Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design 1 Feb 25, 2010 2:19 pm Hi everyone I'm researching what type of turf I should lay in my courtyard and came across this new breed Nara. http://www.ozbreed.com.au/nara-turf.html Being a native variety to Australia it sounds very interesting but haven't been able to find out much about it. Have Emailed Abulk who is said to be the supplier on OzBreeds website but no reply... I'm in Melbourne (prahran) and have an east facing courtyard with a brick fence (2m high) on east and south side and wooden fence on north side. The supposed lawn area currently get sun from around 9am - 3pm and is around 15sqm I also don't have a rain water tank and no real access to grey water (except the shower bucket) so can I hire a water tank and put in my driveway and how much water would i need. Thankful for any help and hints! Re: Nara Native Turf - New Turf Variety 2Feb 25, 2010 6:10 pm Hi, I emailed as well and got a response saying it was only avaliable in NSW. The grower did say Nara can be supplied to vic if i wanted. There was a thread about it but i think it got deleted. Give them a call. Forum member grasstree knows fair bit about it. Cheers, B Re: Nara Native Turf - New Turf Variety 3Feb 25, 2010 10:40 pm Grasstree is an authority on it as he has associations with Ozbreed. It is still in trial stage in most places but I'm looking forward to giving it a go. I am fairly sure the previous thread still remains. Re: Nara Native Turf - New Turf Variety 4Feb 26, 2010 8:35 am Fu Manchu Grasstree is an authority on it as he has associations with Ozbreed. It is still in trial stage in most places but I'm looking forward to giving it a go. I am fairly sure the previous thread still remains. Hi, yes I found links to a couple of threads on this forum on Google but when I try to read them I get the info that I'm not authorized to access them... Re: Nara Native Turf - New Turf Variety 5Feb 26, 2010 8:43 am As long as you plant Nara in the warmer months it will work well in Victoria. It does not like being planted in the cooler months in colder climates, just like any Zoysia. In Melbourne you would want it planted by the beginning of April. May in Sydney and all year round in Qld. I recently laid another section of Nara and as the weather was warm it had some new roots with in a few days. A week later it had struck well. In Victoria HG turf can supply the product, as they often bring turf down from Sydney. Quite a few people have already bought the Nara and so far reports have been good. If you have lots of shade Buffalo would be better, but Nara is better in shade than couch and Kikuyu. As Nara and Zoysia in general is a slower growing grass, it will take one summer to reach its peek of drought tolerance. Once its roots and rhizomes grow deep, usually 6 to 12 months, it will be a lot more drought tolerant than Buffalo. It will also need less mowing. It is the only native that I know of for a home lawn in Australia available in turf. If you like a finer leaf lawn, you will like Nara, as you can easily get a manicured look with good care. Re: Nara Native Turf - New Turf Variety 6Feb 26, 2010 10:32 am hurdler77 Fu Manchu Grasstree is an authority on it as he has associations with Ozbreed. It is still in trial stage in most places but I'm looking forward to giving it a go. I am fairly sure the previous thread still remains. Hi, yes I found links to a couple of threads on this forum on Google but when I try to read them I get the info that I'm not authorised to access them... Oh, you mustn't be cool enough yet Sorry mate Hope we are helping anyway with your enquiries Re: Nara Native Turf - New Turf Variety 7Feb 26, 2010 10:58 am Fu Manchu hurdler77 Fu Manchu Grasstree is an authority on it as he has associations with Ozbreed. It is still in trial stage in most places but I'm looking forward to giving it a go. I am fairly sure the previous thread still remains. Hi, yes I found links to a couple of threads on this forum on Google but when I try to read them I get the info that I'm not authorised to access them... Oh, you mustn't be cool enough yet Sorry mate Hope we are helping anyway with your enquiries way to make a new member feel welcome, fu...! what are the rules for becoming cool enough to read these topics? being a mod? is there some elite mod club we plebs don't know about? "Your emotions are the slaves to your thoughts, and you are the slave to your emotions." — Elizabeth Gilbert Living in our new house. Currently scaping the land. Re: Nara Native Turf - New Turf Variety 8Feb 26, 2010 11:10 am If you find threads via a Google search, I find that I'm treated as though I'm not logged in (even if I have another browser window open and I am logged in there). So photos don't show and anything in Coffee Break and poossibly some other forums aren't able to be viewed. If you just log in as usual via the link at the top, you shoudl be able to see whatever it is you're trying to read. I think.... Re: Nara Native Turf - New Turf Variety 9Feb 26, 2010 11:19 am He/she 's very welcome Yeah you have to be a mod to view them due to some posts that were not really for public viewing in the end hurdler77, you are definitely cool enough to view the topics in the Landscape forum and no doubt in person you would be far cooler than me (That's not hard to do ) Re: Nara Native Turf - New Turf Variety 10Mar 07, 2010 11:22 am I like the fact that the Nara is a native grass and the reduced mowing needs grasstree As long as you plant Nara in the warmer months it will work well in Victoria. It does not like being planted in the cooler months in colder climates, just like any Zoysia. In Melbourne you would want it planted by the beginning of April. Quite a few people have already bought the Nara and so far reports have been good. If you have lots of shade Buffalo would be better, but Nara is better in shade than couch and Kikuyu. As Nara and Zoysia in general is a slower growing grass, it will take one summer to reach its peek of drought tolerance. Once its roots and rhizomes grow deep, usually 6 to 12 months, it will be a lot more drought tolerant than Buffalo. It will also need less mowing. It is the only native that I know of for a home lawn in Australia available in turf. How long would it be dormant for in Melbourne and would it stay green all year (requirement from wife) what do you class as "lots of shade"?? as I said, around 6h of sun now but I assume that there will be less as the sun lowers in winter and the fences are fairly high. Re: Nara Native Turf - New Turf Variety 11Mar 07, 2010 12:19 pm All of the warm season grasses (out in the open) will brown off sometime from late June, all of July & August and start greening up early Sept so generally dormant for 8-9 weeks. They keep a better shade of green if you are bayside or away from frost and low min temps eg Prahran. In the heart of melb winter any warm season turf will be getting very little sun so it will look sad anyway. In Melb Kikuyu keeps the best colour, last to brown off and first to green up, but it is the most invasive pain in *** turf of the lot. If its a such a huge problem for the wife choose a variety that you can oversow in winter to keep it green. I don't know if you can oversow zoysia. Re: Nara Native Turf - New Turf Variety 12Mar 07, 2010 3:52 pm Don't think it's really that much of a problem with the green color but of course you want the lawn to look as good as possible... I'm just really after something that looks as good as possible throughout the year, and requires the least amount of water possible (and if I don't need to mow to much that's always a plus... ) It seems like the problem in Melbourne is that the climate is too hot and dry in summer for the cold season grasses and the winter is too cold and dark for the warm season ones. As I'm from Sweden it's a bit tricky to get used to the climate and how to deal with it the best... I wish to create a garden that suits the climate i live in, with the least need for artificial ways of keeping it alive i.e watering since we don't have too much of it around, and there is not really room for me to add any substantial water tanks... Re: Nara Native Turf - New Turf Variety 13Mar 07, 2010 5:44 pm If you have a look at my techniques for caring for turf you will find minimal browning in winter. I don't use fertilisers and it stays green all year. Use them and expect browning to be very noticeable. Warm season or not, my methods will show a far better result than you'd expect. Re: Nara Native Turf - New Turf Variety 14Mar 08, 2010 7:24 am Hurdler, The climate problems of growing turf is the same across southern oz, it's just in melb we get a bit more cool weather and rain (once upon a time) than a lot of other places. There is no cool season grass that will look great all year round in melb without a huge drain on resources. The only way to keep green sensibly is with blended and overseeded warm/cool grasses like they do at sporting grounds or using Fu's organic approach (testing that this winter myself). No warm turf will look good in melb after it goes 2 weeks in peak summer without water, so if you don't have your own supply it will brown off then come back with rain. For 15 sq 1000 litre tank would be fine once established. The main grasses all the turf farms sell do the job, you have to order Zoysia's through HG. They will all bounce back if they brown off in summer as soon as it rains. So they have a lesser of an impact on resources. There is a whole thread on turf in melbourne, do a quick search for pros and cons. Buffalo's have the widest leaf, zoysia/kikuyu medium, and couch fine. Re: Nara Native Turf - New Turf Variety 16Mar 08, 2010 2:27 pm Good choices, without irrigation neither will be very green even with average melb summer rainfall. Once established both will survive of course. Re: Nara Native Turf - New Turf Variety 17Mar 09, 2010 1:09 pm I live in Perth. I'm currently revamping/preparing my front yard for a new lawn. I don't want any roll-ons, invasive/runner type of grasses. I want to plant the new lawn by seed. My question is what type of native grass to use and is shade to full sun tollerant and where might I get seed from here in Perth? Thanks Re: Nara Native Turf - New Turf Variety 18Mar 10, 2010 10:53 am As for Melbourne and Nara, you can oversow it with Rye Grass. If I lived there that is what I would do. Make sure you lay Nara by the end of the month, or wait to Spring for Melbourne. It does oversow very well. Palmetto will have the best winter colour for Melbourne of the Buffalo types, but other posts are right, all warm season turf will brown in Melbourne in a normal winter. My oppinion of a brown lawn in winter. I love it. No mowing, no work. This would be what I would do if I lived in Melbourne. Back yard let it Brown off. Front yard oversow with Rye Grass. But to oversown you need to use a Zoysia. Couch is too invasive for most gardeners, so it is usually ruled out. Buffalo has too broad a leaf for oversowing. As for seeding with native turf. No chance. Nara is form turf or runners. Microleana doesn't really work as a native turf unless you are a brilliant greenkeeper, so use turf, or buy turf and break it up in runners and let it spread. But agin you need to be good at green keeping to do that. My advice is pay for the turf. Re: Nara Native Turf - New Turf Variety 19Mar 10, 2010 3:22 pm grasstree In Victoria HG turf can supply the product, as they often bring turf down from Sydney. I just got of the phone from HG Turf but the lady there says she has never heard of Nara and that they can't help me... Hmmm and I finally thought I had decided what to do... Re: Nara Native Turf - New Turf Variety 20Mar 10, 2010 6:46 pm grasstree As for Melbourne and Nara, you can oversow it with Rye Grass. . Grasstree can you oversow EZ as well? Fig Landscapes has produced an e-book and native plant index, available for purchase from their website. It's a great resource, full of inspiration and tips. Another… 1 12265 They using concrete or timber sleepers? Timber or steel uprights? Any drainage behind sleeper? 3 5901 |