Convert meadow into lawn.

yorlum11

Looking for advice from farming biardsies. I have started to reclaim an over grown meadow that is reasonably flat. I now have it down and am able to mow it.
Problem I have is rushes, briars and some small tree shoots. I can dig out roots but was wondering if there is a weedkiller that would leave me with just grass?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

vermin99

Have a look at graze on 90.Kills nearly all weeds but will leave the grass fine.Costly though!

MickeyShtyles

vermin99 wrote: »

Have a look at graze on 90.Kills nearly all weeds but will leave the grass fine.Costly though!

€60 ish for the 1L.
Think it'll do 10knapsacks.
Don't think any of the rest are allowed for knapsack use. Mortone/mcpa/2.4-D

These are the ones yer more likely able to get. The rest of the sprays would generally be for professional use only.

Nekarsulm

Roundup all the way. The wildgrasses in your meadow will be useless for a lawn, so kill them all off and start from scratch.
If you have nettles, you will need to hit them with Nettleban, as Roundup won't touch them.

djmc

Yep round up or Gallup then power harrow and reseed.
I have a lawn and thinking of turning into a meadow no time for maintaining it.

yorlum11

djmc wrote:

Yep round up or Gallup then power harrow and reseed. I have a lawn and thinking of turning into a meadow no time for maintaining it.

It's not my main lawn just on one side of road at entrance to house so I'm not too keen on reseeding it. Hoping to rid it of weeds and briars and just keep it cut. Cheers for all the advice.

kerryjack

yorlum11 wrote: »

It's not my main lawn just on one side of road at entrance to house so I'm not too keen on reseeding it. Hoping to rid it of weeds and briars and just keep it cut. Cheers for all the advice.

Can you use a lawn mower on it if you can just keep mowing it every week and you will be surprised how nice it will turn out after a while . You can use any broad leaf weed killer after a bit but regular cutting will get rid of a lot of them.

_Brian

yorlum11 wrote: »

It's not my main lawn just on one side of road at entrance to house so I'm not too keen on reseeding it. Hoping to rid it of weeds and briars and just keep it cut. Cheers for all the advice.

I converted a piece similar to yourself for a small orchard area. I used grazon90 on some weeds and mcpa on others. It's fairly weed free now and honestly I'm not too fussy about a few weeds even in my lawn. For me I'm happy with a garden rather than a lawn, it mows fine with the ride on and it's flat enough for the kids to run about - it's not like I'm practicing my putting for a golf career.
The grass it a bit coarser than a fine lawn, it grows a bit wild looking if left. But for the average Joe there is no real need with ploughing harrowing and then trying to keep it 100% weed free.

yorlum11

_Brian wrote:

I converted a piece similar to yourself for a small orchard area. I used grazon90 on some weeds and mcpa on others. It's fairly weed free now and honestly I'm not too fussy about a few weeds even in my lawn. For me I'm happy with a garden rather than a lawn, it mows fine with the ride on and it's flat enough for the kids to run about - it's not like I'm practicing my putting for a golf career. The grass it a bit coarser than a fine lawn, it grows a bit wild looking if left. But for the average Joe there is no real need with ploughing harrowing and then trying to keep it 100% weed free.

kerryjack wrote:

Can you use a lawn mower on it if you can just keep mowing it every week and you will be surprised how nice it will turn out after a while . You can use any broad leaf weed killer after a bit but regular cutting will get rid of a lot of them.

That's exactly it lads. I wont be bowling on it. I now have the ride on mowing it now and happy with a nice green area with a few undulations. Will use broad leaf weedkiller as advised. Just nice to have it back looking green and inviting.

yorlum11

2 days after spraying Grazon I can see it working. I will cut after 28 days. Now I have a few clumps of rushes I need to tackle. So what's my best option? Cheers for a the help.

_Brian

yorlum11 wrote: »

2 days after spraying Grazon I can see it working. I will cut after 28 days. Now I have a few clumps of rushes I need to tackle. So what's my best option? Cheers for a the help.

If there aren't much rushes just spot spray them with roundup, get as little into surrounding grass as possible as it kills everything it touches.

MCPA would be selective for spraying rushes if there is much ground covered I'd go this route.

Bass Reeves

_Brian wrote: »

If there aren't much rushes just spot spray them with roundup, get as little into surrounding grass as possible as it kills everything it touches.

MCPA would be selective for spraying rushes if there is much ground covered I'd go this route.

yorlum11 wrote: »

2 days after spraying Grazon I can see it working. I will cut after 28 days. Now I have a few clumps of rushes I need to tackle. So what's my best option? Cheers for a the help.

It depends on wheather you have bull rush or wire rush. Bull rush is the most common it is an olive green rush that the tips go brown in the summer. it is a bigger rush than the wire rush. The wire rush gets much more brown during the summer and even stays that way for the winter. The wire rush will not be killed by MCPA. Roundup will kill it. However if you intend to cut this continually this will really weaken rushed. If you only have a few you can get a hand held week licker and put round up on them.

my3cents

Just keep cutting, leaving it 28 days after spraying will just mess up any gains you get from regular cutting. Leave it a week between sprays and if you are bagging off don't put the grass on the compost for obvious reasons.

Lawns work because the grasses that survive cutting will even eventually prevail over grasses and weeds that don't. If you leave it 28 days then you are missing out on 3-4 cuts that could be helping to remove the courser grass species and larger weeds.

yorlum11

my3cents wrote:

Lawns work because the grasses that survive cutting will even eventually prevail over grasses and weeds that don't. If you leave it 28 days then you are missing out on 3-4 cuts that could be helping to remove the courser grass species and larger weeds.

my3cents wrote:

Just keep cutting, leaving it 28 days after spraying will just mess up any gains you get from regular cutting. Leave it a week between sprays and if you are bagging off don't put the grass on the compost for obvious reasons.

I get your point and I would be of the same thinking but on the Grazon directions it recommends leaving it to let the weedkiller work it's way to the roots. I can see the weeds wilting already so hopefully will only have grass to cut after that.

Markcheese

Just keep mowing it .
Theres not much other than grass that'll put up with being mowed once a week.
If you know someone with a chain harrow get them to give it a good scratch up later in the year ( early sept when you know rains coming) , spread your lawn seed of choice ,get it well rolled in and wait for rain... keep mowing it lightly and its all sorted ...