Newly seeded garden advice

joe123

Hey, so our back garden was recently rotavated and seeded etc.

So during the hot weather it was dry as a bone so tried to water it best I could. Its currently looking quite patchy in places and there are also a number of various weeds that look like doc leaves and the like.

Should be able to see a few picks here https://imgur.com/a/rZPVt1S

Top soil wasnt the best either as it had quite a lot of stones (I removed the bigger ones) Just wondering whats the best plan now for me to help the lawn. Should I pull all the doc like weeds or leave them? Should I cut the grass where its actually growing?

Would additional grass seeds help new grass grow in the patchier bits or is it over kill at this stage? Lawn was seeded roughly a month and a half ago at this stage.

Appreciate any advice.

GinSoaked

Thats looking fine. I've seen much worse turn out well.

First thing to do is stone pick, second is stone pick.

I'd leave that at least another week before cutting with a sharp mower blade (a blunt one tends to pull the new grass out) at about 75/80mm. If you cut next to nothing don't worry, do a couple of cuts at this height just to top the weeds off.

Once it thickens up a bit you can drop the height a to min of 50 mm and keep that height up till it thickens out a lot more tbh 50mm is a good height for most grass. People tend to cut much to short. Box the grass off. Don't worry about getting rid of the weeds till next year most will be gone by then. Once the grass covers the soil you can dig out any deep rooted weeds like docks.

NIMAN

Patience is indeed needed.

I asked a few questions too as I recently rotavated and reseeded a large area of my back garden.

I was watering daily before the hosepipe ban, and it was slow to come up, and I was asking about throwing on some feed. I was advised against this as it can apparently burn young grass. Told that before the seeding is the time to apply fertilizer to the soil.

But this last week or so it has really improved. So much so that I had to cut some of the thicker areas today at a high height. Really made it look the part.

btw, also has a large number of broad leaf weeds, and the OH has been weeding them out. I told her not to bother as once the grass takes hold and gets stronger, they will eventually not be an issue. And next season it will get a weed n feed too.

So stick with it. It will come, some seem to be slower than others

joe123

Cheers for the advice. On the stone picking, is there such thing as too much?

Over the last month I made two runs at picking the bigger ones but I notice that as time goes on, new stones come to the surface. I read somewhere that its good to leave stones in as it helps drainage.

GinSoaked

joe123 wrote: »

Cheers for the advice. On the stone picking, is there such thing as too much?

Over the last month I made two runs at picking the bigger ones but I notice that as time goes on, new stones come to the surface. I read somewhere that its good to leave stones in as it helps drainage.

You can't really overdo the surface stone picking once they are gone they are gone anything bigger than half inch gets picked. Plus its something to take your mind off getting the mower out and cutting it

Jofspring

Sorry to jump on this thread but I have also had a large garden rotovated and seeded. It's due it's first cut in about 2 works going by the growth so far. For the first cut though should you use a bag and collect the cuttings or not?

GinSoaked

Depends on the length, weather conditions and the type of lawn. While you should only be tipping (not even topping) the grass at this stage and shouldn't have much to collect its still worth collecting just to stop the crop from damaging the new grass. If its a huge area then maybe pick a really dry day and leave the crop on but if its in anyway noticeable then it could be damaging the new grass.

Jofspring

GinSoaked wrote: »

Depends on the length, weather conditions and the type of lawn. While you should only be tipping (not even topping) the grass at this stage and shouldn't have much to collect its still worth collecting just to stop the crop from damaging the new grass. If its a huge area then maybe pick a really dry day and leave the crop on but if its in anyway noticeable then it could be damaging the new grass.

Cheers. It's growing fairly well so I'd say I'll go with collecting it for now. Shouldn't be a huge pile to collect.

NIMAN

I'm no expert but I never thought of NOT collecting the grass.

My mower also mulches but my thinking was surely if you mulch the cuttings you are mulching the weeds and firing them back into the soil?

As for the stones, we had a lot of stones when it was rotovated and it was an absolute pain getting them all out. All shapes and sizes!
I too like you noticed that ones kept on appearing, I don't know how many times I thought to myself "Jez how'd I miss that in my last scan".

And it continues....after a new lift, ones would be there the next week. I put it down to birds moving them out of the soil when searching for worms or grubs.

But I lifted as many as I possibly could. When I did the cut the other day nothing was hit by blades or lifted by the mower, so that's that now I hope.

NIMAN

If it doesn't grow properly now, it'll not be for the lack of rain thats for sure.

looksee

NIMAN wrote: »

I'm no expert but I never thought of NOT collecting the grass.

My mower also mulches but my thinking was surely if you mulch the cuttings you are mulching the weeds and firing them back into the soil?

I can't think of any weeds (other than Japanese Knotweed) that would regenerate from bits of minced top growth, from that point of view you are safe to mulch.

GreeBo

NIMAN wrote: »

If it doesn't grow properly now, it'll not be for the lack of rain thats for sure.

Unless the seeds germinated already but then dried out and died...
This year was not great for sowing grass, it was very hot and dry and then we had a hosepipe ban. You could get lucky, but I'd wager most people didnt.
The bit of rain the last few days is more likely to encourage weeds in the bare patches than revive the grass.

looksee wrote: »

I can't think of any weeds (other than Japanese Knotweed) that would regenerate from bits of minced top growth, from that point of view you are safe to mulch.

Bindweed is another, but if thats in your lawn you are already fecked

However if your weeds have flowered and gone to seed, then you are indeed spreading those seeds around the garden.

I cut my new lawn areas with a manual cylinder mower once they get to 50mm and I dont bag, the little bit that comes off will help keep moisture in the lawn and wont prevent any other grass from seeding. If you are leaving piles of cut grass then you both left it too long to cut and are taking too much off!

Using straw/hay to protect seeds is a common practice, not bagging achieves the same thing without the effort.

NIMAN

looksee wrote: »

I can't think of any weeds (other than Japanese Knotweed) that would regenerate from bits of minced top growth, from that point of view you are safe to mulch.

Righteo, I might mulch the next time its due a cut.

looksee

GreeBo wrote: »

Unless the seeds germinated already but then dried out and died...
This year was not great for sowing grass, it was very hot and dry and then we had a hosepipe ban. You could get lucky, but I'd wager most people didnt.
The bit of rain the last few days is more likely to encourage weeds in the bare patches than revive the grass.



Bindweed is another, but if thats in your lawn you are already fecked

However if your weeds have flowered and gone to seed, then you are indeed spreading those seeds around the garden.

I cut my new lawn areas with a manual cylinder mower once they get to 50mm and I dont bag, the little bit that comes off will help keep moisture in the lawn and wont prevent any other grass from seeding. If you are leaving piles of cut grass then you both left it too long to cut and are taking too much off!

Using straw/hay to protect seeds is a common practice, not bagging achieves the same thing without the effort.

If you are cutting regularly they should not have time to go to seed. And bindweed will enthusiastically grow from the tiniest bit of root, but not from top growth, and as you say, bindweed doesn't tend to feature in lawns.

GreeBo

looksee wrote: »

If you are cutting regularly they should not have time to go to seed. And bindweed will enthusiastically grow from the tiniest bit of root, but not from top growth, and as you say, bindweed doesn't tend to feature in lawns.

True, but we are talking about new lawn/seed so they aren't frequently cut (in the beginning)

looksee

GreeBo wrote: »

True, but we are talking about new lawn/seed so they aren't frequently cut (in the beginning)

Fair point on the seeds, though I don't see bindweed as a problem in new lawns, it would soon get fed up and go and invade a flowerbed instead!

GreeBo

looksee wrote: »

Fair point on the seeds, though I don't see bindweed as a problem in new lawns, it would soon get fed up and go and invade a flowerbed instead!

Maybe I'm just lucky, I have it doing both!

I'm hoping frequent cutting and picking will defeat it, but I went digging one day and pulled up a bucket of ugly white roots, all from a tiny outcrop beside the lawn

Having some success with training it up bamboo and then spraying it though

GinSoaked

Bindweed is a pig to get rid of I read somewhere it takes at least 5 times as much glyphosate to kill is as any other weed.

I've been using a home made Roundup gel for a few years and painting it on and its made a massive difference, but it does take time and care. Frequent cutting only really multiplies the number of plants you have. Digging if you are careful is a good way to start but you never get all of it and break up roots spreading it around in the process so you need to follow up with more digging or spraying.

I've grown it up bamboo in the past when I had it in a globe artichoke bed and a massive herbaceous border. once the canes were well covered I used to slip them out by carefully twisting them and sliding the bindweed down the canes. With the canes out I'd tuck the growth into a ziplock bag with a nice strong glyphosate mix and zip it up as much as possible. That process allows you to get a lot of glyphosate into the bindweed without getting it on plants near by or plants that have bindweed well mixed up with their roots.