Field grass in lawn

Brego888

Have a 2 year old garden with a new build house.
Was a total mess on moving in with poor soil and scattered grass seed.
Got it looking fairly well last summer with plenty of tlc, overseeding, feeding etc.



Now this year I've a lot of coarse field/meadow type grass all over the garden with seed stalks growing back very quickly after cutting.





Any advice on what to do here or how to get rid of it?
I am right next to fields and farmland so not surprising.

Fann Linn

Brego888 wrote: »

Have a 2 year old garden with a new build house.
Was a total mess on moving in with poor soil and scattered grass seed.
Got it looking fairly well last summer with plenty of tlc, overseeding, feeding etc.



Now this year I'll a lot of coarse field/meadow type grass all over the garden with seed stalks growing back very quickly after cutting.





Any advice on what to do here or how to get rid of it?
I am right next to fields and farmland so not surprising.

Looks really well.

Brego888

Fann Linn wrote: »

Looks really well.

First image is last summer. Doesn't look so well now with all this invading grass!

Hobby farmer

I see what you mean with the stalky meadow type grass. I have a similiar issue in my lawn, oddly just on the front lawn which seems to have lots of different varieties. I just keep it cut regularly. Btw your lawn looks really well, very lush and green.

listermint

Wouldn't regular mowing and pulling up and bits you don't like by hand solve this ?

Robot mower being the least amount of effort

Note you won't be able to avoid other grasses in your lawn. It's open to elements and birds . That's just the nature of gardens

Brego888

Too much to pull up by hand. It's everywhere.

RonanC

It looks like Poa Annua. In the unlikely event you can get your hands on a pre-emergent your best bet is to pull by hand and to bag your clippings to reduce the amount of seeds that will germinate in autumn and next spring.

JPup

I can't help you with your query on the grass, but my two cents for what their worth is that people can focus far too much on the lawn at the expense of the rest of the garden. I'd be inclined to let the grass be, keep it mowed regularly and don't mind the odd weed here and there.

I suggest painting the garden walls something like a dark green or maybe even sky blue. Then planting all up along the walls. Add in a variety of heights. The garden is big enough to take a small tree. While the grass looks great in that first photo from last year, otherwise the garden is very bare. No offence intended.

Brego888

No offence taken. As I said it's a new build new garden so doing things one step at a time.
Walls are getting plastered in 2 weeks and garden is full of toys at the minute with 2 very small kids at home!
Won't be doing a huge amount of planting until they get a bit older bar a few hanging baskets this summer.

Jim_Hodge

I wouldn't be concerned. All grasses send up flower/seed stalks. Keep it regularly mown. It's fine,

Regular mowing and a feed in spring and summer will look after most weeds.

Once you get planting, you'll notice the lawn less. If you do plant, you'll need to put in loads of organic matter and probably top soil as you likely have a very shallow base there.

Best of luck. You have a great canvass to work on there.

thejaguar

Deleted User wrote: »

Regular mowing and a feed in spring and summer will look after most weeds.

Is there anything in particular that's recommended for feeding - or is it just whatever's going in Woodies around this time of year (4in1 type stuff)

krissovo

listermint wrote: »

Wouldn't regular mowing and pulling up and bits you don't like by hand solve this ?

Robot mower being the least amount of effort

Note you won't be able to avoid other grasses in your lawn. It's open to elements and birds . That's just the nature of gardens

This is great advice if you want to keep a manicured lawn.

Your lawn looks great, just keep it regularly cut, fed and weeded and you should be in good shape. The more you cut the better it will look but it will always be contaminated by the "farm grass". I have a silage field on 3 sides of my lawn so I gave up on the perfect lawn after 4 years as it could almost take over your life.

I now use a robot since last year and it keeps the grass in good shape with little or no effort. My lawn is 10 years old now and looks great from a distance as its constantly cut. If you look at my 2nd photo you can the contamination up close. The lighter color but heavier "farm grass" plus a mix of clover and other crap.

JPup

Brego888 wrote: »

No offence taken. As I said it's a new build new garden so doing things one step at a time.
Walls are getting plastered in 2 weeks and garden is full of toys at the minute with 2 very small kids at home!
Won't be doing a huge amount of planting until they get a bit older bar a few hanging baskets this summer.

It can be difficult when the kids are small, but you'll thank yourself later if you just even put in one plant a year. Say add a nice magnolia this year into one of the corners. Then next year add a different plant. Eventually the garden will develop nicely.

You know the saying the best time to have planted something is 20 years ago (or 10, 50, 100, whatever is appropriate for the plant in question) and the second best time is now. Do your future self a favour and do little bits here and there when you can.

krissovo

thejaguar wrote: »

Is there anything in particular that's recommended for feeding - or is it just whatever's going in Woodies around this time of year (4in1 type stuff)

Evergreen 4in1 will have the lawn looking Heineken green and really thicken up your lawn but it will need cutting more than once a week as it really promotes growth.

If you have Coop or Glambia farm store near you they have decent generic products that are much cheaper and do a similar job with the same or similar NPK ratio's

Brego888

Brego888 wrote: »

No offence taken. As I said it's a new build new garden so doing things one step at a time.
Walls are getting plastered in 2 weeks and garden is full of toys at the minute with 2 very small kids at home!
Won't be doing a huge amount of planting until they get a bit older bar a few hanging baskets this summer.

I have a one and a two year old and have put loads of planting in since we moved into our place two years ago. Raised beds and pots are your friend. Borders are pointless as they will just walk into them and trample the planting, and once they start kicking ball everything will get wrecked. I built them their own play area and they have their own planting and digging area and they know not to damage the plants now. Get them involved and encourage them to muck in - my pair love it and my two year old is mad into it now. Few casualties along the way but it's not as hard as you'd imagine.

Roadtoad

Isn't it lovely . Say it loud and often, affecting Éanna Ní Lamhna's lovely Louth accent.

_Brian

There’s nothing really you can do. Keep it mowed and enjoy it.

Hocus Focus

There are different blends of grass seed sold for different purposes; some produce a very fine lawn which is very susceptible to damage and others are designed to produce a more hard-wearing effect for areas where there will be foot traffic. What you seem to have is the latter, which is fortunate for you, as you mention that you have two small kids who will inevitably cause wear and tear as they grow. All you need to do is keep it mown and occasionally fed and it will look fine.

NIMAN

On this topic, does anyone know why my sections of my garden is showing this type of grass?

It was re-sown last year, and to be honest the section of the garden it in would be damp-ish.

But the seed I bought was definitely lawn seed, so I expected a better quality grass from it.

It has big long shoots of grass coming from central point, and its quite coarse.

1st photo, showing a section of it
[IMG][/img]Grass issue? by S, on Flickr


And a 2nd photo, showing a close-up

[IMG][/img]Grass issue 2? by S, on Flickr

Jim_Hodge

NIMAN wrote: »

On this topic, does anyone know why my sections of my garden is showing this type of grass?

It was re-sown last year, and to be honest the section of the garden it in would be damp-ish.

But the seed I bought was definitely lawn seed, so I expected a better quality grass from it.

It has big long shoots of grass coming from central point, and its quite coarse.

It's just one of the species in the mix and it's seeding. Quite normal. Keep it well trimmed.

NIMAN

Many thanks.