Any Questions? Lawns and Lawncare

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Q. Can I lay turf on top of my old turf as I am just raising the garden up a little.

A. Possibly but I wouldn't risk it. The old turf would rot away by turf-rotting fungi which could then well attack the new turf. Also the new turf wouldn't be properly rooted into soil, but onto dying turf and could well struggle and die itself for this reason.

You need to rotavate and remove the old turf, or weed kill it and then remove the remains before levelling the soil - possibly adding more topsoil - and then relaying the new turf.

With turf at $100's for even an average garden with a lot of work too, I wouldn't even think about risking it.

Q. I am really bored with cutting the grass all the time. Can you please tell me if there is some sort of artificial lawn system out there somewhere which looks good enough for a back garden and is practical. I know it sounds terrible but I am not the keenest gardener in the world and I've adopted a large garden which I want to enjoy, not slave over.

A. You and half the rest of the country I think! As far as artificial lawns - not really, Astroturf is the only option I know of and that looks like green plastic. You don't say how large your garden is, but you could replace some or part of the lawn with a patio, gravel area, shrub borders / beds so at least the area to cut regularly would be reduced. You could just cut a small part regularly allowing the rest to become a "wildflower meadow" area cut only once or twice a year. You could buy one of the new breed of robot lawn mowers and let it cut the grass while you're at work or doing something else, or (excuse me if this seems a bit obvious) buy a bigger lawnmower that goes around the lawn a lot quicker.

Q. I have two lawns in my back garden about 50ft x 50ft each which are in poor condition due to my German shepherd dog pounding up and down them.  I am thinking of replacing them:  one with astro turf and one with glass chippings.  Do you know where I can buy these products and/or do you have any ideas for other replacing the grass?

A. I can't really help you with Astroturf, it's not really a gardening thing, more sports and recreation grounds, so try that in the yellow pages or a search engine.

 

Glass chippings sounds very expensive over such a large area, gravel will be considerably cheaper. It comes as 10mm or 20mm pieces from a builders merchant, but I'm not sure what would be the most comfortable on your dogs feet!

 

You don't say what else (if anything) the area is used for. You could make it into a part paved / part gravel area as a combination of utility and aesthetics. That will be more expensive than just gravel but  cheaper than glass chippings.

Q. I have rotavated my garden and have got most of the roots and weeds out. Is there a weed killer I can put down that will destroy the rest that are hidden or buried that won't effect the turf I lay?

A. In a word - no. As far as I am aware there is no selective weedkiller that will remain persistently in the soil.

You could let the weeds grow and use a glyphosate based weedkiller that will kill the weeds but be neutralized on contact with the soil, this will take 4-8 weeks for them to grow and then to be killed.

You could lay the turf and let any weeds grow through and then deal with them. The mower will kill many, as many weeds cannot stand being cut down continuously as can grass. When the lawn is well established after 4 -6 months, you could the apply a selective weedkiller if necessary in the autumn.

Q. We had a home constructed last fall and now dealing with a weedy and rocky yard. I did the best I could to get rid of weeds, but eventually gave up and seeded heavy amongst the weeds. Grass has now germinated (about 2 inches high).

When can I apply weedkiller without harming my new grass?

A. The usual guide is to not apply weedkiller for about 12 months after seeding, I would certainly wait until well into summer before doing so.

As your grass has germinated you can start mowing, this will have the effect of removing a lot of your weeds as they can't take constantly being cut back like grass can. If you haven't cut the grass at all yet, put the mower on the highest setting for the first 3 or 4 cuts before lowering it. A little and often will work best, for the grass and also for helping get rid of the weeds.

Also, give your lawn a high nitrogen lawn feed so that the grass can start to fight back and help to crowd the weeds out in their weakened state.

Q. On holiday in Thailand, I noticed that the hotel lawn wasn't really like grass at all but a sort of plant - wide dwarf leaves, no flowers as far as I could see and very tough to walk on. Is there an equivalent no-maintenance UK option that my kids could run around on?

A. The grass you saw was probably "Bermuda Grass" a tough tropical plant that is the best that can be managed outside of the temperate regions without a lot of care. It might appear to be tough, but isn't, it can't really take a lot of traffic. We had a similar grass in Mombasa, Kenya, when I lived there, it's also not very pleasant to touch and doesn't form the best play surface. Standard temperate grasses are far better here, they grow more quickly with less care, are softer and more pleasant to touch and rejuvenate better after cutting and wear.

If anything, people who live in the tropics would far rather be able to grow the temperate type grasses that we have here.

If you are looking for a hard-wearing grass, then select one with rye-grass, you will sacrifice fineness in the process and need to have a rotary mower to deal with the stalks that stick up persistently when you mow it, but it's the best bet in the long run.

Q. I had some new turf laid down a few months ago. It went a little brown when I mowed the lawn. I bought some grass repair which included some fertilizer and now there are big patches where the grass has gone brown and even in places totally disappeared  (I think the fertilizer burned the new turf ?) I was wondering if you could advise what the best thing to do is.

A. It's difficult to tell without seeing the area directly. I think it is unlikely that it would be the fertilizer - assuming you followed the instructions. The only way a fertilizer would have such a dramatic effect is if you directly applied a soluble fertilizer, i.e. as a solid without diluting, or applied the correct type in greatly increased and patchy quantities (hmm.... maybe not so unlikely?)

Do you have a dog? Female dogs can cause die-back in the way you suggest ( they do big wees all in one place unlike males who spread it around a bit more)

Try lifting the turf where it has died and looking underneath, any clues? I've dug a few cement bags up from dead turf patches in the past and a colleague once retrieved a whole functional wheelbarrow!

My guess is that there's some other cause that you need to determine before re-seeding or re-turfing the patches.

Q. We have a female Golden Retriever killing our grass. We have brown dead spots where she urinates on our newly sodded lawn. Is there anything we can use to neutralize the urine on these spots so the grass doesn't die? She tends to go in the same location. We have tried to teach her to go on the bark in the surrounding beds, but this may just lead to problems with the ground covers etc which we planted there. We are looking for a solution. What options do we have? We love the yard and the dog. We have a small village lot, not a lot of options for space. (i.e.: No room for a separate dog run).

A. This is a fairly common problem with female dogs of large breeds. Bitches tend to deposit all of their urine in one place, hence the die-back of the grass. It's not such a problem with males as they spread it around a lot more and the smaller quantities in any one place are not usually a problem.

There is no simple solution and water is the best way of neutralizing the urine. The real problem is being around when the dog urinates and seeing where she has done it, if you can do this, then keep a hose handy and spray the area, alternatively a bucket of water will do the same job.

Long term, you could try keeping an area as the "dog toilet", say put bark chips down and try to train your dog to use that area, though this is not as easy with dogs as with cats who take to a specific toilet area better.

This tends to be a summer problem as in the winter, the soil and grass are already wet (though I don't what your climate is like), so the urine is more diluted. You can repair damaged areas by replacing the top layer of soil, 1-2" and re-seeding or replace with new turf.

Q. I have scorched my lawn. I believe I overdosed on the lawn feed. I applied more lawn feed in bottom half than the top half of the lawn. There are more brown patches in the one half of the lawn than the other half. I also used the same lawn feed back in middle April. After a while the grass looked green and beautiful. Nine weeks later in June, I thought it would be a good idea to feed the lawn again. What can I do now.

A. Spring and autumn are the best times to feed your lawn, a summer feed is not usually necessary - at least you know for next year!

What can you do about it? Not an awful lot I'm afraid. I'd drench the affected areas with water to dissolve and wash away the feed that's sitting there. I mean a really good soaking - a bucket per square foot - so it takes it down deeper into the soil. Also, set your lawn mower a bit higher so that the grass gets a better chance to recover without any extra stresses.

"Do I need to re-seed etc or will the grass grow back."

I'd leave it for a while and see how it goes, re-seed in the fall, about mid September if you need to. Any seed sown before then won't take very well at all and it'll give longer for the excess fertilizer to wash away, otherwise the seed will just germinate and then promptly die.

Q. I have moved into a new home a few weeks back. The garden at the back is just below average size for a lawn. The contract gardening service have mowed for when I moved in they made a right pigs ear of it there blades must have been set too low, anyway to cut a long story short I have only just mowed it myself after 3 weeks I was letting the grass come back through. I have just raked all the dead grass and moss out and the lawn is very sparse. I am thinking of going to get a big bag of seed and spread it all over and ensure I water it every day is this a good idea?. I don't want to get it re-sodded as I think it is salvageable

A. The lawn probably hadn't been cut for ages and was really long is my guess. Whether you seed or not depends on the density of the grass plants.

Grass can recover remarkably well and easily spread 6" to cover bare patches. If you seed, then you have to rake the area before to break up the soil for the delicate new roots, and then after to make sure that the seed is covered with soil, if there are grass plants around, this can damage them quite badly (possibly digging them up). Throwing seed on the surface has very little effect really, if not covered the birds will have it or it doesn't germinate well. I only resort to re-seeding if there are distinct large patches where the grass is unlikely to spread back with a few months. If this is the case then by all means seed, but make sure you prepare it in advance and then cover it well.

The alternative which works in the majority of cases is to help the grass to recover naturally. I'd give it a liquid feed with a high nitrogen fertilizer (don't be tempted to increase the strength, I get a fair few emails asking how to resurrect grass that has been burnt by over-fertilising!). Mow it regularly, but with the mower blades set high, this will encourage new growth. Whether you seed or not, try to keep off the grass as much as possible to give it the best chance of recovery.

Q. I laid a new turf lawn approximately 2 weeks ago. We made sure the ground was level and free from any stones or weeds etc. The grass seems to have taken well but the ground has become very lumpy. Is there anything I can do about this? Should I use a roller and if so under what conditions.

A. A lot of what has happened is probably just due to the fact that when the turf roots meet the soil they partly penetrate and partly push upwards, so you get a slightly floating turf effect for a while. This will settle down though can be helped, not so much with a roller as with a lawnmower with a roller (they're not as heavy!).

In addition to this you may have some areas settling differentially to others (or even some grass areas growing faster than others and giving an effect of lumpiness). I'd leave well alone for a while before trying anything drastic, if after a couple of months, there is still lumpiness, then try the following next question down.

Q. I am now the proud owner of a garden for the first time, my soil is heavy clay and my question is how do I sort out my bumpy lawn? It is very uneven, apart from that the lawn is in a fairly good condition.

A. This is a relatively straightforward if long-winded problem to deal with. It also depends on how large or small the humps and hollows are, if they are major undulations over several feet, there's not really much you can do other than dig up the turf, level it all out and start again.

Assuming that you are not going to go to these lengths, each bump or hollow should be dealt with individually. The basic technique is one of cutting a cross with the centre being the middle of the hump or hollow, use a spade or lawn edger. The turf is then peeled back, you will probably need to slide - with some vigour as your soil is clay! - the spade underneath the turf to separate it from the soil to do this. You now have four triangles of turf peeled back exposing a square of soil, either remove soil from, or add it to this area to level it, peel the turf back, firm it down and water it.

Small hollows can be dealt with by adding a light sprinkling of sifted soil or potting compost onto the surface of the grass. The grass should be actively growing when you do this, don't add any more than 1/4 - 1/2" at a time. It can be repeated, but only when the area has gone completely green again and the grass re-established.

Don't be tempted to get a heavy roller, all this does it compress and compact the soil, it also rolls up the hills and down the dales without really leveling out the whole area.

Q. I have some grass seed to put on my lawn which is a bit bare and would like advice on preparation and maintenance whilst it grows.

A. It's always a difficult one when the grass is a "bit bare", it's difficult to thicken up and improve what's already there, often being easier to start again from scratch.

There are two steps to take, first of all improve conditions for the existing grass, it's not thin and sparse for nothing, and then add to it. If you don't address underlying problems, then it will revert to how it was beforehand, so you may need to aerate with a hollow-tine aerator or fork, apply a top-dressing, remove thatch, feed, remove weeds etc.

Adding grass seed while retaining existing grass is a bit hit and miss and dependent largely on what the weather is like after seeding. Rake the surface with an ordinary garden rake to loosen the soil, preferably not disturbing existing grass too much, then sow the seed on top, rake again to cover as much of it as you can and water it.

Keep off it completely until it begins to sprout, watering where necessary, when it starts to show through don't mow it as the rest of the lawn until it has thickened up. This is a good time to apply a general lawn feed which will also encourage the existing grass.

It's a bit of a hit and miss process, and you may need to repeat it more than once, but you should get there with patience.

Q. How to remove patches of rye grass in newly-laid sod lawn? (Mainly ryegrass free).

A. It's not going to be easy as it sounds like the rye grass was in the sod when it arrived. Finer grasses respond better to feeding and cope better with regular close mowing. So give your lawn monthly feeds through the summer and mow two or three times a week from May to September at 1/4" to 3/8".

This regimen will eventually eradicate the rye grasses. An easier solution is to put up with the rye grass and get a rotary mower to cut down the resulting stalks.

It depends on the uses your lawn will get, rye grass is tough and resistant to wear and tear, finer delicate grasses aren't but look far better.

Q. My father has accidentally sprayed his grass with path weedkiller and the grass has totally died.  Is it safe to re-sow the grass seed on top of the old grass or will the weedkiller be in the soil,  would it be safer to dig the area over and restart the lawn from scratch?

A. Not an easy one. Path weedkiller is so designated because the weedkiller sits in the soil and continues to have an effect for months afterwards - hence it is very good for use on paths. Sowing new seed would be a waste of time and digging the soil over would dilute the problem but not make it go away. It is just a question of time, the weedkiller will be washed away and will break down within a period of 3-6 months when a new lawn can be sown. The only immediate answer would be to remove all the soil to a depth of 6" or so, replace it and then sow the new grass seed or lay sod.

Your best bet is to wait and see when new weeds or grass start to grow through the soil before sowing any grass seed. You can speed the process up a bit by watering during dry weather and doing a few rain dances for luck.

Q. My lawn has turned patchy brown after mowing. What should I do?

A. Two reasons, it may be one or both:

1/ Mower set too low and the grass was quite long. Set the mower a little higher next time, give your lawn a nitrogen feed, wait for it to rain (shouldn't be long!) and next year raise the blades for the first couple of cuts.

2/ If you have a cylinder mower, the blades are blunt, so the grass is being ripped up instead of being cut. Immediate remedy as above, and get the blades sharpened.

Q. I have had a patch of brown appearing in a horseshoe shape on my lawn for 2 yrs in a row. Last year I thought I had cured it by re-seeding, but the horseshoe is re-appearing - even larger than ever (outside the previous year's perimeters). It may even join up in an egg shape ring. I never had this problem before last year, but I do tackle moss with weed & feed. What causes this & what can I do please?

A. It sounds like you've got the beginnings of a fairy ring. This is a ring of fungus growing and feeding just below the surface of the lawn. Characteristically there is a brighter green strip of grass on the edges of the dead or brown patch. If it is a fairy ring then it will start producing mushrooms above ground any time from July onwards which will confirm it.

The good news about fairy rings is that the mushrooms produced are usually of an edible type, any one of three species (but check with a fungus ID book before you try them!). The bad news about fairy rings is that they are very difficult to remove. You could dig up and replace the soil to 12-18" depth and 12" either side of the ring (throw the old soil away). You could try to sterilize the soil with Armillatox after digging and burning the sod and soil to a depth of 9". I'd wait to see the mushrooms first though to confirm that you do have a fairy ring before you begin this.

If these are too much (and they usually are) then it can be controlled with a copper based fungicide or one based on benomyl, eradication by this means is unlikely. Remove the mushrooms as they appear whether you eat them or not, to prevent the problem spreading. Feeding the lawn also helps to disguise the problem which is usually more obvious on an underfed lawn.

Q. We laid 120 sq. m. of sod (supposedly grown from seed) about 6 weeks ago. The whole area is now covered in toadstools too many to pick by hand. How can we get rid of them?

A. The toadstools have to be feeding on something and my guess is that they're feeding on something in the soil, i.e. not in the sod that you have bought. The only way to get rid of them for good is to remove whatever they are feeding on. The only time I've come across a similar situation was when some-one used bark chips to level the ground before laying the sod. Result, the nice dark and moist conditions underneath the sod along with a good food supply meant a very healthy crop of toadstools.

Is there anything like this under your sod? It may be caused by pieces of wood squashed into the soil and covered over (common in new homes), or alternatively by rotovating in old grass or weeds and not clearing them from the site before laying the sod.

What to do about it? If it is bark chips and you paid some-one to do it I think you've a good case to get them back to sort it out. If not, then it will sort itself out in time when the conditions change and the food supply is exhausted. Cut the toadstools down with a mower or just knock them down with a broom or besom, they'll soon dry up and shrivel to nothing. Fairy rings are the only fungi that will really harm a lawn and it doesn't sound like you've got any of those.

Q. I have decided to repair my lawn. It looks like a bomb site, it is totally uneven and covered in weeds. I would like to turn all of the soil over and redo it. The garden lawn is 75feet by 25feet. How would I turn all of the soil over and then make sure the level is the same all over ?

A. You need to kill the grass and weeds with a weedkiller, make sure it's not one that stays in the soil! scrape the dead grass / weeds off. Hire a rotavator and Rotavate the area. Level off using pegs hammered into the soil, string lines and a spirit level. A wheelbarrow or buckets are useful to move soil - dig it and barrow it, pushing along the ground is hard work and ineffective! Rotavate again, they help to level things out well too.

I'd suggest spending a day with a rotavator levelling it out and then get the sod delivered on another day. If you've never done it before give yourself time.

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