Newly laid turf (October 2017)in a sorry state...

[Muzza80]

Hi all,
I'm after some advice.

Last year I completely overhauled our garden, removing lots of hedge, a dead willow tree, old patio, levelling out a 2 tier garden, building a sleeper retaining wall, fencing and various other bits, I did most of the work myself but got a landscaper in to do the final bit of decking, patio and laying new turf.


Before:


After:


Now:




It was Rowlawn Medallion turf and was laid the middle of Octover last year on what was supposed to have been properly prepared ground with a layer of good quality topsoil laid on top of the existing ground which itself has been fully turned over beforehand.

Obviously we've had a really wet period here in central Scotland over the winter/spring but the turf is really in a very sorry state. Much of the lawn was completely sodding and mushy for this entire period, parts of it still are but it does seem to be slowly dring out now.

I gave the lawn it's first cut yesterday and this is what we're left with, it's very patchy, much of it seems to have turned to mush and looks dead to me....





Any advice on where we should go from here?

I was thinking lawn airation spike sandles over the entire lawn then overseeding with more Medallion seed but I really dont know what to do for the best?

Thanks!

 

[Nozzle]

What did you do with the clippings? It looks like you left them where they fell. Which is fine to do if they're very short (i.e cut regularly) but long clippings mat together instead, and block out light and oxygen and cause the grass beneath to go manky. Which is what you have. Rake it, throw down some feed n seed to the manufactures direction then leave it to work

Nozzle

 

[Muzza80]

What did you do with the clippings? It looks like you left them where they fell. Which is fine to do if they're very short (i.e cut regularly) but long clippings mat together instead, and block out light and oxygen and cause the grass beneath to go manky. Which is what you have. Rake it, throw down some feed n seed to the manufactures direction then leave it to work

Nozzle

Thanks, actually that's not clippings from being cut, I only cut yesterday for the first time and the clippings were on the whole, collected.

That's what's happened to the newly laid turf over the winter, much of it has just turned to mush like that, not having been cut at all, I assume because of how wet it all was, the ground was like mush for the last 6 months.

Same advice?

 

[Nozzle]

You could try with a scarifier, but there may be a drainage problem

Nozzle

 

[Manus]

Hi
Don't mean to hijack your thread but I have the exact same problem . Did any of Nozzle's suggestions work for you or did you find another solution ?.

 

[ThyJones]

Might be worth giving the guys at green thumb a shout. I nackered the grass at our old house and they recovered it and have used them ever since

 

[endecotp]

Regarding the photos above - and I know it’s a few weeks ago now - I think that looks pretty good.
It’s certainly in much better condition than my little patch is here in Edinburgh, after the winter.