Overhauling lawn

Zardoz

I am just after doing a good bit of work on my lawn .
Its about 800 square yards .
It had alot of moss and thatch so I heavily scarified it about 3 weeks ago ( 3 passes with Aldi lawnraker ,I removed around 35 whellbarrow loads of crap )
I then applied iron sulphate to blacken and kill the moss,which it did very well.
A week later I applied potato fertiliser to help the grass recover.

The lawn looks alot better now and from a distance it looks very green but up close the grass is still patchy but not too bad .

I'm wondering should I overseed the lawn to try and thicken the grass or would a nitrogen rich fertiliser be a better option.
It could be hard to get the new seed to germinate,the lawn doesnt need any top dressing,its got a decent covering of grass.
I tried overseeding before and it was awkward to cut the lawn afterwards and it didnt seem to work well either but I wouldnt mind some new grass in the lawn as the existing stuff is probably a wild grass at this stage.

Any thoughts ?

redser7

You might be as well off leaving it as is and seeding in September. Summer will be over, growth slowing but the soil will be nice and warm and give you good germination of the grass seed. Let it grow on and give the lawn an autumn feed in early November. This will help the lawn get through the winter, forming strong roots. In spring the lawn will jump into life and you should have a great lawn next year.
Having said that you could feed now. And if cost isn't an issue get your sack seed and sow it in a couple of weeks. Don't be too precious about the new grass and expect a good bit of it to fail as you mow the existing grass and use your lawn. Over summer. But a certain amount will survive and help thicken the lawn.
Then do the autumn program in September for next yer.

Zardoz

redser7 wrote: »

You might be as well off leaving it as is and seeding in September. Summer will be over, growth slowing but the soil will be nice and warm and give you good germination of the grass seed. Let it grow on and give the lawn an autumn feed in early November. This will help the lawn get through the winter, forming strong roots. In spring the lawn will jump into life and you should have a great lawn next year.
Having said that you could feed now. And if cost isn't an issue get your sack seed and sow it in a couple of weeks. Don't be too precious about the new grass and expect a good bit of it to fail as you mow the existing grass and use your lawn. Over summer. But a certain amount will survive and help thicken the lawn.
Then do the autumn program in September for next yer.

Thanks redser,that sounds like great advice.

I think I'll try a light overseed now ,primarily for the barest areas and do another overseed in early September.
A 10kg bag of seed should be enough for now .

The reason I'd like to do it now is that the growing conditions are good .
Anytime in the past I have tried to scarify/seed grass no sooner have I done the scarifying than an unseasonal drought ensues ,its uncanny actually .
I scarified this year and it didnt rain for well over 2.5 weeks ,last time before that it was 5 weeks ,same before that .

I plan to put the seed down on the grass ,then roll it and water ,will that be ok ?

Would 10:10:20 be a suitable feed ?
I used 7/6/17 around 2 weeks ago and its done a good job.
The branded fertiliser for lawns is crazy money for larger lawns,grand if you have a small lawn but not practical for larger lawns.

Many thanks

redser7

Sounds fine to sow like that. Key thing is not to let the seed dry out and blow around. So ideally in the abscence of rain a light sprinkling each evening is needed. But that's a lot of work for you. Still, once germination is underway, the hard work is done.
I'd say there are others who could advise you better on large quantities of fertiliser. I ony have a small garden myself. But a fertiliser for now onwards would be heavier in N than P and K. Some people say it promotes too much growth but then some people like a lush green lawn and enjoy mowing it regularly

Zardoz

redser7 wrote: »

Sounds fine to sow like that. Key thing is not to let the seed dry out and blow around. So ideally in the abscence of rain a light sprinkling each evening is needed. But that's a lot of work for you. Still, once germination is underway, the hard work is done.
I'd say there are others who could advise you better on large quantities of fertiliser. I ony have a small garden myself. But a fertiliser for now onwards would be heavier in N than P and K. Some people say it promotes too much growth but then some people like a lush green lawn and enjoy mowing it regularly

Thanks redser
Appreciate the advice ,I'll start the overseeding tomorrow ,should be a few showers this week to wash it in .

Will hold off on the npk for a week or two ,give the potato fertiliser a chance to take full effect.

Zardoz

redser7 wrote: »

You might be as well off leaving it as is and seeding in September. Summer will be over, growth slowing but the soil will be nice and warm and give you good germination of the grass seed. Let it grow on and give the lawn an autumn feed in early November.

Bumping this up now .
I couldnt do any work on the lawn in September as the ground was just too hard and the grass was very yellowy after the dry summer.

Its greener now and I was wondering if it would be a good time for a light scarify and overseeding or is it too late in the year now ?