Improving the lawn quality in our new home (new build)

emmettu2

I would be grateful for any advice for improving the lawn quality in our new home.


Six months ago we moved into our new house (new build). The lawn was a bit patchy, with some gaps and some sections of yellow-ish grass. The soil was very soft to walk on.


I spread some new grass seeds throughout the lawn, and after a couple of months I cut the grass. The new seed seemed to grow stronger than the previous grass, and it is much greener.


At the end of October I applied some Evergreen Autumn Lawn Care to try to help with the yellow patches.


However, there are still some yellow patches.


What would you advise as the best way to improve the quality of the grass in the spring?

listermint

Any water logged patches in it? Around the yellow areas

mulbot

Doesn't look too bad, minecwas worse and after trying all the advice, methods the Only thing that worked for me was to apply 10 10 20 fertiliser. Have to cut the lawn twice a week though and possibly some extra weed growth(although I didn't experience thst). Other than that it really did the job for me, the lawn even stays nice and lush over the winter.

emmettu2

No water logged areas.

Thanks - that's very encouraging to hear. When do you think would be the best time to apply the 10 10 20 fertiliser?

mulbot

emmettu2 wrote: »

No water logged areas.

Thanks - that's very encouraging to hear. When do you think would be the best time to apply the 10 10 20 fertiliser?

I apply mine in Spring once it warms up a bit. Its strong enough fertiliser so I wait until the grass is starting to grow a bit, that way it's not just lying on the lawn with the risk of burning the grass

emmettu2

Great, thank you for your advice!

ErinGoBrath

emmettu2 wrote: »

Great, thank you for your advice!

Hi, you should check out Robbie's channel, he's brilliant

https://youtube.com/c/PremierlawnsniCoUk

emmettu2

Excellent videos - thank you!

emmettu2

It's been 4 months since my original post. I'd be grateful for some further advice.

I applied some fertilizer recommended by a local garden centre, as they said that would be better for a garden: Scott's Renovator Pro

I followed the instructions, but I feel like maybe I burned the lawn a bit as there was a lot of dead grass.

I raked away dead grass, spiked the lawn all over, removed any stones.

I did a soil test and it showed up as very acidic, so I applied some garden lime. That was about 1 month ago.

You can see the lawn is quite blotchy, not uniform at all.

I would love to have a uniform green throughout.

It seems to be similar in neighbouring gardens.

Grateful for your advice!

tDw6u1bj

A few very disordered thoughts...

I think maybe stop messing with it so much and let it do its thing?
Top picture looked like it was doing ok and it just needed another season to fill out a bit.
Second one I think can happen from too much fertiliser?

If I had to guess, I would say the patchiness on the top picture is from spreading the Evergreen Autumn Lawn Care unevenly

Also, maybe it needed to get cut a little more often. Adding a lot of fertiliser can kind of trap you in this where the lawn is growing great but because it's growing so fast you don't get to cut it as often as it needs and it suffers a bit.

emmettu2 wrote: »

Scott's Renovator Pro...I feel like maybe I burned the lawn a bit as there was a lot of dead grass.

This would be the iron-sulphate in that mix (which seems like a fairly normal moss/weed/feed product) - it'll blacken moss and thatch but leave the green parts of the plant extra green.

Both Scott's Renovator Pro and Evergreen Autumn Lawn Care you mentioned are similar products, both containing fert+iron sulphate. Both of these will increase soil acidity.

Do you have pets/does your garden get visits from them? Some of those extra green patches look like pet waste patches - especially the one in the fore-ground, that pattern of dead grass surrounded by lush green grass is classic.

_Brian

Does that product not include a weed killer too ??

From memory they don’t recommend using these products on lawns in their first year. You should check the package to confirm this.

If that’s the case it shouldn’t have been recommended and would
Have been very hard on the young grass.

blackbox

That looks quite good for a lawn less than a year old.

Maybe spread a little fertiliser, avoiding the dark green areas.

Water it if weather stays dry.

tDw6u1bj

_Brian wrote: »

From memory they don’t recommend using these products on lawns in their first year.

I'm not doubting that they write that on the packet for a reason, but I've sprayed dicophar a patch of lawn of a similar age (sown about the same time of year) without anything like what's shown above.

If you look around, you'll struggle to find too many healthy looking lawns this year. The weather has not been conducive. I'd just let it do its thing. A spring and summer feed is as much as I'd bother with for now and some water if it gets very dry.

JPup

Good advice so far. I’d add that in general a common mistake new gardeners make is to focus too much on the lawn. Unless you are the green keeper at the local golf course, does it really matter if it’s perfect? A few daisies never hurt anyone.

Try to look around the rest of your garden. We’ve only a zoomed in shot to go by but it seems you are still working with a blank canvas more or less. Try to get some plants in around the edges. Get a variety of heights. A small fruit tree would be a good start with a couple of shrubs. Pay a visit to your local garden centre and pick out some that you like. That’ll make much more of a positive impact on the garden than time spent on the lawn.

antix80

Disagree about focusing too much on the lawn. Grass keeps weeds away.
My advice would be

Do not cut grass too low,
mow on overcast days when it's not sunny
Overseed patches by raking out tatch, aerating soil with garden fork, dress with soil (spread with back of rake) seed and lightly rake it in (in the hopes birds won't see it)... It's not the time of year to do this as ground will be too dry
Other than that, use a weed and feed fertiliser.

aw

tDw6u1bj wrote: »

A few very disordered thoughts...

I think maybe stop messing with it so much and let it do its thing?
Top picture looked like it was doing ok and it just needed another season to fill out a bit.
Second one I think can happen from too much fertiliser?

Absolutely agree with this.
Nature needs time to do it's thing.

Friend of mine had the same problem. Obsessed over his lawn (not saying you do!) Was forever testing it and spreading stuff on it. Over-fertilized it and ruined it for the guts of a full year.

Leave it be for the summer, keep it trimmed once or twice a week if you can at about 2 inches. See how it is in September.
Then apply some MoBactor to it if it needs something. It's not just good for moss, it will tackle some of that thatch and it is an organic feed too.
Look at it again next April and see how it is then.

emmettu2

Thanks so much for all the advice! I really appreciate it!

emmettu2

I noticed today that the common green area in front of our houses looks to be suffering from what I assume is redthread lawn disease, as there are dense clusters of wirey red grass blades.

From what I read online, the early symptoms of that look similar to the current condition of my lawn (very dry grass, blotchiness, dying bits of grass). Is it possible that my lawn is suffering from the early stages of redthread lawn disease? If so, should I do something, or contact a professional?

Thanks!

Jim_Hodge

emmettu2 wrote: »

I noticed today that the common green area in front of our houses looks to be suffering from what I assume is redthread lawn disease, as there are dense clusters of wirey red grass blades.

From what I read online, the early symptoms of that look similar to the current condition of my lawn (very dry grass, blotchiness, dying bits of grass). Is it possible that my lawn is suffering from the early stages of redthread lawn disease? If so, should I do something, or contact a professional?

Thanks!

I very much doubt that it's redthread. It appears in late Summer or early Autumn and usually after a very wet summer.

It's also not a great problem and the grass generally recovers.

emmettu2

Great, thanks!