A scorched lawn

Blog categories

Blog authors

Blog archive

by Adam Pasco

What a disaster! Of course I wanted a lawn with stripes, but nice alternating green ones, not brown!

Scorched stripe on a lawn What a disaster! If I hadn't been so conscientious in my effort to rid my lawn of moss I wouldn't have been in the position of having to repair the bare patches I'd created. Of course I wanted a lawn with stripes, but nice alternating green ones, not brown!

It was all my own fault. I had a photography day planned in my garden to take pictures for the What to do now section in Gardeners' World Magazine. Autumn lawn care was on the agenda, so some nice practical shots of applying an autumn lawn feed, weed and moss killer were in order. Out came the lawn applicator, into the hopper went the granular product, and off I went ... wheeling the applicator up and down the lawn as the photographer snapped away.

I was so enthusiastic to get going that I set the initial dose of lawn chemical in the wheeled applicator far too high. It wasn't until a day or two later that a particularly dark stripe started appearing. And of course this wasn't out of sight at the edge, but right down the middle of the lawn! I tried copiously watering the area to try and dilute the lawn treatment and alleviate its affects, but to no avail - the damage was done.

Oh well. Time for another photo shoot and feature - this time on lawn renovation techniques. At least September is an ideal time for such work.

Surely I'm not the only one who makes mistakes when gardening. Admitting them in public is very therapeutic, I promise! Any takers?

Previous story
Out and about in autumn

Next story
Aching for annuals

Discuss this blog post

Talkback: A scorched lawn

Your comment will appear after a quick registration step

Gardeners' World Web User 24/09/2008 at 20:01

doesn't that take all the goodness out of gardening growing your own lawn and not a artificial one. the next thing you will be putting in is artificial plants to go with your artificial lawn that is sad and boring and not gardening.i don't use weedkillers at all.i just grow grass plants and veg. my water butt's always fill up when it rains so i am happy doing a garden the old way thanks it may be harder but you do get a lot more pleasure out of it.joey.

Gardeners' World Web User 25/09/2008 at 19:52

To all,Please can you advise me URGENTLY . I have put "Dead fast sodium chloride weed killer " down 4 weeks ago on some land which I removed shrubs and plants and re-graded.

Its covered now with that special black weed cover permeable material I got from Homebase.

Do you think it will be ok to turf the area (50 sqm) end of February/March 2009, will this be ok? Do you think the weed killer will kill the grass at that time? Please advise

Gardeners' World Web User 26/09/2008 at 10:20

Hi, I'm sorry to hear about your lawn, but very impressed that you shared your mistake with the rest of us, that is the way we learn.

My lawn is green all right... but it contains a lot of moss and weeds, at first I decided to try and make it look really good but now I am just happy it is green. This time of year I also have different types of mushrooms growing and to start with I didn't like that either but now I don't really mind as long as there are not too many! A wet and cold summer caused this, so maybe next year it will be better.

When it comes to an artificial lawn, well to be honest I would have to agree with Joey, as I dislike anything artificial in the garden, a lawn that is not real would never get into mine, I would much rather have moss, weeds and mushrooms any day!

happy gardening and good luck with your lawns.

Gardeners' World Web User 26/09/2008 at 14:26

The lawn I am fed up with mine since the trees on the railway grew up so high that they blot the sun from my garden I asked the maintanence dept to cut the tops out and they informed me that I wasn't entitled to light, these trees were not here when I moved in in 1975, my gardens ruined Kay

Gardeners' World Web User 28/09/2008 at 10:04

I live in a very dry part of the country, even this year, but my grass never turns brown. I use a manual mower (no fighting with the cable or disturbing the peace with noisy machine), use the highest setting all season, never weed or feed and allow the wild flowers to grow. There aren't many weeds, despite my planting daisies & speedwell. Insects & birds love it & I have a lovely lush green lawn all year round, for less effort. George - sodium chlorate is very persistent. Allow 6 months on free-draining soil, up to a year on heavy clay, before replanting. You shouldn't need the membrane, except it hides the dead & dying herbiage. Good luck.

See more comments...