chris120

Does anyone know what "Lawn Sand" is in Italian, it is used to treat lawn grass and kill off the moss. Can anyone recommend a good weed 'n' feed product for the lawn

Isakat

Chris, I was just discussing this with Angeli on the gardening forum. I saw in our local garden centre a huge bag of around 50/80 ltrs that treats 700m2 of lawn and has the effect I need, feed, weed killer and moss killer at 99 euro.
I think it is expensive , but I have not seen a smaller box as they have it in the UK.
I will have a look at the gardening websites to see if they have something similar but cheaper.

chris120

What's it called?

Isakat

I will find out this afternoon.

I have used in the past Compo Floranid slow feed +antimuschio and Compo Floranid slow feed +disserbante, but it looks that Compo does not make feed + antimoss +weedcontrol all in one. Applying these products separately might make sense as here in Italy the grass is usually mixed with Dichondra Repens, which might be killed off with the weed control.

I have also found that the soil/compost by Compo is better than other soil I have bought over the years.
Wolfgarten and Evergreen are other two producers of similar products.

chris120

Please note i am a totally uninformed, reluctant gardener, i just happened to have inherited a large garden, in some ways i prefer concrete! However during my research have seen that weed 'n' feed products (ie treatments mixing fertilizer and weed killer in the same products) have been banned in some countries. It still seems available in UK though but it may not be available here any more.

Isakat

Chris,I agree weed killer is poison, so it would not surprise me that it is banned in some countries. It is available here and I have used it only on our lawn that is ornamental in front of the house.We have a large lawn with fruit trees at the back and I have only used organic fertilizer on it as I do not want to eat fruit with chemicals from the weedkiller.This lawn is now infested with moss, so I need to rake it manually.
I also weed by hand, but in a large garden this is an impossible task.
So,if your lawn is infested with weeds, the choice is feed+weedkiller, or simply keeping the grass cut short so the weeds are not really visible and keeping them cut it will not give them a chance to seed themselves.

chris120

have you found a good way to get rid of couchgrass, my lawn has lots of it

Isakat

The only way to deal with it is to dig out the lawn and search for the rizomes in the ground. I have the same infestation and this spring I am digging out big patches of grass, cleaning the soil and re-seeding.
There is also a chemical you can use which is not selective, thus can kill other plants-see the link in the RHS http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/...e.aspx?pid=283

chris120

Looks like i'll have to live with it then, if i were to try to eradicate it by mechanically digging out it would take a month of sundays - and more

chris120

did you find out what the 99 euro feed, weed killer and moss killer is called by any chance?

Isakat

Apparently, the worst thing to do is to dig the lawn with a machine as the rhizomes are chopped and spread everywhere, so the infestation gets worse.I dug a few patches in the lawn this afternoon and it looks like I have to dig out the lawn and re-seed it this year.I have seen the rolls of turf, but it is so expensive here.

I went to the garden centre and they had nothing in the fertilizer section, so I do not know what it was. I will keep my eyes open as they said lots of stuff is coming soon. When I asked, they said it could have been a Compo product.

davehornet6

hi chris. i work in 200 acre gardens in surrey and in past years i have been (unofficially)in charge of keeping lawns weed and moss free.
every spring we spread a granular fertiliser/weed control on our lawns which really works well. it is called Scotts (manufacturer) Renovator pro.
it is somewhat! important to treat your lawn with the correct amount of this product (WARNING!! if you double dose for instance your lawn may turn black, however it should revive after copious watering)
i have found a company in the U.K that supplies it and if you give them a call they may send to Italy (or so it says on thier delivery page)
here it is.
http://www.pitchcare.com/shop/turf-m...ed-killer.html

we use a fertiliser rotary spreader at work to spread correct amount, but at my home i have spread it by hand at a rate of two single handfulls spread over 1m square.

OH yeah, if you do use this stuff do not mow lawn for 4 days before and 4 days after, if it doesn't rain within a couple of days after application i would water it in manually or it may not do anything!

someone told me you can use sharp sand on your lawn if you cant get proper lawn sand (never tried that though!) also if you mix your sand with fine topsoil at 1:3 with a handfull or two of grass seed and spread that over your lawn (just throw it down and use the back of a flat rake to spread it) over a couple of years it will strengthen the old grass, reduce the moss and introduce new grass too..

davehornet6

oh yeh! also forgot to mention, a bit late now, but don't cut your grass too short in autumn as any moss will take over really quick. i always raise my mower up to highest setting for october to feburary. i used to cut it short to make blowing leaves easy but the moss was getting ridiculous

Isakat

Thanks for the link Dave, the only thing is as this product is feed, weed and moss killer, it might also kill the dichondra repens inside my grass, as it is broad leaved grass?

chris120

Davehornet, this looks like just what i need, i'll give them a call and see how much delivery to Italy might be