Kill and Reseed without a break
In 2023 I decided to test my theory that it is possible to totally kill a croquet lawn and reseed without having to stop play. The secret is that Glyphosate takes 10 days to kill and seed usually germinates within 6 to 9 days. Another factor is that Glyphosate doesn't kill seed. In fact you can soak seed in Glyphosate and it will still germinate perfectly.
On September 1st 2023, I killed my croquet lawn by spraying Glyphosate. I did this because the lawn had a lot of coarse grass that had become unsightly and made the surface bumpy. Glyphosate is the professional version of Round Up. The difference is that Glyphosate takes about 10 days to kill grass so it remains green for quite a while before turning brown. Round Up is the domestic version and contains an accelerant so that the grass turns brown within a couple of days but doesn't give such an effective kill.
On September 2nd, I had the lawn reseeded by a contractor who used a Vredo disc seeder. Even though I had irrigated the lawn for a few days, the seeder didn't penetrate as deeply as advertised (9mm). A lot of the lawn was OK but it struggled on some parts. The contractor loaded more weight to the limit that it could take but penetration was not ideal. However, I overcame that at a later stage and seeded these areas using a manual seed slotter.
The grass started germinating after six days. So, as the old grass turned brown the new grass started growing. I let it grow to about 20mm so thaty the seedlings could establish. Oddly, the lawn speed was perfectly acceptable. It did slow down but the new grass is fairly soft and as the old grass was dead, the surface stayed amazingly playable.
Through the winter the grass matured and by spring most of the bare areas had recovered. Some of the more stubborn coarse grass has returned but I am removing that with a penknife.
All in all. It cost about £700 to do the job including the seed and the contractor. It was well worthwhile especially as we didn't stop playing at all throughout the process.
On September 1st 2023, I killed my croquet lawn by spraying Glyphosate. I did this because the lawn had a lot of coarse grass that had become unsightly and made the surface bumpy. Glyphosate is the professional version of Round Up. The difference is that Glyphosate takes about 10 days to kill grass so it remains green for quite a while before turning brown. Round Up is the domestic version and contains an accelerant so that the grass turns brown within a couple of days but doesn't give such an effective kill.
On September 2nd, I had the lawn reseeded by a contractor who used a Vredo disc seeder. Even though I had irrigated the lawn for a few days, the seeder didn't penetrate as deeply as advertised (9mm). A lot of the lawn was OK but it struggled on some parts. The contractor loaded more weight to the limit that it could take but penetration was not ideal. However, I overcame that at a later stage and seeded these areas using a manual seed slotter.
The grass started germinating after six days. So, as the old grass turned brown the new grass started growing. I let it grow to about 20mm so thaty the seedlings could establish. Oddly, the lawn speed was perfectly acceptable. It did slow down but the new grass is fairly soft and as the old grass was dead, the surface stayed amazingly playable.
Through the winter the grass matured and by spring most of the bare areas had recovered. Some of the more stubborn coarse grass has returned but I am removing that with a penknife.
All in all. It cost about £700 to do the job including the seed and the contractor. It was well worthwhile especially as we didn't stop playing at all throughout the process.