Nice lawn! Looks much different than the gardens I'm used to seeing in London! Yours reminds me of the ones I've seen on the Cornish coast. Keep up the great work!

 

Soil test results!

 

Looking nice … Welcome to TLF :wave:

 

Thanks Powhatan and testwerke. Lots to do yet

Going to put lime down next, seems like I'll need about 45kg or 100lb of lime for my 75m2 or 800sqft reno area.
Hoping that'll get confirmed by someone in the soil fertility thread I posted

 

May as well ask while it crosses my mind...
KBG /smooth stalked meadow grass is not usually sold in the UK to public as a pure seed (mono stand?)
I saw others have succeeded but I've contacted and gotten nowhere with Germinal and DLF seed companies with regards to buying such a small amount of KBG seed that I wanted to use for my reno. One said try again in October, they might have some then :lol:
Anyway, there is a 85% KBG and 15% poa supina blend available which is 4 times the amount that I require.
https://germinalamenity.com/a31-supreme-tees

1. Does anyone have any experience with poa supina?

2. Would anyone in the UK be interested in buying the 5kg I'd have left over if I went ahead and bought this?

 

Based on soil test, and helpful info given in soil fertility thread, I carried out a few apps...

1. June 14th. Start to lower pH. 25kg lime over 150m²
Slight mistake here in that I put dolomite lime down instead of calcitic. :roll: (slightly misleading description, however, my fault for buying it and I wasn't going to mail it back). I'm not worried, the application rate wasn't heavy. I believe the grass seed will germinate in September regardless, and the added magnesium won't cause problems. pH won't increase much I know but didn't want to go crazy with lime all at the surface only 2 months before the reno. Further lime apps planned next year after we are more established with the new grass. I should be fine getting established with a pH of around 6.

2. June 16th. 3kg of 0-0-50 over 150m². Or 23g/m². Or 4.6lbs/ksqft
Went slightly over what I wanted to put down because I spread it by hand :bandit: I just chucked it down, send the spreader cops let's have a shootout :lol:
The ground has slopes I have to deal with especially at the front, so a push spreader won't work, neither is the area big enough to warrant getting one. Maybe I need one of those small plastic thingamajig hand spreaders. Meh

Put some glyphosphate on a small area in front lawn that needs tidying. There are bluebells there that smother the grass each spring.

Cheerio

 

The ground has slopes I have to deal with especially at the front, so a push spreader won't work, neither is the area big enough to warrant getting one. Maybe I need one of those small plastic thingamajig hand spreaders. Meh

They are definitely worth it IMHO. I use mine a lot. You can apply small amounts of seed, fertilizer, etc. in a small area evenly. They're great for giving small areas that extra little bit of TLC that's needed.

 

BTW, your yard looks beautiful! I love the balance between the gardens and lawn areas. You have diverse plantings with your layout, which really works nicely for an overall presentation. Welcome to TLF, Mark!

 

BTW, your yard looks beautiful! I love the balance between the gardens and lawn areas. You have diverse plantings with your layout, which really works nicely for an overall presentation. Welcome to TLF, Mark!

Hey Chris, that's real kind of you to say so, thanks!

 

OK, time for some recent pics...

Fescue blend I'm working with until reno Aug/Sept2019



I like this angle, I think I'll use this one to keep track of progress



Compost heap area before tidying with a bit of 3x3 and a few deck boards. #magichappenshere



View from bedroom

 

Bought a Scotts wizz spreader o yes!

Mid July. Thought it would be a good idea to scarify the reno area (back lawn) to clear some debris and dead grass from the surface area of this 50 year old grass/weed mix. Should have used the dethatcher attachment (thinner tines) rather than the blades because it probably wouldn't have been quite so invasive! Who cares, its being reno'd but anyway it left patchy grass with plenty of dead looking areas. Probably would have been better to apply the roundup/glykill to very well growing grass. Hey, I'm not stewing over it. Its recovered some.



July 18th. Put down 2nd soil ammendment app of sulphate of potash 0-0-50 at 4lbs/K or 20g/m2.
Urea app at 2lbs/K or 10g/m2. Trying to pop any green growth before a glyphosphate reno.

 

Glyphosphate went down this evening

 

My glyphosphate was a 36% I believe. 360g/L. https://www.pitchcare.com/shop/professional-weed-killers-for-japanese-knotweed/rosate-360-tf-5l-glyphosate.html
Doesn't seem to have had a thourough effect...









I put 50ml in a 5 litre pump sprayer and evenly coated 75m2 a week ago. Conversion is 1.7fl oz over 800sq ft.
I havn't scalped as its been so damn wet with rain! However, do you think its a normal kill? Have I applied too weak a solution? What should I do next?
edit: it didn't rain for 36 hours after application

 

@TheWhiteWizard Hello again. Glad to see a fellow Brit here.

Your glyphosphate rate looks almost exactly what I used. I used the Elixir Barclay Gallup stuff from amazon, same 360g/l but 24ml per 1 Litre to cover 40 square meters. Maybe your dilution rate is the issue? Probably safe to reapply again. Although I haven't seen my lawns in 8 days as am on holiday!

Will you turf cut afterwards?

Pitchcare are great, buy my supplies from there also. Andy is very helpful. Going to buy their topsoil for the renovation, they buy from Baileys of Norfolk. Worth looking into if you don't have a supplier.

Also, post some images of the pots when you can. I'm interested in the excess seeds if the colour of the grass looks good.

 

@TheWhiteWizard Hello again. Glad to see a fellow Brit here.

Your glyphosphate rate looks almost exactly what I used. I used the Elixir Barclay Gallup stuff from amazon, same 360g/l but 24ml per 1 Litre to cover 40 square meters. Maybe your dilution rate is the issue? Probably safe to reapply again. Although I haven't seen my lawns in 8 days as am on holiday!

You are probably right about the dilution rate, don't know why I decided on 5 litres of water lol. I'll reapply tomorrow when we have a forecasted 24 hour+ period of dry weather with 50ml in 2 litres.

Managed to scalp and bag yesterday.
Also popped 5g/m2 or 1lb/M of urea down during this fallow stage trying to encourage anything that wants to pop its head up so I can kill it before seeding. I've noticed daisies, dandilions and dock weeds pushing that the old grass was obviously suppressing.

Will you turf cut afterwards?

No, just use a dethatcher to get the dead grass up and the soil exposed and roughed up a bit so I can get good seed to soil contact.

Also, post some images of the pots when you can. I'm interested in the excess seeds if the colour of the grass looks good.

Okey dokey! I grow plenty of things in pots but nothing has me more excited than these grass testers! :lol:
Day 3

 

In other news, as in the project referred to in my first post, heres some recent pictures.
Weeds were seemingly tough to kill in this area. The Scotts Weedol clopyralid and fluroxipyr did ok with the dandylions but only 2 applications of Dicophar 2-4D and dicamba cleared up the heal all (prunela vulgaris)

A few apps of SOP and quite a bit of organic chicken manure have been put down. Urea is now being applied evry other week at a 5g/m² or 1lb/1000sqft rate.
There is not a lot of topsoil in this whole area.
Moss is a problem in a few heavily compacted areas.
Ferrous sulphate applications at 4g/m² or 13oz/1000sqft blackened the moss (not the grass at all) and that was raked out after a week. More ferrous sulphate was applied 4 weeks later at 2g/m² or 6.5oz/1000sqft to suppress/kill remaining moss spores. The chewings fescue mix handled the iron rates just fine.
Edit: the ferrous sulphate used is 20% iron so that's 0.8g/m² or 2.6oz/M of iron for the first moss killing app followed by half that 4 weeks later.
A liquid humic/seaweed and phosphite is being sprayed monthly too.

Manual aeration with a garden fork over heavier compacted areas has been carried out this week.

Pics
14th June (Plenty of the self heal weed in the lawn!)



16th July



8th August
someone left it grow too long...

 

@TheWhiteWizard Hi Mark,

Just got back from a 10 day holiday and took a look at the Tetris KBG and Rye pots. Images below. The lone pot with darker leaves is my Tetris test. The others are a blend of Rye.

Thought you might want to see how they look after 10 days of neglect. The Tetris pot is now 3.5 weeks old and I trimmed a little off the top. Do you think it will darken with time? Also the Tetris seeds I have are more than a year old! I'm keen to see how your test looks.

Tetris (Rubix) KBG


Tetris on the left. Rye on the right. Surprised how badly the Rye looks already

 

@TheWhiteWizard Hi Mark,

Just got back from a 10 day holiday and took a look at the Tetris KBG and Rye pots. Images below. The lone pot with darker leaves is my Tetris test. The others are a blend of Rye.

Thought you might want to see how they look after 10 days of neglect. The Tetris pot is now 3.5 weeks old and I trimmed a little off the top. Do you think it will darken with time? Also the Tetris seeds I have are more than a year old! I'm keen to see how your test looks.

Hope your hols went well @RCUK!

I like how you managed to put the pots on a water retaining mat while you were away, clever!

I'm certainly no expert on how things should look at this stage but I reckon both the kbg and the rye look about right. The new grass you have in these pots haven't had enough time to mature into the adults which will get a fair bit darker. When I've filled in bare patches in my lawn in the past, the new grass looks lime green in comparison to the mature surrounding grass. The Galleon rye seed looks great on paper, hope you have success with it mate. 8.4 and 8.2 on the green ratings!

Maybe some of the other forum guys could have an input on their opinions?
You could possibly start a cool season thread about it if you wanted.

I have some babies after 5 days! I'm super excited lol
These are the 85% tetris kbg and 15% supreme poa supina blend

 

@TheWhiteWizard Nice! That germination rate is fast, did you pre soak them?

If the offer is still open about sharing seed (for a price ofc) pm me.

Unfortunately no galleon available from Germinal. The rye in the pictures is double, esquire and Berlioz from DLF. Not so keen on the colour tbh.

Looking forward to seeing your progress!

 

Ooo that's easy! (That's my first pic posted straight off my phone haha)

Well, what a difference a day makes.

Seems like the first round of gly was put on grass that was a bit too long. Possibly 4-6 inches in places. Didn't get a great kill, however it sure did plenty of damage!
Yesterday was 2nd round of gly. I must've been walking a fair bit slower this time because I wanted to have a better kill than the first round. And so, I ended up putting 100ml this time versus 50ml the first time.
Mentioned above that I scalped after first gly app. My bad, I did not scalp, I had the rotary on the middle setting.
Managed to scalp today and dethatch, one whole day after 2nd round of gly.
(Question. Can the killed grass be added to the compost pile?
Edit: Yes.
I have damaged my grass before by top dressing with home made compost that contained 6 month old grass clippings that had been treated with clopyralid and fluroxypyr - as per the active ingredients in Weedol lawn weedkiller).

I finished with an application of ferrous sulphate at a moss killing rate of 4g/m², which is 0.8g/m² or 2.6oz/M of actual iron as the product used is 20% iron. Applied because there was moss lurking under the grass after I had used the dethatcher.

 

Take a look at the following 2 pics, please give me any input you like, there is a question below...
It was my first attempt at a double diamond cut but the rotary mower used has no striping kit. The HOC was lowered a notch, maybe from 3 1/2 inches to 3 inches.
Sorry for the lack of a close up picture, I must get used to taking those too.





We are coming out of summer now, the temps are currently around 18C or 64F.
I feel that there is dead grass in there causing a greyish brown hue. Is that a probability or are there other things I should be considering?
Option 1. I'm thinking of taking the HOC down to 2 inches next cut and dethatching before an overseed.
Option 2. Fall blitz

 

Between 3 and 2 inches there is 2.5 . Lawn looks a bit tired. Give it some N before going further down. Fast release should show if the grass likes it. And a stripping kit makes a huge difference. At 3 inches during the short Canadian summer.

 

I don't know what it is like to endure a summer where you are, but I would say that hue is pretty common for fescue during the summer. If it is greyish, then the issue could be water, but what I see in your pictures looks more like either heat stress or possibly disease. It is very difficult to tell, so take that impression for what it's worth. There is some guesswork involved, even in my own yard where I can examine everything.
But in general, when there are spots like that, I think of a variety of causes: water, heat, disease, insects, compaction, sub-surface rocks, nutrient deficiency.

All of that being said, I think it is looking good for a fescue lawn that has been through a summer. And I like the mowing pattern.
If I am getting ready to overseed, I don't apply any nitrogen because I don't want too much growth from existing grass while my seed is germinating and trying to establish.

Again, I'm not familiar with your growing conditions; that's just how the lawn looks to me from where I'm growing :thumbup:

 

Thank you @Babameca and @social port
You both mentioned nutrient deficiencies as a possibility and I feel you are correct. I put 5g/m² of urea on it a couple of days ago and I will be able to look at this area later this evening to see how it's doing.
Also put 10g/m² of SOP 0-0-50.
We've had weather that's dry and hot, some days reaching 32C so after that particular cut it was probably dry and tired.
There isn't much depth of soil here, maybe 4 to 6 inches so things like drying soil and nutrition deficiency happen quickly if that makes sense. There is only manual irrigation available.
I didn't want to go too heavy on the N because I'm still unsure what route to take next week.
I've come up with either
1. Shock and scalp to 2 inches, dethatch and overseed with some kbg I have or
2. Do the fall blitz and see if that helps this chewings, fine fescue mix

 

@TheWhiteWizard Spent 3 months (July-September) in Aberdare in 2008. Had one sunny weekend in total... 32 is scorching hot for you guys.