Broadleaf is nasty stuff.
I can get you some, but it\'s not nice.
Better off hacking the whole lot down with a mower, scarifying the top 6 inches, and then steaming it to kill all the seeds and nasties. Then strew grass seed.
Yes, expensive, but better than the ongoing problem.
Ants? you can buy an ant-bait which they love, carry back to the ant\'s nest, and then that kills them in situ. I also believe it sterilises the queen.
If you want to be a complete thug ... humbrol fluoro paint, dab an ant, watch the little git walk \'home\', then dig up & pour 200 litres of boiling water on the nest...
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>>scarifying the top 6 inches, and then steaming it
Again with feeling, but this time in english ??
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RAKE IT DOWN Roight DEEP, (ooo arr!) and then use one of those wallpaper peeler thingies to steam it!
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mark I would suggest you simply use a strimmer to cut the weeds down fairly bare to let the grass grow ,mowing the grass will make the plants tiller and spread smothering out weeds .if you see the need you can spray weeds when the grass is stronger
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Right now defender\'s approach is sounding better (less hard work).
Ian - are you serious about the steaming thing ? 75sqm may not be much but that could still take a long time !
And when you\'re talking about Broadleaf - how bad is bad ? And is there a less bad alternative ?
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Not as bad as it sounds, Mark. 44 gal drum, gas heater, fill your watering cans with 75 C+ water, and flood the area. I can't reccomend a broadleaf killer for Uk - we can still use some nasties here, speak to your local garden centre about non Paraquat-type alternates!
I always found the dousing worked well - killed the xisting grass, but that was easily composted in, and then start from scratch.
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Mark, I'll have a chat with 'er outdoors over the weekend about both your lawn and your ant problems. It's open weekend at the horticultural college so I should be able to get the inside line on appropriate products, many of which are not available to the general public but can be obtained if you have the appropriate spraying licence. Mrs ND missed the final part of the spraying course as it clashed with getting her chainsaw licence, but several friends have appropriate certification.
IIRC, 'er outdoors will be getting her spraying licence over the summer.
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Aside from any comments about allowing your wife to get a chainsaw licence, if there is anything available which she can get or you see at the show, could you just get me some and we can settle up later ?
I have the grass weeds/problem over about 75sqm and the ant problem sporadically over about 3/4 acre if that helps.
Cheers.
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I'll see what I can do. I'm up at the college this evening to help put the finishing touches to 'er show garden and will be having a beer with a couple of the lecturers afterwards, so should be able to find out what products will be effective for your problems and find out where to source them.
I'll either email you or give you a ring at some point over the weekend.
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You must expect lots of weeds to appear when you sow grass seed. As a part of the preparation you will have dug down & raked it over. Weed seeds that are buried deep below the surface & have therefore been dormant for many years will be awakened by the light and so will grow... along with your expensive lawn seed.
What you ought to do: weed it. Get a scaffolding plank, and place it gently on the lawn, so as to avoid stepping on young lawn. Then sit there with your wife & a large gin & pull weeds.
Easy first try: Mow it. Most broad-leaved plants hate being mown. (Some exceptions - Plantain, loves it as it grows flat anyway; Dandelions adapt nicely to being regularly mown & produce their flowers on tiny stems.) Mow it. Mow it weekly and the weeds will mostly lose the battle.
As you rightly point out, a broad-leaved weedkiller will kill your grass as well in the first year after planting. Grazon 90 is excellent stuff for klling thistles & docks & nettles in mature grassland - but it comes in rather industrial quantities.
After you've mown your lawn weekly for a few weeks, most of the weeds will with luck have suffered. Some stubborn dandelions will remain. Go to the garden centre & buy a 'paint on' type of weedkiller for spot treatment. That will just affect the dandelions or whatever you paint it on.
Fertilise the lawn in the autumn.
Next spring, use a combined fertiliser & weedkiller, and you should be half way to having a decent lawn. By the year after next, it will be decent. You may need to put down extra lawn seed in patches that look a bit thin.
Patience is a virtue. Be reminded of the American tourist who on seeing the beautiful lawns of a Cambridge college offered the head gardener 1000 USD if he would tell him his secret. He then upped it to 10000 USD. The head gardener said, 'Well I'll tell you for free. Mow it & roll it twice a week. For 400 years.'
I promise it works. I once 'inherited' a small field that was waist high in nettles & docks & thistles. 3 years later it is now nice grass; this is mostly down to regular mowing & an initial application of Grazon.
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Just to add to Mapmaker's post, most of the seeds disturbed and thereby awakened by the lawn preparation will be annuals such as poppy, scentless mayweed, field marigold, corncockle and the like. Poppy seeds in particular have been known to lie dormant for well over a century. They will only regrow next year if the soil is disturbed and this year's seeds are awakened, but if you mow them down they won't even get to set seed. Some of what you have will no doubt be perennials that weren't removed in the preparation process. Those are tougher but will be fewer in number I'll bet and will be easy to spot when the lawn is established.
Too late now, but if I was putting down a new lawn I'd use turf.
Ironically about five years ago I deliberately planted wild flowers over a large part of my lawn. It looks fantastic just at the moment--a sea of flowers--and requires far less maintenance (two cuts a year and that's it) than the lawned part of the garden, plus you still get to use the "wild" area as (rough) lawn in the late part of the summer--does it good in fact to walk in the new seeds.
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top idea ChrisR, but wild flowers does NOT = what Mark has in his lawn, I'll bet! Thistles, docks & nettles...
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>>Too late now, but if I was putting down a new lawn I'd use turf.
And I'm thinking I may have to do that. Which is annoying
Thistles, docks & nettles
oh yes. And more.
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No you don't need to. Mow it, water it, & be patient. If you're hoping for a soft grassy surface this summer for lying there looking at the swallows, you will be disappointed, but just wait until next year.
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Mapmaker has again demonstrated his exemplary green-fingered credentials. Much mowing (mower set high) will weaken the weeds whilst allowing the grass to strengthen. Gradully reduce the height, but not to the "finished" level you desire for this season.
The ants are another matter. Will get back to you on that one.
Can you advise what sort of soil you have? Clay? Sand? Loam? Acidic?
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>>Can you advise what sort of soil you have? Clay? Sand? Loam? Acidic?
Brown with weeds and ants.
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Is it sticky when it gets wet & baked hard at the moment? - clay
Sandy (like being on the beach - easy to work, doesn't pile up)
Loam - soft & nice & full of well-rotted compost.
Acidic - does it go well in your G&T? (struggling to think of an easy way to test this...)
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Acidic - look at the plants in the garden. Loads of happy rhodedendrons and azaleas? Then it's acidic. Ditto natures litmus paper, the Hydrangea. Blue = acidic, pink = lime/neutral.
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I did think of them, but concluded that after 200 years it might be a bit short on healthy rhodedendrons, azaleas & hydrangeas.
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I can't see the colour of the soil because its covered in weeds !!
Hydrangea (are you sure its spelled like that) are mostly pink with some blue bits.
Most of garden is quite dark earth, it been either overgrown or vegetables for a very long time. Stuff grows very well and very quickly - especially weeds.
Some of it quite colourless & solid from having been under the concrete floor of a barn for many years. Solid to the point that in some areas despite having rotovated it about 6 weeks ago, it is now quite impossible to get a fork into it.
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Sounds like baked London clay to me--there hasn't been much rain recently, has there? Were animals kept in the barn and on the surrounding paddock? If so that soil will be very very fertile indeed, for obvious reasons, so that might explain the profusion of broad-leaved perennials. Looks like feeding your lawn won't be a problem, though draining and aerating it will.
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Around the barn the ground is certainly very fertile. Under the barn it most certainly is not.
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>Under the barn it most certainly is not.
And is that the only place where the ground is rock hard, or is that the general condition of the rest as well? Clay soil that hasn't been broken up for a while cracks like a badly-fired pot in hot weather. Of course an area that was for a couple of centuries vegetable garden may well have a much lower clay content, and much higher fertility, than the natural earth.
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The ground under the barn is awful. Everywhere else it looks pretty good to me. Certainly there is a massive difference between the earth from under the barn and the earth which has been a vegetable garden.
To summarise;
area from underneath barn- Solid, horrible, and light coloured. Gradually getting planted with loads of fertiliser stuff in each digging.
area which was vegetable garden - dark, soft, not clay and stuff grows. Half now grass seed & old vegetable plants, other half still vegetable garden.
area which was ignored and over grown - seemingly good earth, now covered in grass seed and weeds (big weeds, ape-men seen swinging from one weed to the next, herds of wildebeest lost for many years in amongst them, Elvis sighted and mast tip of Marie Celeste can be seen.)
grass area - quite mossy and weedy, but good strong grass, covered in red ants and red ant nests.
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You paint a delightful picture. All you need is Angelina Jolie and a Land Rover and you'll be sorted.
So it doesn't sound like you have clay soil then. The under barn stuff will take ages to improve unless you import topsoil, but that's probably overkill and digging in organic matter will eventually fix it. It sounds like a bit of digging will bring the vegetable patch back. If it's been fairly recently in use it probably looks worse than it is. Sweat required.
As for the lawn area, do as Mapmaker says. Just cut down the weeds, hope Sting doesn't emerge with an aboriginal chief and a conservation project, and keep mowing it until the grass begins to win. Remaining big weeds will be obvious and can be pulled out by hand quite easily.
Gardens are best done a bit at a time. I do five minutes or so after work most days, but then I work at the bottom of the garden so it's on my way home.
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>>All you need is Angelina Jolie and a Land Rover and you'll be sorted.
What would I want the Landrover for ?
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What would I want the Landrover for ?
To keep chickens in?
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Certain! You doubt the Green-fingered team of ND & Mapmaker!??
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top idea ChrisR, but wild flowers does NOT = what Mark has in his lawn, I'll bet! Thistles, docks & nettles...
I bet they are in there, just outnumbered. I agree that mowing, and mowing, and mowing will sort it. Mark, once you've mowed it down, can you borrow a couple of sheep? Should keep the dogs fit anyway, though they might be upset by the intellectual level.
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Right, the definitive answer according to the lecturer in lawncare at Mrs ND's Horticultural College:
"If you want a decent lawn from seed, don't sow it in the spring."
Still, a little late for that, so how to make good your existing lawn? As previously suggested, mow at the top setting on your mower, ideally twice a week. After 3 weeks, drop it a notch and continue your bi-weekly mowing. The minute we have any significant rainfall*, dash out and buy a topical weedkiller, to be applied by paintbrush or similar. Apply to dandelions and other low-growing weeds. Continue the mowing.
In late September/early October apply an autumn feed. In spring apply a weed & feed. Come next May you'll have a lovely lawn.
One point with the mowing; vary the direction each time you get mowing, otherwise you will weaken the grass as it will repeatedly get bent/cut in the same direction.
As for the ants, their firm recommendation was to get on to a pest control company. The sort of chemicals you will need to eridicate ants on that scale are not to be taken lightly. Rentokil it is, old chap.
Alan
(*Weedkillers of all types work best when the plant is actively growing. The more vigorous the growth, the more effective the weedkiller)
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