Grass for SA conditions

Hi Everyone

We've tried to get Empire Zoysia but unfortunately it is still on trial in SA and won't be available until 2009.

We've been recommended Sapphire which is a soft leaf Buffalo. Any thoughts on this??

Another question re: paving ... we've placed some stepping stones in a garden bed and have surrounded them with river pebbles. Do we need to cement the stepping stones to keep them in place??

Cheers

It probably won't move too much if the path is rarely used. If it does get a bit of traffic then mix up a small batch of mortar and put a good whack of it under the center of each paver. the lump that will form under it will hold them steady.
i guess others may have some better ways perhapes

On the turf, as much as I hate it, but have you thought of synthetic turf? even considering it myself (shudder) The good stuff dare I say it looks great

Hi Dy,

In our old house we had Sir Walter Buffalo and I have to say that it was fantastic. For the first summer we watered it a few times a week but after the first summer it was watered once every few weeks in summer (we didn't have automatic sprinklers so whenever we remembered). It goes dormant in winter but still stays a nice colour.

We will be having it in our next house as well.

Tina

Hi Tina
I thought SWB was a bit spikey underfoot??

I'm also thinking about Dwarf Kike (yes I know what I said in a previous post about Kike but surely I can change my mind ) or preferably a couch such as Winter Green.

We have reclaimed water so don't have to worry too much about water restrictions (finally the encumbrances kick in ).

Fu Manchu
How could you ... synthetic grass . I would if I could but its too expensive for my liking. Plus I like the real thing .

What about Winter Green anyone. I think they call it Windsor Green as well.

Yeah synthetic , phffttt yuck but it does look great when done well with the right type.

On the note of Sir Walter, it isn't spikey at all. It is one of the many beautiful soft leaf buffalo's available. Seeing how you can't get a hold of Empire Zoysia in SA I would go for one of the soft leaf buffalo's

darn it .. had it order it before I received your reply Fu Manchu.

We went with couch .. Winter Green.

Hope it holds up well.

winter green goes well, although it can go patchy at times. I think they grow best when you get one of those funky special mowers that are designed for that type of grass... I guess it really depends on the soil and location. From memory, they need a bit of sunlight; they dont tollerate too much shade.

My folks have winter green in their back yard (walkley heights) for about 6 months now, and its been going fine.

yeah but wait till what it looks like after a few years in the garden beds and at the end of every winter ... sorry

What do you mean by the garden beds Fu Manchu ... is it invasive .

And I know it yellows off in winter. We have a 3 mtre fence at the back on the northern side so it will cast some shade. Hope I've made the right decision .

Maybe I should be making a call to change the order

OHH YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:shock:

Couches are among the most invasive weed problems in the world.

Perth used to be populated with beautiful old fashioned buffalo lawns but is now obsessed with invasive water guzzling and maintenance guzzling couches.
They will have root structures that reach as deep as 2m so putting dinky lawn edging in won't do diddly squat to keep it out of the garden beds. Spraying to keep it out will do little. All you can do is pull it out by hand and make sure you get a contract mower to edge every fortnight.

There really are better and more responsible choices. Yeah it's cheap but as my sig says vvv

sir walter all the way ..
i had SWB in the back yard and palmetto in the front , the palmetto is a pain to keep the weeds out of .. were as the SWB a bit of shelleys 17 , water , mow once a week and you will have thick lush green lawn ..
Plus my dog didn't bother it at all ...

We recently laid our turf and went with Palmetto soft leaf buffalo for the back lawn, and wintergreen couch for the front lawn, mainly for cost/budgetary reasons.

The Palmetto was almost double the price of the wintergreen, but based on how well it has established, the ease of laying - each slab was cut perfectly rectangular with a thick root base, and the finished result we think it was justified. Now we are regretting not going with Palmetto for the front....

The cheapest we could find Palmetto in the Brisbane area was from Clifton Park Turf Supplies @ $8/m2 inc GST, most places were in the $10+/m2 region. The cheapest we could find Wintergreen was from Rochedale Turf Supplies @ $4.50/m2 inc GST & delivery. Not sure how that compares to SA pricing but it may be of interest to people in Brisbane....

darn it!

The lawn ppl are telling me that Wintergreen is looking much better atm and the roots of Sir Walter are not well established. Apparently they are having trouble with the SW.

Its not the cost that is the issue ... Sir Walter is $8.90 and Wintergreen $6.40. They are telling me they are both runners and both will self repair and get into garden beds, so the maintenance is about the same.

We'll have to live with the Wintergreen as it is being delivered tomorrow.

Thanks all for your replies.

yeah getting any buffalo right now is a bit trickey because they don't grow very rapidly through the cold so once the stocks of healthy Buffalo runs low over the winter you have to wait.

But you are having what delivered!:shock:
Dee Elle.... goooooddd luuuuck, you'll need it Muuuhahhhhahh
na jokes, but good luck

Well thats what DH gets for leaving the landscaping to me .

COUCH!

Well he has to look after it so serves him right .

we would love to go with Sir Walter, its just so pricey here in Perth compared to the rest. Best price I have seen so far is $10/sqm if you buy more than 50 sqm. Where as the couchs and kikuyus are $4-5.00/sqm, so we are not sure which way to go for the new house...

we have Winter Green here in our rental ad its soooo temperamental, supposedly stays "green" but requires a tonne of sun...our backyard has a wall of very tall conifers that blocks the morning sun, so it goes patchy and dies back....and yes a bugger of a thing to keep out of garden beds....so much so we now have a "raised lawn" that we decided to just mow and stick a table and chairs on....looks better than the "actual" lawn....lol

i have been told that there is a way to keep it at bay....but cat remember who told me or how to do it...or even if it worked... but with sun and medium water it does look amazing in spring/autumn.

hope yours looks great.

btw...winter green has been very dog resistant for us.

ciao

you need to read some of my posts on weed treatments buffalo and couch are easy as

Oh and the turf farm dee elle, are blowing the proverbial up you bottom saying that buffalo gets into the garden beds. Yes they both run but buffalo is more surface runners with roots that go down from them, where as couches are aggressive and the rhizomes (runners) go deep and grow fast.

edging a buffalo is dead easy with little or no garden bed invasion where as couch can get nasty.

DH reminded me that we had couch at our last house by the beach. It always looked half dead (sandy soil sucked the water faster than you could water it) and with the water restrictions we didn't make much effort.

And yes it was shocking in our garden beds. Could never get it out.

Oh well... not a good decision. Thankfully we don't have a lot of garden beds out the back anyway - its mostly grass. And this time 'round we have reclaimed water.

Bugger

Bump!

Just wondering if anyone has managed to find any Empire Zoysia in Adelaide? Also would it be a good idea in the Adelaide climate? I imagine if it grows in Perth it will grow in Adelaide. I haven't been able to find anywhere yet so will probably have to go with SWB.