Supercharged Grass

[wertert]

Hi All.

We have a steep northfacing garden and have spent the last 18 months converting from a weed/bramble covered wasteland into something more attractive. Basically grass and hedges planted to give the feel of 'terraces'.

Mowing is a real challenge and I now own a petrol hover mower and a set of steel toe cap boots.

One of the main issues we face is the speed at which the grass grows. You can literally watch it grow ! Easily 12 inches in 2 weeks. This means mowing every week which is too much for us to manage.

When we seeded the garden I think we made a mistake with the seed mix. We felt because the garden was north facing and had alot of shade we would need a seed mix that would suit these conditions. We went for the following.

45% Lambada Strong CRF
25% Olivia Chewings FSC
5% Highland Bent
5% Evora SSMG
20% Ridu Hard FSC.

In reality the garden gets plenty of sun and one of the above grass types outgrows all the others by a factor of 10. It's thick and strong and seems to be taking over in places. I try and mulch with the mower but this grass also forms thick 'mats' when cut which seems to smother the smaller grasses below. Raking is difficult due to the angle of the slope.

One conversation my wife remembers having with the seed supplier was that some of the seeds allow the grass to establish quickly ( faster growing ) but the slower 'nicer' grass will eventually take over and push out the faster growing stuff. We thought this may happen in the future but I'm seeing no evidence so far and we are in our second year.

So I'm after advice about anything that can be done to balance out the growth rates etc. Some way of promoting the weaker grasses over the existing dominate type. Any ideas ?