# Lawn treatments



## Andpopse (Mar 19, 2009)

My lawn was laid a year ago, and looked pretty good all last year. I’ve just done the first cut and while it’s not too bad, I’ve got some weeds and also some ‘clumps’ of grass that have grown faster that the lawn. 
I understand a good feed and weed will deal with the weeds but how do I sort the ‘clumps’ which are mostly about ‘fist’ sized.
Appreciate any input


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## spursfan (Aug 4, 2009)

Andpopse said:


> My lawn was laid a year ago, and looked pretty good all last year. I've just done the first cut and while it's not too bad, I've got some weeds and also some 'clumps' of grass that have grown faster that the lawn.
> I understand a good feed and weed will deal with the weeds but how do I sort the 'clumps' which are mostly about 'fist' sized.
> Appreciate any input


Are the clumps a different type of grass?, if they are I would dig them out and repair patche's and sow some decent seed, try lawnsmith website for Info.
There is also a good section on this site relating to lawns, try a search for it.

Kev


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## bluechimp (Dec 21, 2017)

I am in the exactly same boat as you mate. I have also got some patches where nothing has grown, 3 at around 100mm dia. Here is my plan of action:

1) Aerated the lawn last weekend, to get oxygen down to the routes and help drainage, if you have clay soil like me, I wouldn’t recommend forking it, I would plug it (hollow tining).

2) Rake/Scarify the living daylights out of it, I don’t have any moss but I have a fair bit of yellow dead grass that I want rid of.

3) Top dress the lawn, because of the clay, I’m going for a more sandy top dressing, again to help drainage.

4) Re-seed, now for this, I am using a variety of seeds and the faster grow rates do not bother me at all, as I will be mowing every two-three weeks over summer. I have some special seed for shady areas as a neighbours bush (steady lads) blocks the sun on one corner, and then due to my lad playing on it, gone for the tuff stuff, minus dwarf ryegrass.

5) Feeding - I found a miracle grow on offer at Wilkos for £2.70 that will last me all summer, high in Nitrogen, Phosphates and Potassium, which is what you want. If I get any weeds coming through,I will switch to 4-in-1.

6) Mowing - Before I aerated the lawn, I mowed it at 70mm just to take the tops of and mulched it. It is best to mow down to about 30mm before top dressing but never removing more than a third of the grass in one go (2 week period).

Hope this helps mate :thumb:


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## DTB (Dec 20, 2017)

spursfan said:


> Are the clumps a different type of grass?, if they are I would dig them out and repair patche's and sow some decent seed, try lawnsmith website for Info.


Spot on there Kev - these are clump forming weed grasses. Although the tolerance for weed seeds in grass seed mixes is very, very low, there will always be some in there. Regular mowing of a lawn will encourage the finer blade types to dominate but once these clumps have established they can't be mown out.

Either dig them out as suggested or spot treat with a glyphosate based weedkiller (pathclear, roundup, etc), then re-sow.

It is definitely worthy buying seed which has a nutritional seed coating such as Pro Nitro. You'll know it's treated because it will be coloured. This provides a little bit of (mostly, but not only) nitrogen and phosphite at the right place for the seed to access as it germinates. We've done a bit of trial work on this and from what I've seen I would always go for treated seed. It's also much better to use this type of seed for over-seeding - by which I mean scattering in a little bit of seed into your lawn with the top dressing after scarifying if it's looking a bit thin.

:thumb:


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