TURF LAYING SUMMARY and what has become many things turf :)

I've been reading up on this thread and following Fu's advice on turf laying for months now. I did everything as mentioned, except for the zeolite part. I had some trouble finding the stuff but managed to track it down after I just laid the turf a few days ago. I have clay soil here in Sydney and was wondering can Zeolite still be applied after the turf has been laid?? I also heard that some wetting agents is actually zeolite (or contains zeolite). I used "Richgro Eziwet" prior to turf laying.. Does anyone know if this has any zeolite in there?

guys i have grown my lawn from seeds its now two months old, but now i can see the weeds growing too, weeds are not that big yet but they are alot of them in grass.
there are few patches without grass but they are getting covered slowly
I just want to know what is the best way to get rid of weeds? without damaging my grass

Plus if i need to do anything else now like putting seasol or fertilizer or anything else?

by the way i have used munns couch seeds as advised by Fu

Hi Linelefty

Where did you get the manual linear hoe from as we are looking for one, also will you be able to post a pic of it.

Thanks

It looks a little something like this. Available from a most hardware stores



Gotchya.

So my lawns been going for a couple of months now. I did have some issues with watering due to me not realising there was a backflow stopper on the garden tap, which was reducing my waterflow, and half the time (that I didn't realise) weren't popping up. I ended up buying some MP rotators to fix the problem and then discovered the backflow stopper.

Anyway, its all looking very lush now except for a few brown patches (its especially lush around the sprinklers, due to them not popping up and giving the lawn in this area a good water. I've just been using molasses and seasol every couple of weeks, as well as one dose of Scotts just recently, now to the point where I'm going to chuck on some powerfeed, seamungus and try fu's suggestion of Shades of Green.

So its appears that the lawn is nice and healthy and I'm hoping (fingers crossed!) that the brown patches will work themselves out.

Just a quick question Fu; should I be putting on some more saturaid? Is there some way I can check to see if my soil is retaining enough water?

So our Empire Zoysia has been down now since the middle of AUgust & I have only had to mow it 3 times - woohoo! It has always looked sooo green & lush & is awesome to walk bafrefoot on!
Thanks Fu - great low maintenance grass!

However....we have had a fair bit of rain & I am now seeing toadstools popping up in clumps all over the place? Is this from the organic soil we put under or do we have a problem & need to fix the balance of something?

Any ideas anyone?

Cheers
Kim

I'll only ever advise that brand seed if someone is adamant that a seed is the way to go. These types of lawns are generally very water hungry and that is not good for the environment, so yes if you are using seed, choose Munns. Yes you guys have loads of rain but don't forget about the 10 years you were screwed for water There's more of that to come.

Yes some wetting agents contain zeolite. They have little effect on soil health when applied to established gardens, however when they are included in the soils structure, they do some amazing things

If you must use a wetting agent, make it Saturaid by Debco, by far the best performer of the lot!... by miles

Adding the zeolite after will have no negative effect so it's just that the positives are compromised a little.

For West Aussies we do have other things we can add like Sand Remedy and Soil Solver.

As for fertiliser there must be about 100 posts of mine saying to drop them and use the seasol, powerfeed, molasses, blood and bone and seamungus.
Always feed the soil and never feed the plant as our 80 years of chemical dependency tells us

Fu, where to find Olsens Green Bio in Perth?
I have tried 3 Bunnings with no luck. I read that this can be replaced by bactivate, is this easier to find in Perth?
Will it be too hot to lay turf in January?
Last question is, do we need to have bentonite clay for soil prep for laying turf in Perth?

Give up, get some Bactivate on line Have a look on youtube for it too.
Yes you absolutely need bentonite when prepping any garden bed or turf area.
Certified organic soil from thegreenlifesoilcompany.com.au and gardenersdirect.com.au

Jan is fine. Get your water permissions from the water corp. Get a fgood hose and browse my handwatering guides for effective handwatering. It does my head in to see people watering with junk nozzles and wonder why things don't workout. I see it every weekend

Get zeolite in as well.

Fu thanks for the advice. Will get organic soil and zeolite from gardener's direct delivered just before christmas. Should I order spongolite too?
After doing some googling, I found this product called Bactivate Grow sold in Dawsons Garden World.
Is this the same product as the one you were saying?
The 3kg tub is $24.95.

Its close enough
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=havfmMw4GIc

Fu, what's the best mulch for Garden beds? Palms, and smaller plants, etc

Just wondering if anyone has successfully grown a lawn from plugs? (no, not the sink kind, the grass kind).
I know I can get Palmetto plugs at about $36 for a tray, which according to their suggestion will cover 10m2. This would work out a lot cheaper than full rolls, but will the result be compromised? How long would it take to spread and become a full lawn?

Hi Fu. Have been busy with our soil prep last couple of days for our new garden. Have layed down yellow sand, certified organic compost (smelt fantastic btw !), zeolite, gypsum and Olsen's Green Bio all to your recipe. Couldn't source spongolite, but replaced those amounts with extra zeolite. We're getting the soil ripped and tilled tomorrow to 30cm so will be exciting to see it all get mixed through. Our native plants arrive on Friday and our Empire Zoysia for the front is getting delivered saturday afternoon. The compactor is booked and the seasol/molasses and powerfeed is already purchased and ready to go ! Very Excited ! We'll get some pics up here eventually.

Thanks fu

Could you please advise me what should i do to get rid of weeds

I didnt have to water it much cause of the good rains, why do u think its water hungry? I thought couch grass doesnt need much water

There is some excellent threads on the topic already. Do a quick search, you'll be fine Don't use specific mulches for specific plants, it doesn't work like that

Absolutely. They grow very well from plugs
3-4 months should see a good result. Just talking with a colleague in Horticulture who has done this into a couch lawn and the buffalo has taken over. Coverage in 3 months.

Sounds awesome Spot on for the zeolite too

Post the pics up in a new thread and post the link here

Get the mulch sorted and apply the same soil prep to the garden areas as well
Mulch from your local tree lopping bloke. Scored some for a job the other day for a carton. Smelt fantastic too. Straw is a good thing to use as a mulch on a new garden. Fine with natives. Then tree lopper mulch over that for summer. In winter, straw again.

Molasses, get that on hand


...oh and throw in some dolomite of lime too if you can