Allotments 4 All

Dont worry Im not sticking this on my allotment.

Its the front garden. Its a real state, I cant just use the weed killer that takes weeks and moss out the lawn as it seems I have meadow grass in it too, so a day or two after cutting the grass this thicker bright green grass pops up about an inch higher than the rest. I have bought some roundup and am intending on killing my whole lawn back to bear earth, then raking it over and re seeding it. The bottle says suitable for replanting after, but no indication as to how long I should leave it before resowing or planting.

Any suggestions?

Weather will play a large part on how long it will take.

For roundup to work the plant has to be in vigorous growth and at the moment the growth might go in fits & starts so it might be a bit of a waste of time to do it now.

Personally I would wait a few weeks yet before applying it.

When it does get to work it usually takes four or five weeks to act.

You mention moss this suggests bad drainage or shade or indeed both, so I would suggest that you aerate the area with a fork, and fill the holes with a sand/compost mixture before resowing. This will help the drainage.

You will find a fair bit of info on lawns here,http://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Data/Lawn%20Maintenance/Lawns.htm may I suggest you read this and the associated links before tackling your problem.

I say this because I don't think just raking it will solve your problem.

Yes your right about the shade. The soil is good but most of my front garden is kept in shade by the house all day. Might actually cause a problem with sowing seed and getting to grow. Might be better off just turfing it. I must say I didnt realise roundup took so long, I thought it killed stuff off within a week or so.

QuoteI thought it killed stuff off within a week or so.

It can on occasions if you have the growing conditions and the right strength of weedkiller.

For example grass grows faster when it is warm, and the chloryphil is in full flow if in  the sunshine...........you don't have much sunshine so this will slow the process down.

What happens is;  roundup systemically mixes with the chlorophyl and it is carried through the plant thus killing it, in your case this process is slowed down because of the shade.

Then I don't know what strength roundup you have......do you have the ready mixed or the one that you can dilute yourself?

If you can dilute it your self you can make it a bit stronger than recommended if you wanted.

You mention turf! my advice is; don't take the easy route and place it on top of your existing lawn, if you do it is most likely that the meadow grass that has caused you concern, will grow though your new turf, meaning you are back to where you started.

There no simple answer I'm afraid.

The root of your problem is if you will pardon the pun is; you must get rid of the problem that is making you consider to replace your old lawn and that is;- kill/get rid of the existing lawn!!

You could consider stripping off the existing lawn aerarate the soil below and lay new turf. The old lawn will make good compost if allowed to rot down for twelve months or so.

Sorry if my suggestions have added to your problem :-\

No thanks its been a big help, which ever way I go I will kill off all my existing lawn first. Im just thinking now with the shade I have lawn seed might struggle to take. I know when I reseeded my back garden over a year ago the shaded areas still look very bare. I will try to the whole lawn sprayed tomorrow as this is a very warm and sunny week.

It sounds as though you've got a basic problem with your lawn that you need to look at, otherwise whatever you do it's likely to recur. Mosses like damp, and they also flourish when lawns are cut too close. If it's in shade, is it getting enough light for grass to flourish? You're putting it under major stress mowing it all the time.

The coarser grasses often do better than the very fine ones, and anything that's too coarse for a lawn can be killed quite easily, simply by mowing it.

Hi Inky

I am going to be a bit radical and suggest that you forget about lawn and have either a gravel garden - with feature plants etc!

Saves a lot of effort mowing!

Good luck anyway - What about spiking, scarifying, weedkilling and nourishing existing lawn? Lot of hard work but can be done!

Old bird

;D

Everyone else on ourside of the street has nice lawns which seem to not have problems, I thinks its mainly cause ours has suffered years of neglect. The house belong to an old woman before who I think was quite infirm, and we have been here two years, and tbh its been rare for us to even put a lawn mower over it, as we have been decorating the rest of the house. An ornamental type garden would be pretty pricey for us when we have other priorities right now, plus gravel gets everywhere!

I think just starting from scratch and giving the new lawn some TLC, I think our neighbours will just be greatfull for our garden to no longer be blowing weeds across.

hi,
you can plant/ sow two weeks after roundup is applied( but wait 3weeks to be sure)
After spraying(do it twice, once the grass is really growing strong) you would be best to rotavate the lawn area add some coarse sand to it and rotavate it in, this should help with darinage. grit from builders yard is ok too.
then level/rake, seed, feed and water, it will take a few weeks as the ground is still very cold. keep on top of watering and feeding this year. if you have shaded areas, why not try to work with them...maybe try hostas or other shade liking plants? hope you soon have it all sorted  :)