Newbie

Hi, I am new to this forum and desperately hoping to get some advice. I seeded my lawn (small area) 3 weeks ago which was growing at a fast rate. Although it is continuing to grow well, an area that was particularly dense became so wet that the grass started to clump together. I tried agitating the area to provide some oxygen but unfortunately made the problem worse so have ended up pulling up the soggy grass and reseeding the areas. There are other areas of the lawn that is bare but slowly thickening up.

Could somebody please help this complete novice as I am beginning to lose hope in creating a lush lawn and somewhere for my toddler to play. I have a love hate relationship with my new project as i have no patience! I know.......these things take time.

I have attached a picture which was taken today.

Should I mow yet or wait another week?
Will the bare areas thicken up or should I reseed
(I have been reseeding areas here and there)
In the areas that I completely messed up, should I have just left it to dry out? Have I made a mistake by pulling the grass up and reseeding?

Any advice would help. Much appreciation in advance.

 

It looks a bit odd. If you are making a lawn to be well used you need the correct mix of seeds.
I would use a Heavy Use mix. This will be strong and not mushy. It is usual to lay seeds on a bare, prepared soil. Unless doing a repair which is something else.
The other alternative for a quick fix is buying rolls of ready to lay turf. And follow the laying and watering instructions.

 

Thank you for the advice. The problem got so bad that I had to dig the entire thing up and start over. This time I have gone for a more robust seed. Fingers crossed.

 

Sorry. I can't identify the grass. Do you know the name of it. For lawns/grass areas for general use and the kids to play on. Iff starting from scratch, get a general mixture of seed, that will give you basicall a lawn of meadow grass. If deciding to turve the area. Go for a good quality meadow turf.

 

TBH I wouldn't worry about "soggy clumps". If you're sowing by hand, there are always going to be some clumps where you scattered a bit more seed than others, and/or where the soil is slightly better than elsewhere. Since you need to leave it a few weeks without mowing, those clumps are inevitably going to be a bit thicker and stay more damp. The fact that the seed has taken well on those patches is a *good* thing!

Just wait for a run of a couple of dry days, and then give it a first mow in late afternoon. That should get the top of the grass dry enough so that it cuts well. (Mower on its highest setting for the first cut, of course.) Once you've started cutting it, there won't be enough length of grass to clump up, and it'll all settle down nicely. If you get a run of a couple of wet weeks in summer, grass is prone to growing like crazy, and you just need to reel it back in when the weather dries out a bit.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I do think your original work would have settled in fine with 3-4 weeks of mowing once a week. By trying to "fix" it, things have gone a bit pear-shaped and now you're back to the start. Never mind, the nice thing about gardening is that usually there's nothing a bit of time or another crack at it won't sort out.

 

You are probably right but the problem seemed to be getting alot worse. It started to smell of fungus and I panicked. Being the novice that I am, including my lack of patience compelled me to act! The new grass seed I am using seems to be a bit more robust, as I used it to reseed bare spots and never observed any problems in those areas. If it does not go smoothly this time round, I think I will exercise a bit more patience and see it through. I put more blood, sweat and tears into it second time round which I hope will pay of.