Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design 1 Aug 01, 2010 8:51 pm Hi everyone My name's Ryan and im from Perth, been reading this forum non stop since i found it, really awesome info! My girlfriend and I have just built our first house, and we got the landscape package included, we got the same guy to do the backyard aswell. We chose Empire Zoysia after researching a bit, and I trusted that the landscaper would do a good job, I was wrong! He has laid our lawn straight on top of builders sand, just a bit of chicken poo underneath, also our levels are all messed up and I doubt whether he compacted at all, I can stomp dents into it just with my feet, and there are two big dents where someone half backed a car onto it. Our lawn has been down since mid April (just over 3 months), and being winter has gone very brown and even kind of purple, I have used seasol plus powerfeed a few times and wetting agent and blood n bone once. I will try molasses when I get hold of some too Just wondering if I could run a compactor over the lawn now? As there are some parts that are too high and I wouldnt want to try and raise the overall level to that height, also I would like to topdress to iron out the levels but our lawn has not even grown enough to need mowing once! So do I need to wait for it to grow a bit before topdressing so that I dont smother it? Also we are starting to get heaps of weeds just the last few weeks, can I use the weed n feed at this stage? Ive tried pulling them out with some success but most of them are snapping when I try so am not too keen to keep going Thanks for any help, Im so glad I found this site Re: New to the forum 2Aug 01, 2010 9:18 pm Welcome! First off I'm not so sure about a compacter, someone else might be able to help there, but come spring, definitely top it up with soil and rake it over it to try to make it more even. Also with the weeds, the best thing to do is to feed the soil - read up on Fu Manchu's posts about seasol, powerfeed and Molasses - with healthy soil and microbes the grass will then be a lot healthier and will fight off the weeds better in the long term than any weed killer. I'd probably spot spray/kill the weeds or dig them up manually for now, don't use a general weed n feed thing as that wont help the lawn in the long term, it wont become a strong lawn. 'A bottle of wine contains more philosophy than all the books in the world.' Louis Pasteur Vegie garden: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=27637&start=0 My Backyard Adventure Re: New to the forum 3Aug 01, 2010 11:33 pm I wouldn't run a compactor over it especially now when it's dormant. Might be enough to finish it off for good. The high spots I would try to kock down, give it a water and try a bit of jogging on the spot on them if it is a soft as you say. When we are getting a bit more sun and it's a bit warmer start to topdress it very thinly with cert org soil or sieved compost. there was a recent post on topdressing in winter, search it. Keep up the seasol and molasses, don't go overboard on the powerfeed until it starts to grow. Re: New to the forum 4Aug 02, 2010 12:04 pm I am also in Perth and my Empire Zoyius has also gone brown. I did go on holiday, and my garden sitter turned off the irrigation while I was away in April, and I thought that was the reason for the brownness, as it took quite a knock. Was very green when I left. Perhaps it does go brown in winter ... Fu ... any help on this??? Built the Driftwood with C*ollier Homes Moved in 8 November 2009 Slowly getting organised ..... Re: New to the forum 5Aug 02, 2010 8:21 pm what about compacting it when its looking a bit healthier?? It is getting more green as it gets a bit warmer and I think within the nest 6 weeks or so it should be alot better, I have certain parts that are higher than my paving so I would like to get them down... I have tried wetting and stomping on it, kinda works but it will take forever to do the whole lawn (300sqm) and I would like to get it all uniform, thanks for the replies Re: New to the forum 6Aug 03, 2010 2:27 pm Getting a lawn level is a real PITA. The only way I know of is digging out high spots, boxing out some soil underneath them and replacing the turf (exactly as it came out), and then in time topdressing it all level. If you have high spots and the soil is not very compacted then compacting it lower would save a heap of time and effort but I dont know how the grass will stand up to the treatment. Maybe do it in spring when the grass can recover faster. Worth giving it a try. Re: New to the forum 7Aug 03, 2010 4:22 pm yeah Im thinking if you can compact over lawn when its fresh out of the turf farm then shouldnt you be able to do it at a later stage too?, Unless anyone says otherwise I'l give it a shot when it looks a tad more healthy 2 31344 In Victoria you cannot put a caveat on arising from a domestic building contract. 65 112375 They already have two well known ones (HIA & MBA) that many new home buyers mistakenly think are regulatory bodies that Joe Public can complain to. 6 18022 |