Poor quality of grass around. How to 'green' it up?

NIMAN

I have noticed driving around that many houses' gardens are very poor quality at present. Many are more yellow than green, and it appears that many are more thatch than grass. Wondering why so many lawns look so poor? The recent bad winters?

Thankfully my won isn't the worst, although it does have the odd section thats more pale looking than I'd like. In my previous house I used to have very dark green, luscious grass. Admittedly I did feed it a couple of times per year, but I have yet to do this in my new garden as its 0.5 acre and its many times bigger.

I have raked the smaller, more manageable front piece with a garden rake and de-thatched it a few times, and also spiked it all over with a fork to let it breathe. Can't really do that at the back as its too big. Thinking of investing in an electric scarifier for that.

Can anyone recommend a good quality feed to get the dark green colour back?

Chucken

I asked my brother about this. He's a landscape gardener. He sent me this link.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_do_you_green_your_lawn_in_the_summer

Hope it helps

redser7

They are poor simply because they are not looked after. A high nitrogen fertilser will bring it up. Try argi co-ops for bulk products, they will tell you what you need.

NIMAN

I posted in another thread about maybe buying a big bag of agri fertilizer from the local co-op, as I thought these guys would give better advice than a local hardware store, plus might have more idea of the NPK mix that I might need.

I then did a bit of internet reading, and the 1st bit said to go for BIG, SMALL, SMALL, in other words big N, low P, low K.

However a reply I got on the thread here said that maybe the opposite would suit better, as too much N and I'd be cutting too often.

I'll see if I can find the thread again.

Edit: here it is:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056638481

joseph brand

NIMAN wrote: »

I have noticed driving around that many houses' gardens are very poor quality at present. Many are more yellow than green, and it appears that many are more thatch than grass. Wondering why so many lawns look so poor? The recent bad winters?

Thankfully my won isn't the worst, although it does have the odd section thats more pale looking than I'd like. In my previous house I used to have very dark green, luscious grass. Admittedly I did feed it a couple of times per year, but I have yet to do this in my new garden as its 0.5 acre and its many times bigger.

I have raked the smaller, more manageable front piece with a garden rake and de-thatched it a few times, and also spiked it all over with a fork to let it breathe. Can't really do that at the back as its too big. Thinking of investing in an electric scarifier for that.

Can anyone recommend a good quality feed to get the dark green colour back?

I'm not sure that using the fork to aerate the soil is a good idea. It just compacts the soil further. You need to actually take plugs of soil out. Does your soil have a lot of clay? My soil is clay and drainage is poor and grass roots don't really like it. In summer it's like concrete.

After scarification it's good to leave grass cutting on the lawn, to allow nutrients go back into soil.

Myself, I'm in the process of planting white clover, which is known as a 'green manure', because it feeds nitrogen to the grass. Clover, unlike grass, can take nitrogen directly from the air, and it's apparently fine in clay soil. It will also work out cheaper, having this natural fertiliser as opposed to buying bulk fertiliser.

http://www.versicolor.ca/lawns/docs/clover.html

I got my seeds here: (Rang 5 local garden centres and none had seeds)

http://www.dyg.ie/

planetX

NIMAN wrote: »

I have noticed driving around that many houses' gardens are very poor quality at present. Many are more yellow than green, and it appears that many are more thatch than grass. Wondering why so many lawns look so poor? The recent bad winters?

Thankfully my won isn't the worst, although it does have the odd section thats more pale looking than I'd like. In my previous house I used to have very dark green, luscious grass. Admittedly I did feed it a couple of times per year, but I have yet to do this in my new garden as its 0.5 acre and its many times bigger.

I have raked the smaller, more manageable front piece with a garden rake and de-thatched it a few times, and also spiked it all over with a fork to let it breathe. Can't really do that at the back as its too big. Thinking of investing in an electric scarifier for that.

Can anyone recommend a good quality feed to get the dark green colour back?

why not try leaving a patch without mowing? I did this on my yellow grassless lawn and ended up with a wildflower meadow full of orchids:D

Builderfromhell

NIMAN wrote: »

I posted in another thread about maybe buying a big bag of agri fertilizer from the local co-op, as I thought these guys would give better advice than a local hardware store, plus might have more idea of the NPK mix that I might need.

I then did a bit of internet reading, and the 1st bit said to go for BIG, SMALL, SMALL, in other words big N, low P, low K.

However a reply I got on the thread here said that maybe the opposite would suit better, as too much N and I'd be cutting too often.

I'll see if I can find the thread again.

Edit: here it is:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056638481

I'd be happy to cut the lawn once a week or so if it was green and healthy.

Atilathehun

Here is a farmers analysis of your problem. You need nitrogen to make grass grow and give it a good green colour. That is the first number on the bag. N
The second and third numbers are for phosphorous (P) and potassium (K).
You need a good reserve of these also in your soil to give your grass roots a proper supply of basic nutrients. When your soil has a propr supply of these two elements P and K, your nitrogen N will work much more effectively in promoting growth of good leafy grass.
Constant cutting of a lawn over time where the grass is gathered up and disposed of, depletes the reserves of P and K. If you were to leave some of the cuts on the lawn without gathering and removing, the grass would rot back in to the soil and promote the manufacture of "organic" matter. Essentially a feed of P and K.

A feed of 10-10-20 would be good for your lawn I imaging. Not too much nitrogen so you are cutting every second day, and a nice feed of P and K to get the fertility up.

Leave an occasional cut of the lawn to rot back in. Especially, at the end of the season. Nice feed in it's own right.

Builderfromhell

Thanks for that.

I would have thought leaving clumps of cut grass on lawn would encourage moss growth. I expect if cutting grass regularly then only small blades of grass would be left to rot down and these would not cause a problem

NIMAN

Atilathehun wrote: »

Here is a farmers analysis of your problem. You need nitrogen to make grass grow and give it a good green colour. That is the first number on the bag. N
The second and third numbers are for phosphorous (P) and potassium (K).
You need a good reserve of these also in your soil to give your grass roots a proper supply of basic nutrients. When your soil has a propr supply of these two elements P and K, your nitrogen N will work much more effectively in promoting growth of good leafy grass.
Constant cutting of a lawn over time where the grass is gathered up and disposed of, depletes the reserves of P and K. If you were to leave some of the cuts on the lawn without gathering and removing, the grass would rot back in to the soil and promote the manufacture of "organic" matter. Essentially a feed of P and K.

A feed of 10-10-20 would be good for your lawn I imaging. Not too much nitrogen so you are cutting every second day, and a nice feed of P and K to get the fertility up.

Leave an occasional cut of the lawn to rot back in. Especially, at the end of the season. Nice feed in it's own right.

Good info.

Fyi, I use a mulching rideon mower, so I never collect any cuttings. Always mulch. Is this acceptable? Should I ever take the mulching plug out and let the grass lie on the surface. I always assumed that mulching was like a natural fertilizer/feed.

If I was to buy a 10:10:20 mix, is it ok to just throw it around the garden by hand or is it important to spread it evenly i.e. would I need to buy a spreader?

Discodog

planetX wrote: »

why not try leaving a patch without mowing? I did this on my yellow grassless lawn and ended up with a wildflower meadow full of orchids:D

I once helped a friend who had moved into a house with a huge garden. We ended up cutting paths through the meadow grass & we added in some extra wild flowers - every visitor thought that it was the best part of the garden.

Bear in mind that there is a difference between using an agricultural fertiliser that is designed for rapid growth & a lawn fertiliser that needs to give a gentle long term release.