Grass has evolved to be walked on and eaten by animals. This is why the actively growing cells are at the end of the roots and the crown of the plant. In the natural world, the grass blades are nibbled, and then, using nutrients supplied by the roots, they regrow.
For lawn grasses, the secret to durability is to have strong enough roots to support speedy regrowth. A turfed lawn can receive regular foot traffic in months after installation. This will encourage a nice, dense, weed-free lawn. For your lawn, mowing is the equivalent of having a teenager come into your kitchen and eating everything in the fridge.
The grass blades are the power house for the whole plant. Mowing too short will really weaken the grass plants.
Try to maintain your new lawn at a height around 5 cm for at least the first months of its life. Aim for 3 cm in those all-important early months. Your lawn care regime should include regular lawn treatments and feeding. I recommend applying a pre-seeding or pre-turfing fertiliser 6 weeks after laying turf or sowing seed. From then on, feed every weeks with the right lawn feed for the season.
Read more about lawn nutrition here. Set your lawn mower on the highest setting. The aim is to give the grass a trim, not a front back and sides shave!
Ensure to remove all the clippings after you have mown your lawn - if you leave them on a newly seeded lawn, you could be contributing to thatch which would undo all your hard work.
In addition, dead grass sitting dormant on top of your lawn will stop much needed sunlight getting to your new grass. Now, going forward, your recommended mowing height will change. Another way to determine mowing times is through grass height. Sprouts that cover the ground and grow to a 3 or 4 inch height are ready for mowing.
Although maintaining a moist soil structure was necessary for grass establishment, it is imperative that you allow the turf to dry for 48 hours before mowing it for the first time. Cutting only one third of the grass height away at a time, you may have to mow the grass repeatedly to bring it down to a more manageable 2- to 3 inch height. As you pass the mower across the lawn, use slow turns so that your wheels do not accidentally pinch the turf and pull it away from the soil.
It is possible for severe dieback to occur if the grass is mown incorrectly. I suspected the area in the middle with the symptoms was clay. There is an easy way to test and remedy this. I asked if he had a garden fork. He produced a brand new garden fork out of his garage forks still in shrink wrap. I took the fork and headed to the offending spot with him and his aging father in tow. I explained that the problem was that the soil had more than likely compacted.
This is when the soil is compressed and the air is pushed out. This forms a solid layer of dirt under the grass which prevents water, air, and food from getting to the roots of the grass.
I explained the easiest remedy was to stick the fork into the soil, push it as deep as it will go and then push the fork back and forth. Therefore creating holes in the compacted layer for the water etc to get through to the roots. Clay or bad soil.
You would usually use an aerator to solve this issue but at a push a garden fork will work. It all sounded so simple until I thrust the fork into the trouble area. It stopped dead and made a ringing noise. There was no way we were going to get a fork in there. I moved three steps away to where it was lush and tried again. The fork went straight in. Well, we now know what the problem was but he was going to have to contact the developer to get that fixed.
It is normally a lot easier than that. You can read more on an article I wrote about the subject for www. Why do some parts of my lawn grow faster then others? This is a problem that I seem to get asked about a lot. Especially here in the Waikato where the grass grows like mad in the Spring. That would not be so bad if your lawn all grew at one speed but that does not always happen.
Why is that? I have compiled a list of the main reasons this could happen and what you could do about it. It could be a weed that is growing faster than the lawn. During the Springtime we get a lot of issues with daisies. We get a lot of customers asking if we can cut the lawn shorter.
This achieves nothing except perhaps damaging the lawn as the daisies will still grow faster than the grass. If fact the could be back flowering within 48 hours.
If you are having issues with weeds I would suggest you go to this page on the Kiwicare site which will help you identify and treat the weed. This is one of the more common reasons. If you have a fine turf lawn you may have some coarse grasses getting in. These will grow faster than the fine grass and will need cutting more often. You can treat this issue but it is going to be hard work to get on top of the problem.
You will find more information on the Kiwicare site. If this is the case there is not a lot you can do short of digging up the lawn and resowing it again. Did you fertilise your lawn recently? If this is a recent problem and you have been fertilising your lawn with pellets then it may be due to an uneven spreading of the fertiliser.
This will need to grow out but you can avoid it in the future by using a spreader or by applying a liquid fertiliser instead. Change direction when mowing. If the shorter areas are uniform it may be ruts caused by always mowing your lawn one way.
Try changing the direction you mow each time and that will reduce that problem and give you a more even cut. The other thing you may want to check is that your front axle on the lawnmower does not have any play. A lot of mowers use plastic bushes and these can wear causing play in the wheels and an uneven cut.
Your local mower shop should be able to fix this problem for you. Your lawn may need aeration If the soil gets compacted then the grass can grow slowly in the compacted areas. Compacting is when the soil is compressed and this forms a hard layer on top which can prevent water, air, and nutrients from getting to the roots of the grass. This can be caused by A high traffic area walking, children, and animals Cars driving over the lawn A freestanding pool A clay area in the lawn You can buy an aeration tool from your local hardware like this one.
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