Tuesday 21 October 2014

Patching

Monday’s temperature returned to more like expected October values. 

A few weeks ago I posted about giving our lawn a bit of attention. Following on from that de-thatching which revealed a few bare patches I decided to repair these areas with compost and sow some grass seed. I wasn't too sure whether I might be a little bit late sowing grass seed but decided I hadn't got much to lose.
 Once the seed was sown I covered with a bit more compost and tamped the surface level with the back of my rake. I gave some thought to covering the areas with some netting or even polythene to keep the birds from eating the seed and help the seed to germinate. The seed packet reckoned germination should take 4 days under ideal conditions but didn't say what those conditions were. In the end I decided to see what happened without any protection. I’d plenty of seed left so if the birds scratched about for the seed I could resow and cover with netting.  I assumed any bird damage would happen within a day or so giving me time to do any necessary resowing.
Once the patches were finished the lawn looked even more of a mess than it did with only its bare patches. All these areas were now highlighted by large patches of compost. After the prescribed 4 days for germination nothing had happened but at least the birds had left the reseeding alone.
The good news is that the grass seed is now growing well and almost looks ready for a very light trim. If conditions are dry enough I will give the lawn a cut with the mower set on almost its highest setting.

The forecast for Tuesday has turned out correct as the wind speed has gradually picked up overnight into Tuesday morning. Tuesday morning has consisted of heavy squally showers along with gale force winds. 
It’s not looking like a day for giving the lawn a quick trim.

1 comment:

  1. I've found autumn lawn re-seeding works quite well too. It gives it a good start before the spring.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for visiting my blog and leaving a comment - it is great to know that there are people out there actually reading what I write! Come back soon.
(By the way any comments just to promote a commercial site, or any comments not directly linked to the theme of my blog, will be deleted as soon as I spot them) Please do not follow links from any comments that appear to be spam - if in doubt ignore.