Help. I haven't got a clue!!

[jackrmee]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to this forum and also to gardening, but I would like to start tidying up the place and doing a little something to make the garden look presentable.

I don't have a large garden and I have never really bothered with it. Until now, I used to pay a neighbour £5 to strim the lawn every now and again and that was it.

I hadn't really noticed but the grass was getting worse and worse and the weeds were becoming more and more, until the was hardly any grass left.

I decided to sort it out so, without any advice, I bought some grass seed and skimmed all the top layer off so it was mud, but then I got ill and before I knew it, it had regrown twice as bad. (I have added a few pictures of what it's like now). There are huge thistles, mutant dock leaves, a large sheet of clover type things, some nettles and more. The only thing I don't have growing there is grass haha.

Ok, thanks for reading my story. Now I would like to ask for some advice.

I have skimmed the top off again to leave the earth (please see final photo). I am aware that all the roots are still there.

Should I just use a fork to turn all the soil over and rip up all the roots, or do also I need to treat it with something before applying grass seeds? (please bear in mind, I do not have much money spare so I'd like to do this as cheaply as possible).

I do not have a large area to treat as I want to make a border around the lawn too.

Thanks

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[jackrmee]

How come no-one is answering? I am in desperate need of some advice. PLEEEEEEEEASE!!

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[songbird]

what is there to say, if it is a small space, just keep spraying glyphosate on anything green that comes up and eventually you'll get it all dead. space out your sprayings by a few weeks and keep it watered during the dry spells to keep the weeds from going dormant.

then reseed the surface (but disturb the soil as little as possible) and keep it watered as recommended by the seed company.

trim appropriately and keep it weeded. some deep rooted plants may keep trying to come up for several years. spot treat them or just keep cutting them off as they grow eventually they give up.

don't bother putting the border and decorations in right away as it's pretty likely the weeds will come up through it anyways.

songbird

[trader4]

For that size space and especially given that you're moving into summer, I would definitely not be seeding. If you want to establish turf now, buy sod or whatever it is you folks in the UK call grass that you buy that is already green and growing. The best time for seeding is Fall, when you have declinint temps, far less competition from weeds, less watering reqt, etc. You can also do it in early Spring if you have to, but now is the worst time.

As suggested, kill whatever is there with glyphosate, (Roundup or equiv and NOT the extended length product). I'd apply it at 5% which should kill everything in one shot in about 10 days. Then you can prep the soil and lay the sod. Testing the soil for at least PH would be a good idea too.

[Red]

Agreed, but with one addition: prior to laying sod he needs to "fork the soil" and rake it smooth so that the new sod has a loose base for the roots.

The Brits like to inquire in this forum, but to my knowledge I have never known them to identify their grass type. I assume with their latitude it's probably fescue of some type. Does fescue come in sod squares?

[trader4]

I also would think that in the UK they are probably using fescue, bluegrass, and.or rye, just as we would in the northern parts of the US. Here in NJ tall fescue is frequently used as part of sod together with bluegrass.

As you point out, many of the people posting here fail to identify what kind of grass they have or even where they are located. The advice for someone in Miami is going to be different than for someone in Maine or the UK.

[gardenermatt]

Hi Jack!

When I started to make moves on my garden, I can guarantee it was in a much worse state than yours!

Highly motivated, I dug up all the grass one weekend, rotavated and treated the soil underneath, treated it for the poor Ph and condition it was in, took out all the debris that was buried among it, raked and levelled it. I bought some fresh treated topsoil and decided to get some fresh turf to lay over it!

Ever since it's been fantastic! It may not be the kind of move you want to make as it was a long winded and costly way of doing so, but I hope this aids you in some way!

The soil I used was from Hallstone Direct based in York ('Hallstone Value Topsoil | Topsoil | Soil | Top Soil'

I used the Medallion turf from Rolawn which is also based locally to me in york ('Quality Lawn Turf from Rolawn: Medallion Turf'

Best of luck in sorting your problem!

Matt

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