Im after some advice regarding a lawn issue.
A customer had spoken to me regarding their front lawn that really struggled to put on any growth at all even during spring time.
I suggested that because the house is a new build, although built a number of years ago now that it probably has rubbish under the soil. The customer explained that they had the garden dug up and tonnes of fresh top soil put down by a landscaping company.
I suggested that the lawn may be compacted as the soil was put down in layers.
So we aerated and scarified the lawn and put down some grass seed (supplied by the customer from a friend who works on the golf course). We topdressed the lawn and after a couple of weeks the grass had taken and looked good. (This was all done last May).
However the lawn now looks like it does in the pictures. Customer said it started to go down hill in the autumn and has got worse and worse.
There are peck marks in the lawn but no other evidence of chafer grubs and some of the areas I dug up still seemed to have roots.
The customers wife also told me that her husband had put down a 3 in 1 lawn weed and feed in the autumn but I suspect this was done when the lawn started to turn.
The back garden is only a few feet away from the front and is absolutely fine.
Any advice on what may be the issue would be vert helpful.
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Some years ago I was talking to a guy who had worked on a pig farm on an old World War II airfield, he said a contractor called in one day and asked if he could buy their topsoil.
The farmer said they didn't want to strip the topsoil off and the contractor laughed and pointed to the bunds that had been formed around the fuel dumps and shelters.
When the runway was built the topsoil was stripped and used to form the bunds, and that was what he wanted to buy. The guy who worked on the farm said he took some home, it looked and felt good, but was useless because it had been stacked to high for to long and didn't have any life in it.
If the topsoil has been stored in big heaps for too long, it won't grow anything.
Yes I wonder if the soil was depleted .
Did you put any feed into the soil before sowing the grass seed .
I always put a 777 mix such as growmore down a few days before sowing .
It looks like nitrogen deficiency .
Also was the customer over zealous with the weed and feed ?
Thanks guys
No feed went down at the time we only topdressed with compost when the seed went down. The seed took and for several months the lawn was great. Even through the summer months with the sun on it most of the day.
Regarding the weed and feed the box had 80² meters coverage on it. There is another patch of front lawn behind where I took the picture roughly the same size.
How do I proceed from here? Scarification and then reseed again but tell the customer not to put anything other than water on it.
Well the grass on the bottom right has the "black" look you get from an overdose of weed and feed.............. since it started going downhill after that, could that be the problem. Doesn't help that they're constantly walking on the grass to get between the garage and front door. Grass also looks extremely short............ are they cutting it too low? .
There is a path to the garage from the front door but.i didn't notice any black from weed and feed. It has almost died off completely in places and is down to the soil.
have they had there drive and path cleaned with chemicals and a pressure washer. the grass seed could have been for use on a putting green which takes a lot of looking after
On Thursday I saw one of my regular lawns looking similiar and in a right state. It has been looking fantastic for years treated by a reputable company. Dug out a small plate size of turf to find a dozen crane fly larvae in that small piece, i dread to think how many are under the rest of the turf. They were at stage 1 so not very big at all
No cleaning done to the path or driveway. I imagine it could be what Jonathan suggested as the timing of this happen through autumn into winter.
What's the best course of action to repair this now?
Hi Andrew
Yes it was compost from a well known brand sold in garden centres
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