Hoping for a greener lawn
Posted by Fiona Nevile in General care | 4 comments
Photo: Muddy lawn
Examining the lawn the other day I was horrified to find it full of weeds and moss. We also have a problem with large bare muddy patches. This is where the dogs and I rampage up and down the garden. I tried reseeding the bare patches last autumn and the seed failed to germinate.
The painting and decorating job paid off big time. I learnt so much for my clients. One couple I worked for were particularly interesting. I shall call them The Phloxs. Mrs Phlox kept a spotless, beautiful house while Major Phlox had created a wonderful garden. Retired Major Phlox was dapper and neat. His desk and computer were just so but the garden was passionate – almost wanton.
Major Phlox had perfect lawns – even the areas under trees. One day I plucked up the courage to ask him his secret. He immediately nipped to his shed and returned with strange metal object with pipes at the bottom
“Well I use one of these. It’s a lawn aerator. They are not expensive. Bit of a bore to use but they work.”
So I invested a lawn aerator and worked on the mossy areas and the places where the dogs and I pound each day. Then I reseeded it and the grass remained for a good 18 months.
So this weekend I’ll be searching for my lawn aerator and hopefully using it! The lawn rake
And then next week I’m going to scatter Canada Grass seed – specially formulated for golf courses. Extensive research led me to this product. It’s pricy but if it works it’s worth it. I bought mine (1 kilo) from Homebase for £15.99 but it’s cheaper from Crocus who have it on special offer (1.5 kilos for £19.98). Most of the reviews that I’ve read give Canada Green the thumbs up. Check back at the end of the month to see whether it lives up to its claims. The seed has to be watered on a daily basis so sowing it in showery April will hopefully cut out a lot of the hassle.
Leave a reply
Having just subscribed to your RSS feed I thought you might be interested to know that your “footer” recommends emailing “legal@www.cottagesmallholder.com” when this should be “legal@cottagesmallholder.com” I presume. You might want to get rid of the “www.” to make it easier for anyone to email you.
We have moss in the lawn as well, and between that and the clay soil, it makes digging up lawn mighty hard.
We also have huge unsightly patches of dirt in the front yard that are hosting neither lawn or moss. I am hoping for lawn to spread in there. My husband is hoping the moss will win out, because it doesn’t have to be mowed and it stays green in the summer when the lawn has gone bust. Since moss will grow on a stone, and the front yard gets pretty rock hard in the summer, my guess is that the moss will win.
We used the canadian seed on parts of our bald lawn at the back and when we decided to do away witht the front borders last year and go edge to edge lawn ( I was sick of trying to dig the border into some sort of shape wise every year, and every year it seemed to get harder and stonier than the year before) The seed was great and germinated and lovely fresh green little shoots in no time. ( Does exactly wot it says on the tin type thingy) Only trouble now this year its lush and green and healthy and shows the other parts of the lawn up terribly LOL :S
You’ve reminded me that I have to do this at some point over the next couple of weeks.
The lawn is huge and I do hate doing it so, probably because I use a fork.
I recently found a use for the moss – I’ve started yanking it up to go round my potted indoor bulbs!