Lawn & Landscape Management
Great lawns are a distinctive feature of British gardens and there are four grasses key to lawn seed mixtures.
- Dwarf ryegrass: fast to establish, tough and durable. Shallow rooting so best avoided on light, dry soils.
- Red fescue: beautiful fine leaved grasses, in two varieties, slender red fescue, which creeps when growing and chewings fescue which is noncreeping but just as attractive.
- Smooth meadowgrass: fresh green in colour, tolerant to drought and slow growing. Has a creeping habit and tolerates shade.
- Bentgrass, or ’golf green’ grass: tolerates close mowing down to 5 mm. Fine leaved, slow to start and delicate when young. Seldom used on its own.
There are some simple steps to getting a great lawn:
- Control weeds and remove any large stones.
- Prepare a seedbed with a tractor or by hand.
- Then roll to consolidate and level.
- Rake or harrow to create a tilth.
- Spread seed by hand or machine.
- Harrow or rake, then roll again to press the seed into the soil.
- If warm and damp, germination occurs after just a few days. Longer if cold or dry.
- Allow to grow to 2 or 3 inches before first mowing (just the top half inch) in dry weather. Then gradually reduce the mowing height.
Date Posted: 18th January 2018
Knowledge
