Advice on our new lawn please Fu!

Hi!

We moved into our house at the end of July and pretty much started putting seed down the weekend we moved. We started at the back of the house and moved towards the front and after a month of weekends had completed the job. My husband put topsoil over the whole yard and then topped with seed.

My concern is how much it has browned off in the past few weeks when we have had our wettest December in a long time. We live in Eastern Victoria and have had 90mm over 17 days this month so considering this we thought I lawn would be looking alot better than it is and moreso worried it will completely die off when the rain stops!

So my question is what can we do to give it the boost it needs? I have read that fertiliser is not good for dying grass so was considering possibly a wetting agent or malassus (prob wrong spelling!) What do you think??









Cheers
Michelle

Looks like a cool season grass to me, they simply do not like heat. It will look much more brown an soon as summer actually kicks in. You need a warm season grass if you want a green lawn, one that doesn not require heaps of water to stay alive during summer.

Ouch!!
Be Gentle, Fu.

Sorry to say it but hardly surprising You added a layer of topsoil and used seed.

It's a pity you couldn't get into the homeone info sooner

For a lawn to have a future as a sustainable one you need good soil structure which means blending a certified organic compost, zeolite, spongolite. The roots will be nice and deep then and the soil remain healthy and full of life

When it's layered you end up with a shallow root zone of rich soil and a very defined soil difference between the clay and topsoil. The roots won't develop well. When it gets hot that soil gets very hot and the little roots are damaged.

Seeded varieties are cheap but also contain seed varieties better suited to North America or Europe where climate and resources suit them. Many in the turf industry would like to see them disappear from Australian shelves.

So what can you do? Not much really. Molasses in water, Seasol, powerfeed. That's it.

Ideally I'd be starting over and get the soil right I'd different turf variety in. Then the lawn will be genuinely sustainable.

Those problems would not be likely to appear.

I have to say, that's a pretty good effort in a DIY seeded lawn. It is nice even coverage and level too.
Shame it's just not the right sort to be useful in Summer.
Are any of the warm season grasses available as seed that you could oversow with? Then you would have great grass year round.

Thanks for the info..... it is a shame I didn't look into this before we planted the grass but unfortunately we can't turn back time. Also unfortunate is the fact that we forgot to plant the money tree before we moved in so starting all over again and putting turf down isn't an option either

When you say there's not much we can do- is Moalasses or Seasol or powerfeed going to be a waste of time or are they likely to help? And which one, or do I try all 3? in which order?

Thank you!!! Your comments do make me feel a little more positive, and I will definately look into oversowing with a warm season grass! Can that just be thrown over the top of what is already there??

I mix my molasses with seasol and powerfeed in a Seasol sprayer and off it goes
I have backed it off due to so much rain and warm temps as the grass is growing TOOOO FAST!

Also get some seamungus in there

I think you are going to either oversow with a warm season grass short term
really need to get the soil structure going for best results as it will cost you more in the long term with water usage if those roots are just in the topsoil layer

any chance of a garden in the future???

Thanks..... so the molasses/seasol/powerfeed/seamungus treatment will get the soil structure going???



And Yes! There will be a garden!! Wanted to the grass growing first!! Why? Do you have tips or ideas 4 me??

It is actually much easier to establish garden areas first and then lawn, much less work intensive. One good thing is that the grass you have used should be easier to eradicate from garden areas. I have thought a lot about imroving soil under lawn as I discovered this forum after lawns were already in, and the liquids and other stuff on top is good but I would like to get zeolite, spongolite and clays deeper into my soil profile. This is how I plan to do it.
I am going to give the lawns a good week of watering to get moisture deep into the soil so it "stands up" (as it is sand). Then I paln to hire a coring machine and intensivly core out plugs, removing them and backfilling with mixture of fine compost, clay (bentonite or similar), zeolite and spongolite. Then I am going to topdress with a 50/50 mix of fine compost and yellow sand to smooth out and level up as I have a few uneven contours. Then, when the lawn has repaired itself I will repeat the process trying to aim the cores in between the previous ones. And so on. Worth a try I reckon.
In your situation I would buy some Empie Zoysia turf rolls and cut up into strips and plant in, but only in the areas that you want to ultimately be lawn. Waste of resources otherwise. Spray out the current grass and get garden beds in ASAP in areas to be garden, cut down your mainance regime.

PS - Plan out your yard first, work out where your hardscaping/ sheds/ vege patch/gardens/ sacrificial alter/ whatever/ are going to be, and what is going to be lawn, only establish lawn in that bit. Use a low maintanence stabilising solution for the rest until you can develop it. (That's how I would go about it anyway)

First I would check the pack to see what exactly is in the seed mix, I cannot see any couch or kikuyu in that, although a close up would be handy.

If it does not contain a warm season grass, you could hit it with a steel rake and lightly top dress it and then throw down some of my all time favourite grass kikuyu.

What brand seed did you use? Check the box/bag seed purity it looks like the annual rye grass is dying off which is what it's supposed to do, it acts as a cover crop to protect the stronger grass. Depending on the brand you could have Bermuda grass (couch) underneath.

Yep, all you can do it use molasses, powerfeed, compost teas. Make sure you use saturaid if the soil doesn't absorb water (not like you'd have that though with all the rain). Apply zeolite if you can.

The use of these turfs is a sensitive issue for me. I am fortunate to get an in depth knowledge of the greater picture when it comes to what these turfs do to our resources and what affect pesticides and fertilizers are having on our environment.

There is no magic wand or single product on its own that will solve the problems. A bunch of them will work together to sort of make things better. That way you are doing the best you can with what you have.

If you must use seed, then use the Emerald Kike.

There is much more that can be done but I may not have the audience for it