Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design 1 Jan 19, 2009 10:30 am We are about to start our backyard and are looking at about a 230 odd sqm lawn. We were going to go with lawn seed, because paying 2.5k for roll out lawn is not an option , but have been advised by the local nursery not to go that way, that it will need more water than roll out will to get it going. As the cost of doing the whole thing roll out is still not an option, we are wondering about plugging it, we were going to do this originally but decided it was going to be a lot of work. We are going Sir Walter. Just wondering if anyone has done this (my parents did it many years ago at our farm, but nothing recent enough to remember much about it). Reading the little info I could find on the net, they recommend to plant the plugs about 6inches to 12 inches apart. so we were thinking of doing 10sq cm plugs, and planting them in a grid, approx 20cm apart. If I worked it out properly (which there is every possibility I didn't), 10sqm of lawn will do about 70sqm area if spacing them apart as we plan. We are looking at doing it in stages, buying about 10sqm to start with, and seeing how long it is taking to fill in, then buy some more and do another section, and plant closer together or further apart depending on how it is going. Anyone tell me if I am heading in the right direction, or give any tips/advice from their experiences? We have a puppy who likes to pull up lawn (we have strips of sir walter at the front and before they had rooted she pulled them all up), so we are thinking doing it in sections will help in that way too, where we can fence parts off until they are safe to be left alone with her. Re: Plugging lawn 2Jan 19, 2009 11:43 pm All valid thoughts so far.
Sir Walter is a good choice but as many would know not the best choice in "my opinion" I would attempt the same thing with Empire or Empress Zoysia. However don't set your stop watch to see it grow. It is slow which is great, less work I find better results can be had by making your own plugs from rolls of the chosen turf. The root structure is healthier and the strike rate much higher. More work of course. You will need some good seccies and cut lots of small squares from the rolls to plant out. Here in Perth we have trays of 100 plugs of Palmetto available to nearly every retail nursery. That should cover about 25 sqm. sold like a tray of seedlings. healthy roots. In weather like we have around the country expect about 6-8weeks for a good cover. Lots of seasol remember your soil prep before planting out. that is what will give you a good result. Never plant a $10 plant in 2 cent hole, because all you will get is a 2 cent plant Re: Plugging lawn 3Jan 20, 2009 9:42 am Ha ha Fu Manchu - you sound like my mum - spend more on the soil than you do on the plant.
Have already ordered the Sir Walter - not sure if we can get Zoysia in SA, may be able to, but not here in my local nursery, so have gone with Walter. Have to say, we put some on our front lawn, and didn't water it anywhere near enough - (had many an argurment with my hubby about this, til it died and he finally agreed with me!). It was as brown as you can get, but we watered it and watered it, and it has come back amazingly well for the most part. Have another question - does all roll out lawn come with a layer of soil attached? Sorry, might be silly question, but ours definitley didn't seem to (I wasn't there when it was laid, but pulling it up afterwards to check for roots, it didn't seem to. It's obviously put roots down now, but will this impact on the plugging ability of it? We told the guy at the nursery - we were plugging it and he said it would be no problems - and he knows his stuff so I'm not doubtful. Re: Plugging lawn 4Jan 20, 2009 9:32 pm gee whiz I am sure your mum was pretty hot in her day but I hope I don't look like her because I am not a girl
the turf generally has soil attached (or in WA sand ). because it dries out so easy and then you water heavily the soil from around the roots can wash away. pulling it up will only increase this happening as you pull it up too. Just don't pull it up? sometimes turf harvested in heat will have very little soil around the roots because it drys out and falls away Making matters worse you bought it from a nursery. Nurseries have about 3 days at the most to sell turf. Normally delivered to retail outlets on a Friday so weekend warriors can smash it down quick. If the turf is left in sun and it may have been handled many times and that makes the soil fall away. even you transporting it will do it. It will be fine, lots of water and lots of seasol Zoysia is available in SA but you don't get it from nurseries call around to turf farms Re: Plugging lawn 5Jan 21, 2009 10:13 am Fu Manchu :lol: gee whiz I am sure your mum was pretty hot in her day but I hope I don't look like her because I am not a girl the turf generally has soil attached (or in WA sand ). because it dries out so easy and then you water heavily the soil from around the roots can wash away. pulling it up will only increase this happening as you pull it up too. Just don't pull it up? sometimes turf harvested in heat will have very little soil around the roots because it drys out and falls away Making matters worse you bought it from a nursery. Nurseries have about 3 days at the most to sell turf. Normally delivered to retail outlets on a Friday so weekend warriors can smash it down quick. If the turf is left in sun and it may have been handled many times and that makes the soil fall away. even you transporting it will do it. It will be fine, lots of water and lots of seasol Zoysia is available in SA but you don't get it from nurseries call around to turf farms Nah, know your not a woman - but my mum is a garden guru and she says that sort of thing to me allllll the time. Yeah, don't make a habit of pulling at the grass, just gently at the start looking at if the roots had gone down yet - as I said, there were some arguments re not watering enough - so it all stemmed from there..... ofcourse me being the wife, was right, who would have thought! Our nursery guy said when we ordered it that he was going to hold off for a while on ordering it until we had a cooler spell. He said the same thing, it gets cut one day, then delivered to wherever the next day, then he doesn't get it til the third day. He said it being wrapped up in plastic for a coupld of days, can make it sweat and yellow. Seasol, might buy shares in that stuff! Thanks Fu Manchu - you are a gem!! Re: Plugging lawn 6Feb 01, 2009 1:35 pm Just wanted to update on this incase anyone was interested as I know I couldn't find much info on this when I first started looking into it, so this might help someone else.
We received 10sqm of Sir Walter roll out last saturday. I am in SA, so you can imagine how pleased I was to then see the forecast for the next week....as everyone is no doubt aware it's been FRICKING BOILING here for the last week and set to continue for this week too.! The nursery guy wasn't actually going to order it til we had a cool period but don't spose he could have known the weather was going to be as bad as it has been, so although we are really angry, we don't blame him (well just a little bit). When we got it home saturday morning it looked nice and green, really healthy, didn't stay that way. We put wetta water crystals over the entire area. We cut it into squares to cover the area we wanted to do, as we are going to do it in sections and wait til each section is established so doesn't require huge amounts of water, then we will move onto the next section, so each section can get adequate water as it is growing. We had about 3sqm left over, so rolled that out as it was and that is looking really really happy again now despite the 40+ weather we have had non-stop since it was in. It died back a bit the first day or two, but now is looking a lot greener than any of the other lawns around the town, and has already set roots down. The sqaures aren't looking as happy, but still every square has new bright green blades, so I'm hopeful. We have been watering quite heavily, about 30min soaking at night to give it the best opportunity to get to the grass rather than drying up as soon as it comes out of the pop ups during the day which it feels like it's been doing with the heat!! We have then been giving it another 15 mins or so early morning, and then 15mins at lunch and again after I get home from work about 4. Before anyone says anything about water restrictions - we are usually totally reliant on rainwater and have a biocycle to reuse every drop of water not just the grey water, (and have only just now started carting water for the house from our meter 1km away as we have had no rain), so restrictions aren't a problem. We have now strung up shade cloth over the lawn squares to give it a bit more of a chance. We almost gave up a couple of days in when we saw the lush green lawn we got turn to dry dusty looking dead patches of lawn, but are really glad now that we didn't and we have put the effort in, because we think it is going to be fine. Been a lot of effort, there has been a lot of carting water (which we needed to do anyway for the house, but still a pain), and some hand watering individual squares too, but hopefully it will be worth it. Must say I am amazed the way it has coped, two thumbs up for Sir Walter. Re: Plugging lawn 7Feb 01, 2009 11:34 pm Just keep the water up to it, and use seasol weekly on it. Nothing else is needed. the leaves that are now underground go yellow, the tips that poke through photosynthesise and have chlorophyll, same reason they grow rhubarb in the dark. 5 4939 |