I'm not a lawn expert, but am trying to advise an elderly neighbour...can you help, or point me in the right direction?
The circle of grass was, until 2024 looked after by a lawn expert, he retired and someone else has taken it on. It got fairly parched (stressed??) this last summer but as you can see looks awful...it's always looked absolutely perfect, not now.
I've primed the lady to ask if the current"expert" has tested for chafer grubs, fungal infection, or if he treated it without telling her in the summer. He didn't know about fungal infections or chafer grubs!!! So in my opinion he's a bit of a chancery 😞
Where would you go next? He s saying he'll scarify it for £1200 then quote for a reseed...offering to do it now (January reseed?!?!). Given a scarify of that a re ear should take, maybe a morning, £1200?!?!
Even if she went with the scarify option, unless she knows the real cause of the die back, there is, in my opinion, no point in reseeding, certainly not in Jan. Can someone advise next steps please?
I can get better pics if that would help. Thank you.
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Assuming the grass became stressed during last summer's drought and he had a hose pipe ban in place and so the grass never recovered you can give the new grass guy the benefit of the doubt .
He may have checked for chafer grubs in which case there is a winter treatment but since he is only suggesting to scarify for £1200 ( perhaps with a hired scarifier ) does this rule out chafer grubs or other causes , difficult to say but he should still be able to detail what he has done or says what he has done to justify the need to scarify as this won't stop the chafer grubs which from the picture looks likely .
No I stand corrected the winter treatment I believe is for leather jackets .
Thank you John....and apologies to all for the autocorrect, or my fat fingers making part of the post difficult to follow
Nothing wrong with the customer seeking a second opinion , this time of year the hungry wildlife should be competing for the grubs .
Badgers leaving tell tale snub marks and tearing up the lawn , bird damage .
Puts you in a difficult position though Adam but as you point out you have primed the lady discretely to find out what has been discussed , your gut instinct is probably telling you one thing but you can't discredit the lawn guys reputation as there could be other underlying factors and it could be seen as rivalry even though you have no desire to take over the job .
I once had a situation where a passing neighbour told a new customer that her weed infested lawn needing scarifying but I pointed out that scarifying was not the starting point with a weed infested lawn but she hung on to her neighbours word to tell me how to do my job .
Sometimes customers need a second opinion to give them the upper hand even when they are wrong but equally no one likes to see a vulnerable person taken advantage of .
Totally agreed on the last point...she's a good friend and the thought of her spending £1200 on scarifying a piece of ground about 25m across seems wrong
Adam, the first thing to do is for your friend to get rid of this chancer con artist who patently has no idea of what he is doing, his expertise seems to be concentrated in ripping people off. We are not the cheapest but would charge £200 plus vat to scarify that lawn inc waste removal. As to doing it in January and reseeding this is absolute nonsense with the end result being a muddy mess with little chance of seed germination, these so called gardeners just get us genuine knowledgable and honest operators a bad name.
As to the problem - Chafer grubs Leatherjackets poor drainage could all be the cause apart from Nematodes which are basically useless in controlling the grubs and its too late after the damage is done. I would go down the route of aeration applying a sharp top dressing brushed into the aeration holes. Scarify apply a generous loam based top dressing mixed with seed all of this in late April or early May and then a programme of fertiliser treatment
A dense healthy lawn will be far less susceptible to damage and recover more quickly. Experience has taught us that you will never win against Chafer/Leatherjacket as there is no effective/practical control and some years there is no damage just have to live with it. Also is this "expert" mowing it? Probably cutting it too short which weakens the sward and makes it more vunerable to.pests and diseases. Get rid of this scammer, hope above is of help?
This sounds like good advice! I never know what top dressing to use can you recommend any please? Also what do you use for aeration on a small/medium lawn please?
Caroline, we swear by westland top soil it's in smallish bags , I think 35 lts . Its a nice sandy loam free of nasties and consistently good, don't buy wickes B&Q and other own brands its garbage mainly green waste. We hire in hollow tine machines. Hope that helps.
£1200 sounds reasonable but only if that included completely re-laying with top quality turf after preparation !
He could be trying to price himself out of the job because he doesn't fancy it or out of his depth .
One thing that gets my back up is when cowboy gardeners use terms like scarifying , de thatching , pollarding they have latched on to inappropriately because they sound impressive and designed by some to win the work and inflate the price , total nonsense and makes me want to reach for the sick bucket .
Totally justified when appropriate used by gardeners with integrity .
Well the other chap has been sacked.... I think we are going to try to establish if there is a fungal infection - we can't find leatherjackets or chafer grubs ... even by going down a fair way.
Come late March we will cut all the turf off and returf. Not let them cut it too short - and make sure it gets some water if it is as dry and hot as it was last summer
Thank you all - as always
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