Help with new Lawn

[m2244]

Hello,

Earlier this summer I dug up a section of our lawn that had a lot of "swamp grass" that was brought in by a landscaper when he removed some damaged hedges. I used a load of topsoil from a source I thought was reputable, and they might be (I don't know much about this topic) but now I have everything you see in the pictures. Weeds, strange crass, etc. What should I do now or will it self-correct when I mow it for a while? I don't want to use any sort of weed killer, we're losing enough insects on the planet as it is.

 

[Reciprocity]

I'm no expert on this either but what you have there now is certainly not going to self correct. If anything, it'll only get worse!

You say you 'dug up a section of lawn', there well may have been roots of the unwanted grasses & weeds remaining in the ground as you put new top soil down and now they're popping up again? Also, you didn't say what you did after you put down the new top soil? Did you seed the area or put down sod? I assume it wasn't sod because it looks like there's very little grass there now - mostly weeds and other unwanted types of grass (crab grass or other?).

If I were you, I think I'd blow the whole thing up at this point (figuratively speaking of course lol). I would put something down on that mess (Roundup or other such herbicide) to kill everything - including the roots so it doesn't come back! Then lay some more fresh top soil down again & sod it right away, so you don't have bare soil laying there to catch all the wind-blown weed spores. Not sure how long you have to wait after spraying the round up & laying new topsoil & grass. Read the instructions first on the herbicide you use. Once the sod is down, water well daily for at least a month or so to establish the new sod & put down some starter fertilizer after a few weeks and maybe a month or so later. Something like a 7-7-7 fertilizer; something not too high in nitrogen until the sod is well established.

I actually just had my entire backyard lawn replaced in early June 2022. Way too big a job for me to do so I hired a small local landscaper who did a great job. I'll do a separate write up on my experience and how it turned out.

Good luck on rejuvenating your lawn m2244!

 

[m2244]

Thank you for the advice. Personally, I believe that anyone using pesticides should be required to drink as much of that stuff as they put on their lawn (habitat for living things). This comment isn't directed at you personally, more so at the entire ridiculous human race.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

I tend to agree, I don't like the chemicals that kill, they are not targeted enough. Regular mowing will do for a lot of weeds, you will be left with the ones that roseate, things like dandelions that make a flat circle of leaves. I am gradually removing them manually from my front lawn, I have the back mostly free of them now. There will also be stuff like clover and daisies, but kids can make daisy chains then, and I like seeing the bees on the clover, and if you rake reasonably regularly they don't take over, a mechanical rake was one of my best buys, I am getting too old to do it all with a wire rake anymore. My biggest problem is moss, the rake pulls it out pretty well, but then it refuses to rot down, I have taken to burying it deep under the veg patch.
It still might help to spread a bit of mixed compost, top soil and grass seed around, I have some bits of old wire mesh I chuck on top when I do that to stop the birds eating all the seed. Keep it thinly spread, deep buried grass seed won't germinate well, but you can always go over again on the thin bits in a couple of months.
Continuity is more effective than speed.

 

[Sheal]

A friend was telling me about weed steamers yesterday. Apparently they work very well and completely kill weeds. May be you could hire one.