Hi all.
Just thought I'd create a thread to document my progress through my lawn restoration project.
So a bit of background on the lawn. Not sure on total size roughly around 300 square metres ( sorry for the metric measurements I'm in new zealand)
The main section I have started on was the main square at the back of the property which is 140sqm - think that's about 1500sqft.
So anyway as im sure most you know that life happens and I neglected the lawn. It became more of a chore mowing weekly than actually enjoying it until one day something changed after I saw a really good looking lawn and decided to jump in and get my hands dirty.
I do not have any landscaping experience or knowledge of lawn care. I took a step back amd noticed the lawn had alot spot of Brown bare patches. So in my state of noobness I figured "well, watering once a day for an hour should do it", 2 weeks later of daily 60min watering nothing changed. So I took a closer look and noticed that when water was applied, it just seemed to pond on top and hang around before eventually draining away in uneven spaces. After looking a bit closer I realised I could not see any soil between the grass blades and just a layer of dry dense matter, and MOSS! Moss for days. As well as being riddled with clover and other nasties I decided to take action. Trip to the store and time to spray the weeds. After a bout a week i noticed the clover and MOSS retreating. Left it for another week and decided to dethatch...manually....needless to say my 27year old back was not pleased. Anyway I removed 3x 1 cubic meter bags full of moss and dead matter and the weeds that had released themselves and was left with bare patches but the overall lawn looked like it could breathe a bit better. I decided to let the remaining grass recover for a few days as I assumed the scarifying take wasa bit brutal. Then came out the fertilizer (12-3-5 + 1.5FE)and some seed to overseed the lawn. Fert and seed went down, 2 days later, no seed left thanks to our avian friends. So back to the store and more seed bought with a bird repellent added (like I mentioned earlier I have no idea what I'm Doing, I am yet to identify what species of grass I have or how many species mixed in). Seed went down and to this day still has not taken, guess it's my error for throwing down seed in the middle of summer with 30deg Celsius daily temps. Anyway I wont let this post drag on for too much longer than it already has. But after a week of adding the first dose of fert I added another just as a precaution. And a week later, another dose. Maybe too much I dont know. You can see below the before and after images up to now. I believe there is a long ways to go but it's a start....
Before pic was taken on 16 January 2018 and after was the 31 January 2018.
Just thought I'd create a thread to document my progress through my lawn restoration project.
So a bit of background on the lawn. Not sure on total size roughly around 300 square metres ( sorry for the metric measurements I'm in new zealand)
The main section I have started on was the main square at the back of the property which is 140sqm - think that's about 1500sqft.
So anyway as im sure most you know that life happens and I neglected the lawn. It became more of a chore mowing weekly than actually enjoying it until one day something changed after I saw a really good looking lawn and decided to jump in and get my hands dirty.
I do not have any landscaping experience or knowledge of lawn care. I took a step back amd noticed the lawn had alot spot of Brown bare patches. So in my state of noobness I figured "well, watering once a day for an hour should do it", 2 weeks later of daily 60min watering nothing changed. So I took a closer look and noticed that when water was applied, it just seemed to pond on top and hang around before eventually draining away in uneven spaces. After looking a bit closer I realised I could not see any soil between the grass blades and just a layer of dry dense matter, and MOSS! Moss for days. As well as being riddled with clover and other nasties I decided to take action. Trip to the store and time to spray the weeds. After a bout a week i noticed the clover and MOSS retreating. Left it for another week and decided to dethatch...manually....needless to say my 27year old back was not pleased. Anyway I removed 3x 1 cubic meter bags full of moss and dead matter and the weeds that had released themselves and was left with bare patches but the overall lawn looked like it could breathe a bit better. I decided to let the remaining grass recover for a few days as I assumed the scarifying take wasa bit brutal. Then came out the fertilizer (12-3-5 + 1.5FE)and some seed to overseed the lawn. Fert and seed went down, 2 days later, no seed left thanks to our avian friends. So back to the store and more seed bought with a bird repellent added (like I mentioned earlier I have no idea what I'm Doing, I am yet to identify what species of grass I have or how many species mixed in). Seed went down and to this day still has not taken, guess it's my error for throwing down seed in the middle of summer with 30deg Celsius daily temps. Anyway I wont let this post drag on for too much longer than it already has. But after a week of adding the first dose of fert I added another just as a precaution. And a week later, another dose. Maybe too much I dont know. You can see below the before and after images up to now. I believe there is a long ways to go but it's a start....
Before pic was taken on 16 January 2018 and after was the 31 January 2018.
