New turf looking sad.

I'd be grateful for suggestions to reverse a few self inflicted problems with my new 'lawn'.
I laid new turfs about 4 weeks ago,type recommended for my partially shaded/dappled light front garden. Last year I killed off the old patchy grass/weeds with Roundup and prior to turfing dug it over,firmed and raked to a tilth. Applied a light dose of slow release fertiliser and watered well.
Weather's been ideal and all looked brilliant , seems to have 'taken' and growing away merrily.
I've given it two cuts and it's now looking a bit sparse in places showing a bit of browning/yellowing as well. My fault 'cos I've only now adjusted my mower height..................

That aside, I'm also worried that the soil may be very acid. The shading is caused by a line of large oaks along one boundary. We've now had them cut back to give more light but the ground in question was neglected for years with annual drops of leaves many of which compacted,
killing off the grass and rotting into the soil. I'm wondering if that is the case and what would be the best way of introducing lime into the soil perhaps diluted with some fertiliser in the mix?

I'd very much appreciate any educated guesses or suggestions.

 

Welcome to GC Willy. I don't think it's anything you've done. Oaks will sap the area of nutrients and water, that is probably why your lawn is suffering. We've also had a particularly dry year which will add to the problem. Acid soil shouldn't make any difference to the growth of the grass, it is pretty tough and will grow on any soil. You could try feeding it with an autumn feed but to be honest I think it will struggle anyway because of the situation under the oaks, sorry!

 

Thanks for your help, all useful stuff. I think that whatever the problem, it's been worsened by me cutting it too early and too low. I'll give it a feed before the weather deteriorates but I've got to ask again.....Do you think it's a pointless exercise to add some lime?

 

You can cut your lawn all year round providing it's dry enough and not covered in frost but, during the times that it is dormant, late autumn to early spring, your mower should be adjusted to a higher cut. Regarding the lime, yes I think it's pointless, grass is never going to grow well in that situation, sorry. Perhaps there is something else that you can do in that area.

 

I expect its just the close-cut with the mower that is the problem. Mature grass would recover from that (roots well established, and provided it was not repeated often!) but I fear that young turf might not. I would over-seed any bare patches with some shady-mix grass seed; we are near the end of mowing season, and that seed can then germinate and grow over winter.

I have grass (sown using shady-mix grass seed) in very heavily shaded areas of the garden, and it seems to grow just fine - better than I was expecting! - so as long as your turf was genuinely shady-mix then I think you should be fine.