UK gardening - lawn seeds

Author

lawn seeds

Phil L

2005-09-27, 5:21 pm

Today I scarified my lawn, I got out quite a lot of dead grass and moss, but
in some places I ripped the grass up in small sheets, underneath were lots
of leatherjackets (daddylong legs larvae?) - some parts of it look barely
alive given the recent plague of these insects we have had in this part of
the country...anyway, my question is regarding lawn seed - if I sow it now,
will it get chance to germinate before winter sets in? - we are in a well
sheltered spot and get full sun most of the day, however the ground is quite
wet most of the time as we are also in a dip.

TIA

--
If God had intended us to drink beer, He would have given us stomachs.

Mike Lyle

2005-09-27, 6:21 pm

Phil L wrote:
> Today I scarified my lawn, I got out quite a lot of dead grass and
> moss, but in some places I ripped the grass up in small sheets,
> underneath were lots of leatherjackets (daddylong legs larvae?) -
> some parts of it look barely alive given the recent plague of these
> insects we have had in this part of the country...anyway, my
question
> is regarding lawn seed - if I sow it now, will it get chance to
> germinate before winter sets in? - we are in a well sheltered spot
> and get full sun most of the day, however the ground is quite wet
> most of the time as we are also in a dip.

Yes, it's daddy-long-legs time! Raking will expose the
leatherjackets, and we hope the natural predators will do their
stuff. I've never done it, but watering and leaving covered with
plastic sheet overnight should also bring them to the surface to be
dealt with next day -- I suppose you treat a different area every
evening, unless you own a plastic sheet factory! Presumably rain
would remove the need for the sheet.

On the main question, yes, it's fine to sow grass seed now -- I've
done it in late October.

--
Mike.

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