MDR lawn thinning in winter shade – is ETF a good match for overseeding?
Completed a full renovation in the autumn of MDR. Has come up awesome however the lawn is north facing up against a boundary fence.
The part of the lawn shaded by the fence through the winter has struggled and thinned out. Coming into spring I will be overseeding the gaps.
My question is, does ETF match well colour wise with MDR? Given ETF tolerates the shade more I was thinking it would be a better choice to fill the gaps if the visual difference isnt too far off. A full spray off and reseeding isnt in the cards as it wont get past the boss of the house. Product application and regular mowing as well as PGR are all used on the lawn for maintenance.
How long did you leave it over winter? My MDR has performed really well over winter, even in the shade, at 60–70 mm. It’s also along a north-facing fence line. In previous years, I’ve had problems when leaving it any shorter.
If it’s a nice ETF/MDR blend, they mix really well colour wise. However, if you’re only using it for patch repairs, I don’t think it’ll look great.
@Jonny Hicks im adding topsoil to level out a few bumps and overseeding so if I was mix i would be overseeding the existing thin MDR in the shade with ETF (rather than just patch repairs) if that makes a difference to how you'd expect it to look?
Mowed at approx 50mm the existing MDR over winter.
@Adam Facer I think if you'd left it 60-70mm you'd of seen a significant difference in performance tbh.
If you do mix you want to aim for a 70:30 ish ETF:MDR or it can end up looking a bit patchy with clumps of mostly rye.
@Jonny Hicks thanks for that, might give it another go with MDR and see how it performs next winter a bit longer
@Jonny Hicks for completeness this is how much its thinned out at its worst. Let me know if that changes your opinion.
Bit wet looking today as a pre emergent herbicide went down this morning.
@Adam Facer was it nice and thick heading into winter? That would be my suggestion as well, make sure it’s super thick going into winter. I'll grab some photos of mine later today and drop them below to show you the thick and thin area for comparison.
@Jonny Hicks not particularly on that side as I did a complete kill off and reseeding march, that area started to get shaded and never got the chance to establish as well as the rest of it. Overseeding in a few weeks and having a whole summer to establish should help it along with higher mowing