his morning the soil was pretty sodden.
e sand to see if that helps. I am kicking myself now as given I installed t he whole thing I can't help but think how relatively straightforward it wou ld have been to put in some drainage beforehand...
Do you have somewhere for water to drain to? If so one can always dig a cha nnel toward it & fill with gravel/sand or other unrottable material.
NT
That's a good idea, even if it might make the neighbours think I've finally lost it! ;-)
That sounds like a good idea. I've got a 2-3 foot scaffold pole offcut whic h I could drive in with a sledge hammer. Remembering first of course to ens ure I've got a means to pull it out again! (couple of holes drilled either side to accept a rod inserted to allow a twist-and-pull motion?)
Mathew
I'm not sure if grinding a bit of a bevel on the outside of the cutting face would help that process?
That sounds like a plan (should it come to that etc). ;-)
You don't have any unprotected mains cables or water pipes under that lawn do you? ;-(
Cheers, T i m
p.s. FWIW I think they use Rye grass for football pitches and that seems to be pretty tough. ;-)
Are you sure that an SDS drill will work in softish materials? I always thought they needed something hard to react against.
Even if it does, it's not a 5 minute job! I reckon that, to do any good, you'd need a matrix of holes no more than 6"[1] apart - so that's 36 holes per square yard.
[1] Let's get used to using imperial units again, ready for when we get our country back.
I was being taught in SI units a decade before we were ruled by the EU.
to go about forking it to improve the drainage?
perhaps it is this winter's extra rainfall that have cause any issue when l ast year's was okay, there is something else that might be worth mentioning ...
-between mowings I often found a 10-15mm long grub at the root of it. I tho ught nothing of this fact at the time however I have just been reading abou t leatherjackets and what damage they can do to a lawn. I can't help but wo nder if that's what these grubs were and indeed if this is what has led to the grass loss?
It's perfectly normal for there to be leather jackets in any grassland.
All you can say is that it isn't any more labour intensive now than it would have been had the OP drilled into the clay before putting the loam down. IIRC the SDS drill works fine in soft earth, or how about one of these
So was I actually! But I was just making the point that it will be nice not to be *told* by the EU what units we have to use - particularly market traders with their pounds and ounces, etc.
The UK government did that all by itself! It could have kept pound/ounces in that same way we still use pints and miles.
Warning: you also need a means of pushing the core out of the tube! I've done this sort of thing myself, and on a clayey soil, and by gum it became impossible in the end to remove the cores from the borer. Maybe you could come up with an Improved Homemade Borer, Mathew.
i also have one of those lawn aerators which removes cores rather then simply poking holes (4 or 5 cores at a time). It's fairly good, but impossible to use in anything other than bone dry conditions, on our clay soil, for the same reason as above.
Cheers -- let us know in a few months how you've got on!
John
An effortless way to make holes: a hose. But not so quick. Maybe you could combine it with the pole.
NT
Looking at the first of your photographs any "analysis" of the problem needs to address the fact that the worst affected area seems to be that closest to the house - the area subjected to most wear. Which in my opinion rules out leatherjackets or any other pests unless there was a particularly stupid swarm of mayfly around last summer who chose to lay their eggs on the busiest part of your garden.
As to drainage what you've got there looks no worse than inside the entrance of many parks or the goalmouths of most 3rd division (as was) football grounds after a wet spell. The fact that some tufts survived even there, is simply a result of the seed mixture used.
If you check your local weather records you'll maybe find all that's happened is a particularly wet winter. Improving the drainage might simply mean needing to water more frequently in any dry spells.
Wait till the Spring, warmer weather and a prolonged dry spell before deciding what to do.
If it doesn't regrow then reseed any bald spots with a hardwearing grass variety. The only downside may be a difference in colour and texture as compared with the rest.
michael adams
...
It is a reasonable conclusion to reach however I am confident that as the l awn gets very little usage anywhere then this is possibly not a contributor y factor. The worst locations, however, do have in common the fact that the y are the shadier areas and not likely to be as free draining given the wal ls on one side.
Noting that we don't really have a busiest area, perhaps they are more like ly to have laid eggs in shadier/damper areas? Alternatively, perhaps the we aker grass in these locations simply hasn't survived the attack as well as that which is stronger elsewhere?
That's my current plan - I don't want to make a bid situation worse by walk ing all over it.
I am thinking that I've had something of a perfect storm:
- Very wet winter
- Clay subsoil and consequently less then ideal drainage
- Leatherjackets
- A too short pre-winter final cut leaving the grass weaker than it could h ave been
When the weather starts to improve I may attempt to remove as many leatherj ackets as is feasible (there's a finite number out there - it's not like th ey are breeding, yet!) and then giving a treatment of nematodes when the so il temperature increases to tackle the remainder. I may well give another t reatment at the end of summer, following hatching, to hopefully remove this factor from the equation for next winter.
If it's green I'd be happy... ;-)
Mathew
Not a gardener as such, I thought the turf looked saturated? Does the lawn dry up under warmer/dryer conditions? With a waterlogged surface, is this grass capable of surviving micro climates of morning ground frost?
I would have thought that only a 6in depth to clay is a little narrow?
The area around you looks equally flat. Do you have a natural run-off at all? If I am on the right track, you may consider creating a 'sump' of stone to take the water?
...Ray.
That's the way. I was happy to be part of a team that saw the results of a school football pitch when it had never been played on for 11 years.
...Ray.
Good call, Tim.
...Ray.
Birds will recognise that, when the nets go down, it will soon be dinner time. If you highlight that by getting there attention with a sound when you do it, better still.
An amazing little thing was, while I was working in a local town. Pigeons began to gather in huge numbers on the roofs either side of the road.
I asked some local what's going on and he told me that a guy is about to leave his house. For years he has gone out everyday and, everyday he lets out a few handfuls of seeds several times a day throughout his journey.
He is followed by clouds of pigeons. And, of course, the locals called him pigeon man.
Sadly, as it is his feed that enables the large population of pigeons, his demise will be the pigeons too. Everyone will know he's gone.
...Ray.
Damn! There their.
...Ray.
I have, since my last post, had another thought regards drainage. I suggested a French Drain type of stone filled sump. But even a large volume sump can only hold so much water.
I also considered a water sucking plant but, couldn't imagine what? But then I remembered hearing there is such a thing as a miniature conifer? I believe these plants have a thirst?
So, dig the hole. Line it. Fill it with 20 - 40 mm stone 6in short of surface and while doing so, stick the tree in. Re-turf around tree, unless you want it open to air.
..Ray.
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