We're looking to turf 50sqm of barren, scorched clay in full sun. I'm not sure about soil pH, etc. I have been a long-term reader of the soil preparation posts and will be following Fu's recommendations for soil preparation and care, but have questions about turf choice and irrigation options.
Firstly, turf options:
After several weeks of deliberating and several visits to the turf shops we have surprised ourselves and are seriously considering kikuyu. Reasons are: 1. neighbours all have kikuyu and high risk it will invade if we plant soft leaf buffalo, 2. wear with pets and young kids.
With the kikuyu, is Emerald Kikuyu sterile (I'm assuming it isn't) so are we damaging the environment if we plant it (ie: will it seed and invade others)? Secondly how likely is seeding on male sterile kikuyu given that our neighbours on both sides have the older kikuyu (which has seeded in our yard already this year)?
We've considered all the turfs and ruled out buffalo due to the risk of it being overtaken (sadly as they are nice turfs), couch because too many relatives have awful couch lawns and our son damaged it on the display - not very hardy!, and zoysias because we don't seem to have any suppliers in Adelaide. Does anyone know of zoysia suppliers in SA (we've had no luck)?
Secondly, irrigation:
We have followed Fu's suggestions of going to the irrigation shop and are looking at a Netafim copper subsurface system. Our intention is to slowly build a bigger irrigation set-up, but start with the lawn now. Given how invasive kikuyu is, will it penetrate into the drippers? We haven't considered pop-ups.
Are we crazy to consider kikuyu? It seems to tick the most boxes. Also, with soil prep, should we rotary hoe more than once? Another forum mentioned doing it again two weeks later to get the most benefit. Is this necessary (trying to keep labour costs down).
I would appreciate any advice - right now we have barren earth for most of the backyard and hope to get turf down by mid-October. We are considering either Munn's emerald kikuyu seed, or kenda kikuyu (and maybe breaking the turf into runners to reduce costs). Everywhere we turn we seem to learn of some unknown pro/con of each particular turf and are trying to get well educated to make the best choice for us. Thanks