New to forum and mew lawn just been laid

Hi all

I am new to this forum and completly new to gardening. We have recently spent £3000 for our garden to be made into a place we want to be in rather than a complete eye sore.

As we have spent this amount of money I am wanting and committed to keeping up with it.

We have made it very maintainence free but my main concern is the lawn.

This was laid today with new top soil and then turf. I am hoping I can get some good advice on how to ensure the lawn takes well to the garden and grows to be lush and green and thick.

My initial questions are as follows:

How often and how much should I water it?
When does it need aerating?
Do I need to apply a feed to it? (I have seen on the web that a spring feed is good but does this apply to a freshly laid lawn?

Any other advice would be appreciated and thanks in advance

 

I suggest you water it every other day (or if its a large area half one day, half the next). Make sure you don't miss any bits with the sprinkler as they will go yellow and take the rest of the Summer to recover.

Put a small vertical-sided bowl on the lawn (Indian take-away type container will do) when you water. Leave the sprinkler on until the bowl has an inch of water in it.

The turf needs to bed down - i.e. for the roots to grow into the soil underneath. This takes a few weeks. Try not to walk on it during this time. Gently try to pull up a turf; once the roots have grown through you will no long be able to do this.

Once it is established you ought to be able to reduce the watering to twice a week. (This will encourage the roots to grow downwards in search of water; if you water little-and-often the roots will only grow near the surface, and then they will dry out in the sun, so a good, long soak, less frequently is MUCH better than little-and-often)

You need a significant downpour to be allowed time-off-from-watering.

Don't cut the lawn until it has bedded down (particularly if you have a rotary mower, as it is liable to lift the turf and then chop it into little pieces :( )

Rolling it once you start cutting will help - it will make sure the turf is in good contact with the soil underneath and even out any small bumps. If you mower has a roller that's fine. otherwise don't get something really heavy - like the vibrating ones used to lay tarmac!! The idea is to apply pressure over a wide area, so walking up and down is not a good substitute I'm afraid

It helps if the mower blades are recently sharpened when cutting a new lawn (so they cut the leaves instead of macerating! them - a plant getting established is under stress, so split leaves can allow more moisture to be lost, and diseases to enter, which the plant has to fight off - bit like being susceptible to a Cough when you already have a Cold; for an established lawn this is less of a problem; sharp blades will make a clean cut)

If you have good quality turf it will have been fed recently, so you won't have to worry about that for a while. The turf I got off the fens had so much fertilizer in it that it took all the rest of the summer before I could get the mowing of it back under control!

Aerating is the process of making holes in the lawn (e.g. with a garden fork) to let air in, and help with drainage. It is important once the lawn becomes compacted - through use etc. For a freshly, well prepared, lawn I doubt you will need to do that in the first year. The Autumn will be soon enough.

Have you got really posh "bowling green" grass? or something more knock about? For Bowling Green you will have to do more work, including top dressing it (with a thin layer of soil + peat + sand "top dressing") and over-seeding it (sowing some more grass seed thinly, this ensures that the good grass varieties are increased, and the rougher ones should then not get a look in, make sure you use the seed designated "Fine lawn seed" otherwise you'll also sow the rougher grasses in "normal" lawn seen). Plus you also need to cut a high quality lawn frequently - twice a week when it is actively growing - with a good mower - ideally a cylinder mower, and one with a roller would be best.

For more hard-wearing grass mowing once a week should be fine. Don't remove more than 1/3rd of the height when you mow, so if you've left it a while don't cut it really short all in one go, cut 1/3rd off, leave it for 2 or 3 days, then cut again.

 

wow, what a reply. Thanks

We didnt buy the lawn, the landscaper did so not sure what type it is but doubt it will be bowling green type.

Can I water it on an evening when i get home from work about 530-6?

 

Probably a bog standard Timothy mix which is a hardy grass for garden lawns. Bowling greens grass is a lot finer and much better quality.

 

Just 2 more questions I have at the moment in connection to the lawn.

1. Can I water on an evening about 539-6 when i get home from work?
2. Do i need to do anything with the seams of the grass where the joints meet each other or eill these fade in time?

thanks

 

1. Leave it until dusk.

2. Yes the seams will grow into each other in time.

 

super, thanks

 

Yes, much better to water in the evening than morning / daytime. The temperature will be dropping, the sun not baking, so less water will evaporate and more will soak in :thumb:

5:30is fine, but a bit later would be even better (but more important that it gets done, than is done at exactly the right time, so if you have Pub commitments later on :D then do it at 5:30pm :thumb