New lawn from seed, when to test soil?

Sorry, I missed your post before. We posted at the same time.

There will be a flower bed next to the fence on both sides with possibly a path at the bottom end where the trellis is. There's one there now you just can't see it from the picture.

 

you don’t need fine grass to have a nice lawn, very easy to keep the run of the mill stuff nice looking with a mow a week and some maintenance through the year.

 

You're right, I'm just getting a bit carried away. I should try and keep it simple.

So I think I'm back to plan A. I've read up on laying turf and I can't see any real advantage for me over using seed, in my situation. I also think I'm back to the idea of using regular seed.

I still have a battle on my hands with the original lawn that I took on last year. I've done everything I was advised to by yourself LTP and others on another thread, but I have an unforeseen problem that the lawn had course grass patches on it when I took it over and the good practice tasks I've done don't tackle the problem. I'm hoping that my first season of regular mowing will solve the problem, but if it doesn't, I'm looking at more intervention towards the end of the summer. I might even end up removing the turf and then having the two areas to seed.

I do have a question regarding the course grass. I've mowed that area a few times this year and I still have my rotary roller mower on the second highest cut setting. Last week I decided to just throw loads of seed on the areas with the course grass on the basis that the cost of doing that was neither here nor there and it doesn't matter if they don't germinate as there are no bald patches, but what do I do about mowing now? To give the seeds the best chance I shouldn't mow, but to try and get rid of the course grass I should mow as often as possible. What should I do?

 

You are making this much more complicated than it is! Just sow it. You say it used to be a vegetable garden and then you had bonfires there. The soil will be fine. I’ve sown a few acres of lawn over the years in five gardens and my husband used to be a farmer and has sown grass field scale so I am speaking from experience.

Do it ASAP up until the end of September but you may need to water it for the first few weeks if there is no rain if you do it now but it’s a small area and shouldn’t be much of a problem. The sooner you sow it the earlier it will establish.

 

You will only have a very small percentage of grass uptake if you just throw seed down on turf, seed needs good contact with soil so I would simply carry on mowing.
Course grass, depending on the type you either slice it with a half moon to weaken it and repeat often, remove by hand or kill it off using a herbicide and the reseed patches. It can be an on going problem.
Some course grass hates low cuts too but normally I will either lift or kill of patches.
The first photo I posted is a lawn laid on rubble from the build as it’s fairly new, grass is a mixed type, suffers with moss and I visited it once a week. It’s scarified once a year, fed through the season maybe 3 to 4 times and I leave the cut high and that’s it.
My companions lawn in the second had the rubble removed as she’s next door to the first one again scarified, dog patches fixed and fed through the year but I can cut lower on hers.
I do spend a bit more time on hers to be honest but both are rye and fescue mixed lawns, nothing fancy but look fine. Simple push cylinder mower, nothing fancy and it does the job.

I’m particularly interested in turf management hence why I go to great detail with some of my customers. A very select few do you have very fine lawns and to be honest to keep them in great shape costs them a fair bit a year. Yes I use a Ph meter as it’s an indicator of issues that could arise but it’s not accurate in the sense of a soil test, good old tap water used to water the lawn throws the test out for example but it’s useful for setting out a fertiliser program or to spot issues that could rise up.
These are few and far but most people just want a green lush lawn and most of the time that can be achieved through very basic means.


Either lay turf or seed, the choice is yours, as long as the area is prepared correctly either way will work but turf is an instant result.

 

My thoughts are that the garden is having an ongoing transformation with parts looking good while other areas are like a building site. I don't need an instant result with the lawn as there are still going to be unsightly areas.

I also figure that with seeding you are much more in control. You can keep your eye on the weather and seed at what you consider to be the perfect time. With turf you are dependant on the suppliers being able to deliver exactly when you want it.

The job is a way off yet. Circumstances change but right now I'm thinking I'm going with seed.

BTW thanks for sharing your knowledge.

 

Haven't seen your other thread, but do wonder what you mean by 'course' grass.

Do you mean something like patches of a strong grass like in the pic below ?

Think thats what Liz refers to, and agree than chopping it with a blade is the best thing to do as even on a low mowing setting it tends to grow very low and flat.

I use one of these thin blades and really crisscross its center, most of it comes off straight away, seems quiet effective if repeated.

 

The picture you posted the course grass looks much more separated and easy to deal with than mine. Mine looks much more widespread on half of my lawn. There are patches of turf grass in amongst it but I think I might struggle trying to see where the course grass is coming from, it just looks too integrated.

 

Hi Liz,

Was about to embark on a re-seeding of our old lawns as from what we have read we should have been adding new seed from year to year, and were going to scatter it as above , or as we have an electric scarifier we could scatter some on after that.

You seem to say that a simple scatter is not a practical method, even though you can buy ready prepared packets like Aftercut for doing just that. ( good marketing ?)

Could you advise if 're-seeding' should / can be done or is it really just a case of normal lawn care ?


many thanks

 

It looks like the same tough grass, not sure of its name, but as said, regular mowing and cutting with a knife etc will steadily eliminate it.

 

It a perfect time to seed after scarifying.
Scarify, then brush in soil with either the back of a large rake or if you have on a lute. A light covering only then add seed.
Some will add a tad more soil over the top, others will simply add seed to the fresh soil and gently firm it in by walking on it.
Simply just throwing seed over turf will result in a very low percentage of germination, very like how grass produces hundreds of seeds in the wild as only a small percentage will survive.
We on the other hand can prepare a site and increase the odds of successful germination ie dressing a lawn and adding seed.
That’s how I would do it.

With the marketed stuff like after cut it contains fertiliser so the grass you already have will respond to it but if you have a lawn well covered in grass would you actually notice any new grass growing in it and that’s what I would ask myself. You may well get the odd seed take but it’s never going to be like dressing and seeding.

 

Just thinking about my prep it has occurred to me that at the end of the garden, at the other side of the fence, there is a drop of around 6 feet down to a car park. The natural slope of the land was cut into to make the car park level. Is this likely to cause the soil to drain too quickly?

I'm a bit concerned because 6 weeks ago I moved a small (18 inches) acer tree from the very end of the garden, next to the drop, and in the 6 weeks since it was relocated it has really grown much faster than it had been doing, so something not right with where it was.

 

I've mowed twice a week since you posted this 6 weeks ago and the course grass has almost gone.