Thanks to you I now have grass growing in my now soiled over old useless flower beds. I have chicken wire over the old flower beds to keep the cats from down the road off them. The pikey cat lover next door no longer has any cats left :-) Would you know how long I should keep the chicken wire over the old flower beds? The grass shoots are maybe half an inch in height. Seeds went down about 10 days ago.
I would keep the wire on for several weeks. Cats like to bury their crap and if they do that on the newly sown areas they'll rip up the seedlings. And don't be tempted to cut the new grass until it's two or three inches high, to allow the roots to establish. Set the mower high, and make sure the blade is sharp, otherwise it'll just rip the seedlings out of the ground. Second cut can be a bit lower, and after that it should be OK to mow it along with the rest of the grass.
Right you are Sir and many thanks for the help. The soil that I have put down is as best that I can do to be level with the existing lawn, but it is not perfectly level. If it gets up my nose, would it be okay to level off with some top soil this autumn? I hate cats and should not have to protect my property from this vermin. If I should ever get my hands on one, I Will kill it.
I think you'd be surprised how lawns seem to level themselves over time. I know whenever I've done the same as you, or done a bit of scruffy re-turfing, after a year or two it's not possible to see the joins, as it were. Quite how it happens, I don't understand; worms, perhaps. But if you're in a hurry, adding topsoil isn't the way to do it; if you put more than the thinnest scatter of soil, say half an inch (which isn't going to make any real difference anyway), you'll bury the grass and kill it. The proper way is to use a spade to cut the low area into turves, say twelve or fifteen inches square and two inches thick, lift them and add an appropriate amount of soil underneath before replacing the turf. But that's quite a lot of work. I'd use the 'wait and see' method first!
Just my 2p worth: In the past when I have taken flower beds out and replaced with grass I worked on the theory that the established lawn is already compacted and the new part of the lawn (flowerbed) has still to compact so always started off slightly higher than the established one. I have also raised the height slightly a bit at a time, like you say too much and it will kill the grass but if not in a hurry do a quarter inch at a time, has worked for me in the past, but then I ignore the established rules :-)
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Sounds like you follow the rules quite well! :-)
Fresh seeded lawn won't make decent turves for some years so this might be the only quick way.
Up thread I think chicken wire was used for protection. I am pleased to report that 25mm fruit cage net laid flat also works well despite a residential cat:-)
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Ha ha , What I mean is I just go by gut feel, I thin out, transplant, cutback shrubs etc when I want to do it I never consult the gardening `bibles` as to best time, best way. Having said that I think some of it is hardwired in my head as my dad was a part time gardener for over 60 years at the local cathedral and from the ages of 11 to 16 the only way I got pocket money was a Saturday job helping him and I hated it, everything was sown from seed every year and then transplanted in to a few hundred feet of borders. Talk about deadheading and weeding! If I never see another livingstone daisy again I will be quite happy.
keep an eieye on it and remove before the grass starts getting entangled in it. anything not germinated by then is probably not going to do so. If there are any bald bits reseed now and then they might start to shoot before you remove the protection. Brian
"Pikey cat lover". Charming! :-)
I did reply and thanked you, but I can't see my reply here. Maybe ES playing up again, maybe I just dunno.
Have go at that with bare hands.
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