came back around the edges of that empty patch. The roots go pretty deep and spread through the other grass. She had to use weedkiller on that area and it's now a 3ft bare circle.

Moral of the story... when you dig out the patches, don't dig around the edge of the patch. Dig further out around the edge of the patch to make sure all of the roots are taken out. It might seem a tad unnecessary when you do it, but it's better to be safe than sorry.

 

Thanks for the advice. With the amount of the annua poa patches spread across my garden, would I be better taking the whole thing up and laying that rolled up grass down?

 

Totally up to you but worth having a go to get rid first. Annua Poa can appear in most grasses.

Its appeared in my newly reseeded one too. I had some advice off someone on prevention methods though.

 

There are quite a few patches there Following my method, you wouldn't have much lawn left

Turfing (putting rolls of grass down) is what I've just had done. You'll need to dig out that lawn and pay to get rid of it (skips) and then for me it cost £200 for 25 square meters of lawn. It needs rotivating first, then some topsoil putting down, levelling and then the turf laying. Quite a big job to do yourself, an expensive job if somebody else does it. It looks really nice though and I haven't got a single weed in that lawn (I've hand picked them all out as soon as they show up).

Seeding is probably 5x or 10x cheaper than turf but takes a little longer to get established.

Either way, I would dig out the lawn and leave it for a couple of weeks (bare) and make sure this weed grass doesn't come back. It would look grim for a while but you'd reduce the risk of the patches coming back.

That's what I'd do, but I'm sure somebody on GC will have a different solution.

Good luck!

 

I have some of this grass in my lawn and I intend to kill it with a glyphosate based weed killer and then re-seed.

For your information Rob.....glyphosate is a systemic weed killer that you spray or water onto the foliage and it will kill right down to the roots, it will neutralise on contact with soil. You must be aware though that it kills just about everything it touches, so be careful not to use it near other plants or on a windy day when it may drift. The most popular brand is Round-Up but Wilko's and garden centres have other brands available. You may have to look at the ingredients to see if glyphosate is present.