i have recently laid new turf in my garden, all the preperation work was done well and properly. the problem i am now having is it is shrinking and leaving about a one inch gap around each turf. it is well, but not over, watered. does any body have advice. i have spent alot of money on it and dont want to end up with a new but dead lawn.
Hi Adie, I feel for you. I had turf laid about 4 years ago, spent alot of money on it, did EVERYTHING that was suggested for lawncare, and it's awful. I do not think the landscaper put very good soil in and I also think that the variety of turf is probably not great...but I dont' know much about these things. I guess my question to the group would be, what can be done to improve the lawn once it's already been laid, matured, ridden with clover, (not to mention weeds) etc. I have tried aerating and seeding, and nothing seems to improve it. I have not tried fertilizer as I have three children and dont really want them to be absorbing chemicals, is there something I could do that is more organic in nature ?
Adie - The turf strips may have stretched when they were installed - hence shrinkage. If the grass is becoming established, I would keep watering and add sandy topsoil between the gaps and overseed. The lawn will eventually knit together, with some care. Newly laid turf would need to be left undisturbed and walked on, until established. Or depending on how wide the gaps are, you could cut strips to fill the gaps - that would be a lot more work and finicky.
Franflower - how bad is the clover? With the kids the grass probably gets a lot of hard use and getting a uniform lawn may be more effort than you have a available! I would expect that now that the clover is established it would just keep growing and aerating won't help that much. I would expect to get rid of the clover you'll have to kill it - with a herbicide or by picking out the clover - roots and all - by hand. Maybe you could pay the kids by the bucket full of clover pickings ........
Oh my Growing4, I don't think I could dare attack clover and morning glory in the same century. Besides it's at least lovely and green. I'm still trying to figure out if I should lime, nitro, or cornmeal first. My main concern is to get the grass growing more uniformly and green, a bit more lush. The clover is actually the nicest part of the lawn right now !
Why not let your entire lawn turn to clover fran? :p Adie, as growing4 said, keep watering and lay down sand, grass loves sand.
well I guess that's why they use sand at the golf course. Maybe I'll just do what they do and go over all my weed holes as if they were divots ! Thanks for the tip.
