Talk to me about winter lawn care

[didireallysaythat]

Our lawn is awful. Half of it is under fruit trees and mostly weeds, the other half is mostly clover and was compacted by diggers etc. The levels are all over the place.

I have an aerator. I'll rack up the leaves. I forgot to mow the front lawn so I'll do that.

But what else should I do? Seed? Top dressing? Feed and weed?

Same here and joining you in the wait for advice.

Garden is 50% weeds.

Can I feed and weed this time of year? Or just grass seed?

Mines full of creeping buttercup. I’ve been digging it out & will have to reseed the bits I’ve dug but seemingly it’s now too cold and I will have to wait until spring.

Too late to feed too -we have missed the boat!
www.lawnsmith.co.uk/topic/how-to-feed-lawn/when-to-feed-the-grass

Use the local lawn man, they’ll sort it out for you.

I said I’d do it myself but it all ended up full of weeds so we use green thumb.

@Fluffycloudland77 may I ask how much Green Thumb charge? I'm worried it's going to cost a fortune for the area I've got.

I bought Proctors Autumn and Winter feed which I'm planning to use this week. Will use a weed killer/feed for lawns in spring and then reseed some areas where the dog has killed it.

We’ve got a medium sized lawn at the back, and two smaller front ones and it’s £13.50 a month for four treatments and a scarification with aeration.

I don’t have dh complaining about weeds anymore so it’s cheap at twice the price.

DH is lawn obsessed. He says that's it's too late in the year for anything major. Just go to your local garden centre or Amazon and get some winter lawn feed. The weeds aren't growing anymore as it's too cold so they won't die either. Spring is the best time to make a start. In April treat the weeds, use the aerator to scuff up the surface, reseed with a decent seed (A1 lawns shady mix), before top dressing with a top dressing mix.
Somebody like "Garden Lawncare Guy" on YouTube will give very good advice.

@Fluffycloudland77 oh that's nowhere hear as bad as I thought. May I ask what size do you call medium? (Just checking as I think ours is medium at 15m wide by 30m long). Is there a setup cost? I think that we might need more than scarifying (I do that), aerating (I do that) and some weed and feed (I didn't do that!). I might get a quote for returf....

Best thing to do is email a few lawn companies for a quote, they use a petrol scarifier, they got loads out of my lawn last year, 4 huge bags went in the brown bin.

@Fluffycloudland77 oh yeah scarifying is crazy like that. I did a third of the lawn in September - 4 wheelie bins and one full compost bin. Took me a day but we have an electric scarifier not a petrol one..

I've emailed a few in the last - the big franchises wanted £100s to start but I wasn't clear on what the monthly fee would be (they had a minimum 12 month contract) - I'll get quotes for returfing as that should have less upkeep and thus maybe cheaper.

We didn’t pay anything upfront at all.

For us the non scarify/aeration package £6.50 a month.

@Fluffycloudland77 that's bargainous. I'm ringing Green Thumb in the morning and hoping they are as cheap here as they are with you. Thank you!

I just thought, do you live in a particularly nice area and their adding on charges thinking you’ve got more money than sense?. Dhs relative says this happens to him when he needs things for his house because he lives on a well known road.

@Fluffycloudland77 sorry just saw your last post.

Not sure if the postcode is the thing. If I go to GreenThumb, enter in the size of my lawn it comes out as 5 treatments at £51, or £39 a month.

Am I doing something wrong? How do you mange £6.50 a month? I've only got a medium lawn (9m by 30m) which is the typical size I think. A local company looks like £25 a month, for 4 treatments, 1 aeration, 1 scarification.

I'll keep looking around...

It’s 13.50 for aeration etc. Maybe they need to quote you in person, ours sent a letter thanking us for continuing to use them so loads must’ve cancelled.

Is £25 a month really too high though for a nice lawn with no effort?.

@Fluffycloudland77 I'll see if I can get one around to quote - I think some of the lawn is going to need more than scarifying, aerating and seeding. £25 a month is the minimum package example - the standard package they quote is £58. £700 a year is a bit of a big deal as it's 4-5 day break in the UK!

I'll ring around.

At this time of year I'd recommend applications of sulphate of iron at 6-8 weekly intervals. It's cold enough to mean most selective weedkillers won't work very well.
Rake up leaves etc. Keep off it when it's very wet or frozen. Next spring apply a fertilizer higher in Nitrogen than phosphate and potassium. Once this has taken effect, apply a broad spectrum selective weedkiller. If you're near York, I'll come and do it with professional product at a sensible price. If not, pm me and I'll advise for nothing. I was a greenkeeper for 40 years so have some experience.

As to costs, I aim to apply four treatments a year at 25/ treatment. This would be spring slow release fertilizer, summer controlled release fertilizer and weed treatment. Autumn fertilizer and winter moss control.

@Onesmallstepforaman thank you - I'll drop you a message

So interested in lawn care. Having recovered from serious illness have made a goid go at very mossy lawns. Took aa steady couple of hours fro quite a few days with electric acarifier and hand rake after weed n fees in làte sept. Very satisfying. Lawn looks a bit like a rugby pitch at back n overseeding n top soil dressing only seemed to feed the birds. I dont mind tho. I have just used ELIXIR winter granular feed bought online for £4.99. Plenty of rain so no damage done. Will feed again in 6 weeks time. Its designed to strengthen roots n hopefully will help thicken up sward. My large trees n shubs are a prob. Roots take up nutrienta and prevent sunlight. I intend to use shade loving grass seed. Its a problem job. I used lawncare people . They were great but its the ongoing expense. So using gardening as a gym workout. Great during lockdown