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Failed Elfin Tall Fescue lawn renovation in NZ – overseed now or start again in autumn?
So my lawn Reno has been a disaster, I don’t even want to share a photo. The goal was to have a primo elfin tall fescue lawn but the birds have annihilated it! I followed the NZLA lawn reno guide but it’s still terrible. Do I splash out and buy another 10 kgs of elfin tall fescue seed and over sow or just buy cheap lawn seed and completely start again in the autumn???
No definitely share your experience and photos so we can possibly help, the NZLA community are all very supportive from my experience. Besides when you do finally grow a nice lawn you can look at your before pics and see how far you have come!
Edit: I am wondering if it’s something other than birds eating all your seed, did you rake the seed in for good seed to soil contact?
I would have another go so long as you can keep water up. If you go with cheap seed you'll have to kill it all again, more cost in the long run. Use frost cloth to keep the birds off, worth the investment and helps keep it damp and warm
@Steven Franc thanks, I’ve just ordered another 10 kgs!
@Steve Morton definitely post your journey on here as you go so that the community can help along the way
@Steve Morton good stuff. This was my etf for a few weeks post sowing
@Steven Franc how’s it looking now?
@Jonny Hicks
It will be lack of water. Jonny put this guide out about it;
https://www.newzealandlawnaddicts.com/lawn-tips/sowing-seed-soil-temps-irrigation/
@Iain Perry interesting I had 4 sprinklers set up on timers giving me full coverage of the lawn.
In my opinion trying to move a portable sprinkler around and not have patches dry out would be a full time operation. It’s essential that the young seed/seedlings don’t dry out. I wouldn’t be blaming the birds at all, they consume less than 5% at most. This is lack of water and moisture in the top part of the soil profile.
@KJ interesting I had 4 sprinklers set up on timers giving me full coverage of the lawn.
@Steve Morton it’s pretty hard to keep a good lawn without an irrigation system. It might also be quite a challenge to get a good strike at this time of year without it. If you do decide to go ahead I’d strongly recommend getting some advice on layout even if you install it yourself. Future you will be very happy when you see the results.
@Phil.P cheers Phil, I might end up having to go down that road!
@Steve Morton I’ve installed Neta from Mitre 10 and I do not recommend. Apparently Irrigation Express is the place the start but I have not used them personally. I plan to redo my system in the autumn & will replace all the Neta spray heads & add extra spray heads.
Etf has given a lot people trouble.
Did you use a pre emergent herbicide?
Have a crack at pre germination of etf .
Monitor how quickly the surface drys of which we don't want it to dry out completely.
Check soil temps, etf needs it hot . And it's slow in cooler conditions. .
Just cover the seed on surface is the slowest to germinate and the drys out very fast .
@Stephen yes it got a pre emergent. We did have some cooler weather. My gut feel is the sparrows were the problem, at one stage there were probably 60 or more. I’ve sown my top lawn two weeks ago so will post photos of that soon
@Steve Morton ,shade cloth appears to be the winner in bird loss control. Down side is price . I use shade cloth when I need , still stored in the shed , advantage of a tiny lawn , lasts longer as uv stable . My first cloth disintegrated .
Most failures of etf appears neither one thing , water is tops , but temp is next . An odd feeling about pre emergent being slightly to high but it's only a thought. Guys that used pre germination had better results. I did a test tray at about 17 degrees in December in shade . Planted 4 ways , 2cm deep . 1cm ,lightly covered , no cover . No cover was last . Followed by 2 cm . No pre emergent herbicide. All kept moist .
60 odd birds is quite a lot to contend with.
@Steve Morton I used a pack of small bamboo stakes (about 40-50cm) from mitre10 and a rolls of bird scare tape from farmlands ($9 for 150m). It keeps the birds and cats away, well it did for me anyway, this is my second time using this method successfully. It's way cheaper than frost cloth also, it just does not have the advantage of retaining moisture like frost cloth does, but with automatic irrigation its not an issue.
@David van Schreven great thanks. I'll try something similar when I reseed it this week.