# Glyn's lawn log - UK South Coast



## GlynRS2 (Apr 9, 2019)

Having been regularly viewing everyone else's posts on the Lawn Forum since the spring I thought it was time to start my own lawn journal and share my time in the lawn with others.
I live down on the south coast of the UK in West Sussex about 400 yards from the sea (English Channel). We are on a narrow coastal plain that is bounded by the sea to the south and the chalk hills of the South Downs about a mile and a half to the north. This creates a bit of a microclimate that has milder winters and slightly cooler summers than the rest of the south east of England. For example, we only had six days of frost for the entire winter last year. However, we are exposed to the prevailing south westerly wind, which can be heavily salt laden in a gale. It is also much drier than average for the UK, missing a lot of the relief rainfall that falls north of the South Downs. All in all, some good things and some challenges for the keen lawnsman.
This year the lawn was looking a little sorry for itself coming out of winter, largely due to the very dry weather for the first few months of the year. So having thought about it for the past couple of years, I actually got round to fitting an irrigation system. That together with an overseed of the same PRG mix that they use in many of the top UK soccer stadiums had the lawn looking good by the summer:

*June 2019*







*November 2019*







Having previously had a 20 inch gas powered Atco Balmoral (same as Allett Kensington) I managed to get the battery powered version for less than half price as a new unwanted gift on eBay. I have got to say being able to mow without the noise is great, although I do need to have a second battery to double cut the entire lawn. One battery will cover about 4000sqft. However, swapping the battery out takes seconds. Maybe not quite the quality of a swardman Electra, but about a sixth the price, so happy for now. The gas pwered Balmoral is now just used for scarifying and verticutting duties.



I will try and keep this journal updated, although things are starting to slow down as the temps are starting to fall.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

Great looking yard and landscaping.


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## Vtx531 (Jul 1, 2019)

Exactly what I think of for a Brittish backyard. Looks great. What is the HOC?


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## Chris LI (Oct 26, 2018)

You have a beautiful lawn and garden! Thanks for sharing all the photos. It's nice to see more folks from all over the globe joining the forum.


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## GlynRS2 (Apr 9, 2019)

Thanks guys.
HOC was at 5/8" in June and currently at 3/4". The PRG stripes a little better at higher HOC, but love the carpet like look at lower cut heights.
I seem to get slightly fewer worm casts with the higher HOC at this time of year.


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## Mark B (May 30, 2019)

Welcome Glyn, proper Welsh name that. Tidy looking lawn and mower! Funny how us Brits love our worm casts ha! I see you've listed your grass type as part kbg. Do you know any specifics about the grass seed you have? I didn't find much ssmg/kbg available to choose from.


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## RCUK (Jul 16, 2018)

Welcome Glyn, fellow Brit :thumbup:

Lawn looks great, super jealous of the Allett 43 did you get a warranty with it? They had a used one for sale a month ago but only 6 months warranty so chickened out.

Guessing you are using a DLF or Johnson's mix of seed?

What's your trick in removing the casts?


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## jabopy (Nov 24, 2018)

Nice garden Glyn, lovely lawn, :thumbup: and I do like lots of benches around,Hope you get to use them.


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## GlynRS2 (Apr 9, 2019)

Hi fellow Brits :thumbup:

My lawn is now largely PRG. It was more of a fine fescue/red fescue/prg/kbg mix up until the drought in the summer of 2018. I had got this seed mix from one of the greenskeepers at the local golf course as it was their fairway mix, not sure of the exact contents and mix rates. However, the lawn got fairly toasted in the summer of 2018 and it seemed that I lost most of the fescue and kbg when I was able to bring it back in the autumn. This spring I did a heavy scarify and overseeded with Johnson's Premier Pitch as I wanted something that looked good and had good wear tolerance. This is great seed, quick germination and looks great. However, it struggles a bit in the more shaded areas so I have added some Johnson's 4Turf to those areas as the tetraploid prg should do better competing with tree roots and less sunlight. My lawn faces south and is in full sun all day, apart from the end 2 metres which is shaded. 
I had been thinking of going for KBG, but like you say it was difficult to source this in the UK. DLF were willing to supply Sombrero in 20kg bags at £8.00/kg delivered. This is something that I may have gone with if going for a full renovation and could be something for the future.

Worm casts have been a complete pain for the past 6 weeks or so. I have gone up slightly in HOC which seems to have helped a little. However, I try to brush these off with a stiff bassine brush or even blow them off with my leaf blower if they have dried out enough. Having said that the worms have made a real mess in the shaded areas where it looks like a mud bath and significantly reduced the grass desnity, so I have been avoiding mowing this bit of the lawn altogether unless completely dry. I may try getting the brush attachment for the Allett.

The Allett Liberty 43 I got off eBay for £450 as it was an unwanted competition prize. It came in a sealed box and receipt from the supplier, so I registered it for the full 2 year warranty with Allett, which they confirmed. I got a second unbranded 5Ahr battery for about £70. If I double cut all my lawn area I am right on the limit of one battery, but swapping batteries is very quick. It is much quieter and less stressful somehow than using the petrol powered Atco Balmoral 20 inch mower I have had for several years. The only problem I have is that I have various cassettes for the 20inch machine, which won't fit the smaller Liberty, so just use the Balmoral for these duties.

I get most of my lawncare supplies from either Pitchcare, Germinal or Agrigem. This was my first year using a PGR, which seemed to work very well. I didn't want to pay out £350 for 5 litres of Primo Maxx II, so got 1 litre of Moddus for £90 instead. Both products are made by Syngenta, but Moddus is 25% Trinexapac-ethyl, whereas Primo Maxx II is 11.64% Trinexapac-ethyl, so basically I have been using half the amounts recomended for Primo Maxx. As the bottle arrived leaking from Agrigem and I had lost about 100mls, they sent me out a replacement. So I now have a spare unopened bottle. If you want to try some give me a shout.


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## GlynRS2 (Apr 9, 2019)

Gave the lawn a bit of a spoon feed and tonic with this little lot:



ProKleen Liquid Iron Lawn Tonic @ 600mls/100m2 (~20 fl oz / 1000sqft), Maxwell Humimax @60mls/100m2 (~2 fl oz / 1000sqft), and Basfoliar Turf Complete SL 9-4-6 (+2% MgO) @600mls/100m2 (~20 fl oz / 1000sqft). The iron boost should improve the colour, harden up the turf for the colder weather and also deter moss and may even reduce the worm castings.
Should get a response in the next couple of days, will report back.


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## RCUK (Jul 16, 2018)

Nice! Thanks for the tip on the Moddus, will give it a go next year, seems well priced.

Did a similar mix of chemicals today, iron and seaweed but the iron clogs my sprayer so next time will try to filter the mix using tights 

I know some may not approve but I use Purity Soil Conditioner for the worm problem, has helped a lot. I still have casts but much less now. I'll PM the suppliers contact details if you are interested.

Pitchcare's 18-9-9 is a good alternative to the Germinal one you use, worth checking it out when you run short on your current liquid.


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## GlynRS2 (Apr 9, 2019)

Had the afternoon off and it wasn't raining so did a charity mow.
Two days post foliar feed and tonic:



Looks a deeper green to the eye, if not in the photo.
Growth has really slowed down in the past week with average daily temperatures now only around 7'C (45'F) with lows of 4'C (39'F) and highs of only 10'C (50'F). Probably only having 9 hours of daylight doesn't help either.


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## GlynRS2 (Apr 9, 2019)

It wasn't raining today so gave the lawn a quick mow to tidy it up. Holding good colour for January, but got a few fungal patches where it has been so wet.


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## Belfort (May 21, 2018)

Your garden looks great.

How much Moddus did you use per square meter?


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## testwerke (Apr 4, 2019)

Such a beautiful garden, Glyn. Well done. I want to move to the UK, Cornwall specifically


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## GlynRS2 (Apr 9, 2019)

Sorry, but I am not very good at keeping a journal up to date, as is clearly evident.
However, I will give an update on my 2020 lawn adventures.

The lawn was looking in good condition at the start of the season in April:










We had no rain at all for 5 weeks in May and by the end was looking a little dry in places, despite regular irrigation. But the rest of the garden seemd to be enjoying the early summer:



















By end of August was still looking good with HOC down to 13mm (0.5 inches):










Having lots of complements from family and the neighbours, so the next thing I did was spray it with Glyphosate! 
August 31st was time to say goodbye to the old lawn:










So next comes the renovation!


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## GlynRS2 (Apr 9, 2019)

So why renovate what appears to be a very good lawn?
Well, basically I wasn't happy with the mix of grass and how it was progressing.
Originally the lawn was mainly a fine fescue with a mix of strong creeping red fescue, Chewings fescue, brown-top bent and some dwarf perenial rye also present. A typical English luxury lawn blend. However, over the years the fine fescue was dominating and it is not a grass type that I particularly like. The main problems is it goes brown at the first hint of summer heat or drought, builds up a thick layer of thatch, and feels sharp and prickly when walked on bare foot. For the past few years I have been aggresively scarifying and dethatching in the autumn and spring and overseeding with perenial rye grass. This has certainly improved things and I could get it up to about 70% PRG at times; however, the fine fescue would always come back and also an increasing amount of creeping bent grass. I have been reel mowing fot the past 24 months and generally keeping to a 16mm HOC (5/8ths ") most of the season and I really like the stripes that you can get with PRG. So now was the time to banish the fescue and bent grass and have a 100% PRG lawn. 
It took some time to persuade my wife that this was a good idea as she thought the lawn was looking great and certainly dominating the neighbourhood.

*Renovation progress*

*August 31st 2020*, goodbye old lawn:










1st app of Glyphosate:









*
September 9th*, after second app of Glyphosate:










Time to do some levelling


















*September 10th*, seed went down


















*September 14th*, first signs of germination










so regular irrigation of 5 minutes, four times a day










*September 21st*, starting to fill in










but still a few slow patches, causing anxiety:










*September 24th*, I gave a light top dressing of a top soil/compost mix 2 days ago, and that seems to have helped things along:




























It is quite stressful waiting for grass to germinate and grow, but it is starting to look like it will turn out OK.
I will try and post further updates on progress.


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## RCUK (Jul 16, 2018)

Before you posted your 2nd update, I was thinking why &#128512;

What seed mix did you use for the renovation?

I'm sure the result will be incredible. Good luck!


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## GlynRS2 (Apr 9, 2019)

The seed I went for was Barenbrug RPR Sport. I am keen to see how good the self repairing and spreading nature of the Balibro is.


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## MNLawnGuy1980 (May 10, 2019)

Love the journal and seeing the pics. Great looking lawn/garden. Good luck and I hope it goes as planned, looking forward to seeing the results.


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## GlynRS2 (Apr 9, 2019)

*October 3rd 2020*
23 days after seed down and 18 days after germination.




























I have got grass growing everywhere, but still a bit thin in some areas. I therefore threw done a bit more seed in those slow areas.
Now had it's 3rd mow at 30mm (1.25")as some of the thicker areas are growing fast.

Also gave it an app of Miracle-Gro Water Soluble Lawn Food at half rate. This is 36-6-6, and the N is largely urea (33.1% urea). So I did 500g over 200m2 in 10 litres of water via back pack sprayer. This equates to 90g N (82.75g urea) per 100m2 or 2.95oz N (2.71oz urea) per 1000sqft.

Will be doing this as a weekly spoon feed for next few weeks. Also lots of rain this week and staying mild, so should give it a boost.


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## GlynRS2 (Apr 9, 2019)

OK some more updates on progress of the renovation

*October 11th 2020*
31 days after seed down and 26 days after germination



















Really starting to thicken up in places:










*October 18th 2020*
38 days after seed down and 33 days after germination




























*October 24th 2020*
44 days after seed down and 39 days after germination




























Progress is slowing down as the weather cools, but the last few thin spots are eventually filling in.
This renovation process needs patience!


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