Lawn Advice

[talksr]

Hello everyone, looking for some general advice on my back garden.

It will be six years old this July. I bought the house brand new back in 2018.
The grass was in an appalling state when I got my keys. It was knee high and looked like a meadow. It was lovely turf before, but was not maintained by the builder and was in a real state. I cut it all down, it was very brown and dry. Added lots of new seeds and water and eventually, got it looking really nice. There have always been odd patches here and there. In the past I have dug those areas out, added in fresh top soil and re-seeded. It has worked well and other than the lawn not being all that level, it has been ok.

I got tired of the constant maintenance, so last year cut down on watering and stopped mowing as frequently, opting to just cut short less often - I know the best thing to do is keep it long but was getting tired of the time I was spending on it. I now have a Flymo robot mower, so I don’t need to worry about cutting. I am planning on letting it grow much longer again.

I cut it down, raked it out as there was a lot of moss and I have added a lawn fertiliser with seeds. Unfortunately, the spring on my spreader had broken, I didn’t realise but it dumped a lot of fertiliser in certain parts of the lawn. I am worried it has killed off the grass - you will see from the picture, the black area.

What would your recommend I do with this? I have been very tempted to have the whole lawn re-done as the topsoil was very poor quality when I bought the house. I thought it would be nice to bring the grass in level with the top step and have a retaining wall put in, but the cost of this is in the thousands. It isn’t something I would be able to do myself.

Just wondering what people’s opinions and advice are? I have been watering it lots recently as this should help with growth and getting the fertiliser into the ground.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Was it purely fertiliser? They often add a moss killer and if you have moss in it it turns black just like that. Watering is also a good way to encourage moss. If it is moss it should rake out with a wire rake, hard work , but it is not a huge area.

 

[talksr]

Hello! Thank you for your post. This was the stuff…

Thickener, greener grass, kills weeds and moss.
Maybe you are right and that is why it is so black. It just happens that the black area was where my spreader dumped a considerable amount. I raked away as much as I could and I also used a brush from a dustpan and brush to help spread it away from that area.

I will keep an eye on it and see how it comes back. Not needed to water for the past few days as it has been so wet with the rain.
Thanks for your post.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Yep, the fourth effect is 'controls' moss. dump a bit extra on and that becomes 'kills' moss, bet that's what happened.
Careful how you use that stuff, I think they say just in Spring and Autumn, a long gap between applications anyway. The black will fade as the grass grows, but it won't be quick, raking out the dead moss will help, but you will probably find it does not compost at all well, better off putting it in the green bin if you have one.

 

[talksr]

Yep, the fourth effect is 'controls' moss. dump a bit extra on and that becomes 'kills' moss, bet that's what happened.
Careful how you use that stuff, I think they say just in Spring and Autumn, a long gap between applications anyway. The black will fade as the grass grows, but it won't be quick, raking out the dead moss will help, but you will probably find it does not compost at all well, better off putting it in the green bin if you have one.

Thanks Oliver. I noticed on the back it said you needed to be careful. Was so annoyed my spreader had broken. The release spring on the bottom has snapped so when I pulled the handle, it dumped a lot of the feed all in one place.
At least the moss is going. I have raked it several times and again earlier, so gradually getting rid of the moss. I think you are right, the moss doesn't really compost nicely so better to just get rid.

Thanks for your help on this.

 

[talksr]

Thanks Oliver. I noticed on the back it said you needed to be careful. Was so annoyed my spreader had broken. The release spring on the bottom has snapped so when I pulled the handle, it dumped a lot of the feed all in one place.
At least the moss is going. I have raked it several times and again earlier, so gradually getting rid of the moss. I think you are right, the moss doesn't really compost nicely so better to just get rid.

Thanks for your help on this.

An update.....
I re-seeded some areas that didn't grow back.
Still looking very patchy in places. Have not cut for a while now and watering as much as I can so the soil is never completely dry.

Any ideas on what I should do next? I have put quite a lot of seed down in the areas that had the worst patches.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Too much watering will bring your moss problem back. I would say rake then mow, not too short, but fairly frequently. Remember the joke about the American tourist asking the gardener how they got such beautiful grass on the Cathedral green in Canterbury, "Well you mows and you mows and you mows; for about four hundred years."