So I got a late call this evening thats depressed me.
I did a lot of work for a guy back in may, clearance, demolition of a bomb shelter, and laying a lawn.
now he called and said that the lawn is gone patchy and dying in places.it turns out he didnt mow it when I told him, or often enough. he would let it go (maybe7 inches) then use a crappy pastic bladed mower and leave the cuttings on the lawn.
Then he got someone in to mow , but again left it way too long , and now says its really bad and yellowing.
He kind of said in a round about way that its my fault, because I didnt come in time to tell him when to cut.
i think he knows he didnt do what he should, and wants me to fix it.
Now I know what i'd be thinking reading this but...he was/is a good customer, and there is still a lot of work to be done in his place. And i did leave some things undone (putting a gate back, some rubbish i've been meaning to collect for ages) so I feel I could have done better.
Ive laid maybe 70 of lawn and only once before had problems and that was when I switched supplier just that one time. I use Q lawns . But I shamefully know s f a about lawn upkeep.
would i be right in thinking grass would go yellow because the sunlight vant get down to the bottom of the blade, so when you cut it thats what you see?
Thanks guys.
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What grade did you buy from Q lawns?
The main problem here could be that the lawn isnt geting cut properly, there could be a few other factors such as contamination in the soil from lumps of concrete etc. from the bomb shelter or other such items. If this is the case then the grass wont root properly.
What sort of watering program was set up for the grass? Also is there any chance of posting up some photos?
Hi kieran thanks for the reply.
I used their Q lawn grade, not the contractors grade. It established well, I came and checked in weeks 1 and 3, then did not visit for a few weeks.
I took out all the rubbish, stones, concrete, roots. raked and compacted, used a root fertiliser. in week 3 it looked great.
up to week 4 he had a sprinkler gving 45 mins morning and evening. after that only once a day.e will be mailing me some photos this week.
H
we knew this could be a problem and discussed making a play area here with rubber matting or bark chippings.
in the end we took the walls down to floor level, so what was left was a slab, about 600mm or more below the surface.
I have to stress, late on week 3 I walked up and down the lawn checking it and cutting in a line for the beds, it was strongly rooted and draining well. there was no difference in the grass over the B shelter site and the rest of the lawn.
I get what you' re saying. I wish i knew if the yellow patches were in this area, then that would be most likely cause.
The garden was about 20 meters long with a fall of about 500mm . the slab is at the bottom about 6 meters square...but right behind the fence is a canal. I broke up the slab(but cant be sure there was not more hardcore under that), then some gravel, then 550 of soil. I had spent 10 days on the thing, it had a roof slab nearly 400mm thick and a whitethorn tree growing on top of that, I should have got the bloomin floor out too but thought 600mm of soil had to be enough..
from our conversation it sounds like big patches, and the fact that we had talked a lot about the slab area before, but he never mentioned it this time leads me to think its random around the lawn, not over the slab.
I hope...!
So for the moisture test: i am looking for boggy soil, versus the semi dry soil that the turf comes with in a roll?
thanks again
I agree with Rob - sounds like they let the grass grow too long initially and then cutting it too low has revealed the yellowing beneath. Also, May was quite dry in the South East so this placed further stress on the grass after its initial cut.
I've had quite a few clients over the years who haven't cut newly installed lawns regularly and then wonder why at the end of the summer the lawn looks more like meadow grass!
New turf needs mowing as soon as it has established enough, so that the turf isn't dislodged by the mower. In the height of the growing season it will be rooting quite well and need cutting within a matter of days. A poor mowing regime would be the most obvious cause.
If it's been allowed to grow too long it needs to be brought down the correct height very gradually, only cutting a third of the blade length off at a time. With careful maintenance it will recover, but will take some time to get it looking as it should.
Letting it grow too long will also encourage disease as moisture will be trapped in the sward. The warm and humid weather condititons we've had recently have been ideal for turf diseases, so it could be suffering from Red Thread or Dollar Spot.
The lawn could probably also do with a feed again by now. If it's been well watered and growing well, the nutrients supplied in the pre-turfing fertiliser you used will quite likely have been taken up by the lawn and will need replenishing.
You might also want to check for compaction by pushing a pen into the soil to make sure it will go in easily. If it's compacted then aeration will help, but this should not be done in drought conditions.
that is some great info lads thanks. i talked to him again this morning and he was a lot calmer..sober..than last night. he admitted that a guy he had got in at the start and who had cut it told him not to leave it too long and then he did leave it. also that he had bought a tub of miracle grow turf repair and sprayed the whole lot on the lawn...
AND.........he sid the area where the bunker was.. fine, no spots there. so he's sending me some photos later, and on wednesday i hope to get out there and do a bit of investigation.
600mm of soil on top of the stuff underneath is plenty.
The lawn will probably recover properly if he gets it cut every fortnight.
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