Care for New Lawn Sods

BoardsMember

Hi. We have just got some new lawn sods laid. It's a west facing garden, gets sun on the lawn from midday through til sunset. I know we have to water it, and not use it for a couple of weeks. Is there anything else that I should look at doing to make sure it takes and prospers? Should I feed it, if so with what? I would be very annoyed if it didn't all work out so am prepared to do whatever it takes. Thanks.

Sonnenblumen

BoardsMember wrote: »

Hi. We have just got some new lawn sods laid. It's a west facing garden, gets sun on the lawn from midday through til sunset. I know we have to water it, and not use it for a couple of weeks. Is there anything else that I should look at doing to make sure it takes and prospers? Should I feed it, if so with what? I would be very annoyed if it didn't all work out so am prepared to do whatever it takes. Thanks.

It would be normal practice to add the fertiliser during the ground preparation stage before rolling area and laying sod. Inadequate ground preparations (spraying, weeding, rotovation, levelling and rolling) will affect new sod performance and will become apparent within 3-6 months.

Ensure edges are kept flat and moist, new sod is most vunerable to drying along edges and joints.

BoardsMember

Thanks Sonnenblumen for ur response. I'll be out watering it so every evening, will be sure to concentrate on the edges. I might try and get some feed when it has settled down, to be sure to be sure.

BoardsMember

Hi. Just following up on this. We've been quite psycho about ensuring that no weeds are growing through. Any sign of a daisy, or worse a dandelion, and I'm out with a trowel digging it out and making sure I get all the roots. I have raked quite a bit to rid of a few patches of moss here and there. So we've been happy with the lawn. It is down about 18 months now, edges are well knitted in and we've started planting, and things are looking good.

Once "issue" we have noticed is that the growth is patchy in parts. So there a green luscious parts, and patches of more yellow areas that dont seem to grow. I think the patchy areas would benefit from a good liquid based "green up" or fertiliser from what I have read. It also goes quite yellow after a cut, but I suppose that is normal enough.

So the question is - what is the best product to buy (there is a plethora on the shelves!), and where to buy it. Any recommendations most welcome. Thanks.

Sonnenblumen

Moss and yellow patches would not be normal in a lawn < 12 months old. However the recent poor and very cold winter has caused considerable damage, in lawn areas, brown patches (frost). Yellow patches are generally associated with lack of nutirents and this is a sign of grass under pressure and not being healthy. This can also allow moss to outperform the grass and develop.

Normally it is not advisable to use weedkiller on lawns <12 months old. Better to try and rake out the moss, hand scartch with hand fork if necessary. Wet the area add some compost and seed. Otherwise apply some general fertiliser lawn (Spring/Summer) eg Miracle Gro, which is available practically everywhere including Tescos etc. Again I'd recommend a liquid feed, unless you're confident of not causing scorching with too much of the granular feed formats? Feed new lawns monthly and come September apply an Autumn feed.

Final tip, new grass should not be cut shorter than 30mm unless of course you're willing to water and feed more frequently which short grass requires in order to remain healthy and vibrant.

I've more info on lawn care etc on my blog, check website.

BoardsMember

Thanks Sonnenblumen so much for taking the time to reply, I appreciate all the info.

The moss is localised to either dark or damp/poorly draining areas, so not too worried about that. The raking I hve done and will continue to do should keep it under control. I'll grab some miracle grow too, and apply it as you suggest.

I was not aware that you can add some compost and seed, I'll give that a go too, hopefully that'll thicken up to less thick areas, i.e. some of the areas that have a bit of moss. I dont suppose you can do too much harm with that. One (more) question if you dont mind - any guidance re what seeds to buy. We have a bog standard lawn, medium grade I think they called it. Will any seed do or should I look out for something in particular?

Thanks again!

Sonnenblumen

Hi BoardsMember,

Grade 3 is usually the seed we would use for all purpose/family lawns.

Here's some info from our Blog on lawn aftercare.

Aftercare for the new Lawn

To retain the vivid green lush look of a new lawn and good healthy grass growth:

• Continue feeding the lawn every six weeks during the growing season (April-October) and do not forget to apply a winter feed later in year (which is a specially formulated feed to ensure strong root development)

• It is very important during the initial few months that the new lawn does not dry out, so if necessary water regularly

• Do not allow the grass become too long and generally avoid cutting the new lawn shorter than 2”/50mm. Frequent cutting (except during wet spells) are ideal to maintaining a beautiful finish.

Best of luck.

BoardsMember

Sonnenblumen wrote: »

Hi BoardsMember,

Grade 3 is usually the seed we would use for all purpose/family lawns.

Here's some info from our Blog on lawn aftercare.

Aftercare for the new Lawn

To retain the vivid green lush look of a new lawn and good healthy grass growth:

• Continue feeding the lawn every six weeks during the growing season (April-October) and do not forget to apply a winter feed later in year (which is a specially formulated feed to ensure strong root development)

• It is very important during the initial few months that the new lawn does not dry out, so if necessary water regularly

• Do not allow the grass become too long and generally avoid cutting the new lawn shorter than 2”/50mm. Frequent cutting (except during wet spells) are ideal to maintaining a beautiful finish.

Best of luck.

I have administered the Miracle Grow. Havent got round to putting down some more seed + compost, will do so at the weekend. Have taken note of the other advice. I'm annoyed we didn't cop to feed the grass every month to six weeks last year after it was down a while, but it is still a pretty healthy lawn on the whole so hopefully it will kick on from here.

Thanks again for the advice, much appreciate. I had a look at your website, very impressive stuff, loads of info.

BoardsMember

I got some of the granule based fertiliser. And also bought a cheapo spreader in Woodies. The latter was a bad move, I weighed the fertiliser, measured the spreading area etc, and when I started to push the spreader the whole lot fell out. In hindsight I should have hovered it up or something, now I'm left with big burnt patch. I think I'll stick to liquid stuff in the future. And not buy any non-branded Woodies stuff.

I ended up spreading by hand, and am left with a few other small patches of burnt grass. Any thoughts on how to recover from the burnt patches? I was thinking of composting & re-seeding the few smaller ones, and for the big patch mentioned above, I was going to pick up a small roll of grass sod and re-sod that patch.