pj12332 wrote: » Hi everyone, I moved into a new build last year. Garden was basically a dump site. Dug it up, put down a good few tonnes of topsoil and seeded it. It grew in beautifully. Everything was great last summer. I put down a standard autumn fertilizer and left it alone. Come march it started growing back but it's completely different type of grass. I always used evergreen number 2 lawn seed. The new grass is long thick stalks almost with red at the base. See photo attached. Looks crap. A tiny pull and whole thing comes out of the soil. It leaves a massive gap though if I pull it up. My back garden I reseded identically and used the same soil and seed. It's growing lovely again. I've no idea whats happened. The front garden is completely patchy and is full of clumps of the attached photo. Am I going to have to go around and pull all of these clumps up and reseed? I don't see another way. Any advise appreciated.
magicbastarder wrote: » scutch grass/couch grass.
The Continental Op wrote: » OP cut regularly at a suitable height and that grass will disappear in a few years. That particular type of grass thrives when you cut irregularly and then try and make up for that by cutting really short. That damages the good grasses you want to grow far more than those course grasses you don't want. Not cutting often enough and leaving the grass to high also lets the course grasses grow away. Unfortunately lawns in Ireland need cutting at least once a week if you want them to look good. Edit> btw it looks to me like Annual Ryegrass (aka Italian Ryegrass) Lolium multiflorum, short lived grass (2 years?) so should go in time but regular mowing will help.
Zardoz wrote: » I agree with all of that. It looks like Annual Ryegrass to me. I have alot of it in my lawns too. I have fields bordering on my site so the seed easily blows in. I also had a temperamental lawnmower a few years ago that kept on breaking down, the result being that the grass got very long at times and it was awkward to get it down to a manageable height. I wouldn't have cut my grass short though, its usually 2-2.5 inches high. I dont think that coarse grass will tolerate being cut short, it will go yellow. I scarify the lawn every spring, and put down iron sulphate regularly to kill the moss, it also encourages finer grasses to grow. I've reseeded sections of the lawn, a full reseed would be a huge job over 1000sq metres. The ryegrass seems to grow quickly if you put fertiliser on it. I use this fertiliserhttps://www.headlandamenity.com/extend-24-4-4-granular-25kg Grass grows like mad though, you'd have to be at it every 5 days or otherwise it gets too long and you are taking off more than one third and you are back to square one.
Jim_Hodge wrote: » Isn't that fertiliser more suitable for coarse grasses?
legend99 wrote: » I have, exactly the same problem where I actually chanced the no 1 mix but I have that stuff as well. You can't get, as far as I know anyway, any selective herbicides that will take that stuff out and leave the grasses you want. Think options are to manually try to remove - and hope pieces of root don't take off again, or else full kill off with roundup and start again. Saw one of the US online channels do the full roundup one, but he actually watered the area then a week after the roundup to try to get any dormant weed grass seeds to grow. Then second roundup. Then same cycle again to again try to get anything at all to grow so the third dose of roundup could kill it. So like a 6 week process. Even he remarked that his neighbours would be thinking he was mad watering dead grass. The Ryan Knorr channel on YouTube. And selling that plan at home for me anyway would have them thinking I'm stone mad! Heir view: "but it's all green. What's the problem?!" Lockdown has a lot to answer for when you're out looking at individual grass plants.....!!
NIMAN wrote: » Another quick grass question for the lawn experts. Does anyone know why the grass under the trampoline goes very lush and green? I move the trampoline about the garden, so that the legs dont mark one area too much. But everytime it comes to moving it, I notice the grass underneath looks much better than the surrounding grass.
pj12332 wrote: » My guess is that it's not walked on. Simple as that!
Coralcoras wrote: » I think the grass is greener under trampolines because when slightly stressed due to lack of light it will draw on energy stored in its rootstock to grow taller and greener (more chlorophyll means more light energy uptake) aboveground. Long term the grass gets sparse and die out.
Coralcoras wrote: » Of course it could be a factor, but it's most. Likely nutrients from tree detritus falling down and better moisture conditions in that shade microclimate. Could be other factors at play, i.e soil microbial communities too. Honestly, just off the top of my head, but a somewhat educated guess.
CelticRambler wrote: » Can you explain to my shaded grass that it's supposed to get sparse and die out? I've just spent a week strimming the orchard (four passes, to get it down to mowable height) and year after year after year the grass in the most shaded part grows tallest, thickest and lushest. This shade is coming from half a dozen relatively young apple trees and half a dozen ancient oaks. I've come to the conclusion that the leafiness of the trees from Spring to Autumn protects the soil and the grass from worst effects of the sun.
standardg60 wrote: » Most likely acclimatization over the years, affected grasses die out and are replaced by those which thrive under such conditions
