Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design Re: Sir Walter Buffalo - "generic" soft leaf buffalo as good 21Apr 02, 2011 7:11 pm No problem! I'll post pics in a few weeks' time...er, of my lawn with some of his finding its way into the frame... Re: Sir Walter Buffalo - "generic" soft leaf buffalo as good 22Apr 03, 2011 8:58 am Lex, Yes the tiger stripe look is scalping, if the soil is level and its mowed to low then it will be all whitish which is not great for turf health. If you mow SW or any turf af the correct height it will naturally outcompete weeds and use less water to look great. Follow Fu's prep and practice good lawn care and you can have a great low maintainence lawn no matter if its buffalo or EZ. Re: Sir Walter Buffalo - "generic" soft leaf buffalo as good 23Apr 03, 2011 1:40 pm Thanks, BK and Japonica26 BTW, I totally forgot that there is also a Matilda ... so we are extending the selection pool instead of reducing it Sir Walter, Sapphire, Palmetto, EZ, Matilda My signature is distracting people from my wise posts ... Re: Sir Walter Buffalo - "generic" soft leaf buffalo as good 24Apr 06, 2011 1:19 am Just pick one at random. They all look good. What you really need to focus on is the soil. That is what will make or break that lawn. Who says you have to pick just one though? Have all of them. seriously, get some of each. They will all blend through in years to comer and be amazing all year Re: Sir Walter Buffalo - "generic" soft leaf buffalo as good 25Apr 06, 2011 7:50 am Thanks Fu Actually, I am removing Matilda from the list. And forgive me Fu, but most likely removing EZ too ... I am a bit worried that it grows too slowly (and repairs itself too slowly). So, the war of the buffalos continues ... I know that Sir Walter will be dead and brown in winter , while Palmetto and Sapphire should hold the colour far better. I know that Sir Walter will need a little bit more mowing . I HOPE that food/water/weeds would be quite similar between the 3 finalists. I HOPE that Sir Walter will indeed stand to foot traffic better (I'm talking about the nature strip where every man and his dog (and kids) walk by every day ). Please tell me what else should I be watching out for, becuase for some strange and undefinable reason, I am thinking Sir Walter My signature is distracting people from my wise posts ... Sir Walter Buffalo - "generic" soft leaf buffalo as good? 26Apr 06, 2011 10:35 am Lawns being dead and brown in winter can be greatly reduced and even eliminated with my soil prep advice. The common feedback you read about many turfs is based on traditional soil prep and mainstream commercial turf care based on chemicals and fertilizers and poor quality bulk "turf soils" To see people enjoy their lawns with far less ongoing fuss. A lawn that sea saws between looking good and then being a problem is a thing of the past with techniques for lawn care here at Homeone Re: Sir Walter Buffalo - "generic" soft leaf buffalo as good 27Apr 06, 2011 12:27 pm IMO i would not rule EZ out for the front yard Lex, its the perfect lawn to have keeping your frontage nice and neat. Front yards get buggerall use so you want the lowest maintainance grass possible. You can mix and match no need to have the same turf front and back. Use best product for the job at hand considering price is very similar. Re: Sir Walter Buffalo - "generic" soft leaf buffalo as good 28Apr 06, 2011 4:32 pm Soil prep!!! I'm watching two more lawns on my street get put down on builders' sand (which just boggles the mind...why spend all that $$ on upgrade turf and then just throw it on sand and expect it to thrive?) Maybe I should post pics in a year's time to compare ours with theirs... Re: Sir Walter Buffalo - "generic" soft leaf buffalo as good 29Apr 06, 2011 7:06 pm OMG, on builders' sand??? If I survive another year on h1 (and in general ), I'd defnitely be interested too to see those lawns!! Regardless what we end up installing. BK, I have to admit I'm a bit "traditional" - never crossed my mind that we could mix them up! We do have a small patch (about 3-5m2) where the subsoil seems to be rocky, ie. there is only a very shallow bed of clay over it. In summer, this patch suffers quite a lot and looks awful and is a magnet for weeds. And this is on the nature strip, right up against the driveway, not a nice sight. So not sure whcih grass would get a better chance this time around. You might have guessed from all my rumblings that we are not even considering the cost when it comes to turf, so that is not in the equation, it's the "wear" and "maintenance" that we are after (and it would be nice to get a good all around colour as a bonus ) ... We are still not hard pressed to decide, so I'll be trying to get as much "bad" info on each of my favourites as I can (the method of elimination works good for me when I'm trying to decide between similar things) My signature is distracting people from my wise posts ... Re: Sir Walter Buffalo - "generic" soft leaf buffalo as good 30Apr 06, 2011 8:31 pm Sounds like a tough spot for any grass... Unless you can get some soil depth it will be a struggle for any turf flavour. Maybe mass planted native grasses or ground covers with mulch and paths could work... Re: Sir Walter Buffalo - "generic" soft leaf buffalo as good 31Apr 07, 2011 12:06 am It always sounds different and more clear when you hear it from someone else!!! I think I'll try with deeper digging first (if I manage to persuade the guy with the machine ), sounds good to me. My signature is distracting people from my wise posts ... Re: Sir Walter Buffalo - "generic" soft leaf buffalo as good 32May 09, 2011 11:33 am Just popped back in to say we laid our Sir Walter... And it's looking brilliant! So far so good. What a difference it's made to our backyard. The kids love it Thanks Fu for your prep advice. Re: Sir Walter Buffalo - "generic" soft leaf buffalo as good 33May 10, 2011 11:39 pm Thank me in a few years. All the methods (ie, 100mm of "topsoil") and lawn starter or DPM or what ever will look good for a short time. The difference normally shows 8 months down the track. You want to make sure you've done what you can so that come times of lots of water, it drains better. Come times of now water, the roots grow deeper and it handles the dry far better, meaning you are less likely to use water, chemical fertilisers or toxic pesticides unnecessarily on it. No matter what the choice, the plant will only ever be as good as you make the soil. (that doesn't include fertilisers which can harm soil health) The best plant in the worst soil ends up being the worst plant So if you have a problem with a plant (lawn is a plant), fix the soil by feeding the invisible stuff living in it Re: Sir Walter Buffalo - "generic" soft leaf buffalo as good 34May 14, 2011 11:26 am I can see the difference already...I'll take my camera on a tour of the neighborhood and take a couple of photos. There's two houses up the road that had their wintergreen put down back in February with just the landscaper prep...then watered like crazy for the exemption period. Both are noticeably yellow. The neighbor right next to us had his SW down about three weeks after us, no prep. Now perhaps our Sapphire looks greener because the variety is naturally that way, but to me, his turf doesn't look as healthy... Re: Sir Walter Buffalo - "generic" soft leaf buffalo as good 35May 14, 2011 1:43 pm Stepped out the door and took a couple of photos...a tale of two buffaloes...LOL. Our lawns were laid within three weeks of each other back in March. Our Sapphire Buffalo was with Fu's prep, but not as much aftercare as we probably should...Seasol and Powerfeed every two weeks or so, but we still haven't done the molasses (we're picking some up on Monday). Our neighbor's SW was put down on the basic sandy soil they have here around Perth with whatever stuff the landscapers add (the pellets)...nothing else was done. He's watering a lot more often than us too. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ See if you can guess which one is ours... Re: Sir Walter Buffalo - "generic" soft leaf buffalo as good 36May 14, 2011 6:56 pm Am I going to be the smartie .... Yeah ... Anyways, yours is on the left, finer leaf and greener. When did his start to yellow?? BTW, fantastic that you shared this with us - thank you!!! My signature is distracting people from my wise posts ... Re: Sir Walter Buffalo - "generic" soft leaf buffalo as good 37May 15, 2011 12:18 am You're welcome...like I said, it may be a case that the Sapphire is just naturally greener, but I think that Fu's prep had a lot to do with it. His just went down on the sand, and even though it gets more water than ours, it just doesn't look as vibrant, if that makes any sense. It started going yellow a couple of weeks ago. There's some wintergreen up the road that is only three months old and noticeably yellow...again, no prep. I watched the landscapers use the pellets and toss it on the sand. Re: Sir Walter Buffalo - "generic" soft leaf buffalo as good 38May 15, 2011 9:47 am Less daylight hours would be a play too. Sapphire is meant to have the best shade tolerance (less light) so that combined with good soil prep is probably the reason it looks way better. Re: Sir Walter Buffalo - "generic" soft leaf buffalo as good 39May 15, 2011 12:11 pm We're in Perth where yesterday was our first cloudy day in weeks...it was a nice change... So, there's lots of daylight, but yes, being autumn, there are fewer hours of daylight total than two months ago... Re: Sir Walter Buffalo - "generic" soft leaf buffalo as good 40May 15, 2011 8:24 pm And the suns further away. Nice job, looks great the extra soil prep will be very noticable once the heat kicks up at the end of the year. I've dug some footings to embed a post anchor into. My holes are around 450mm deep which I'll put a 200mm stirrup into. The bottom of these holes seem firm enough. … 0 3293 9 24637 Thank you. 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