Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design Is it the right time 2May 06, 2011 10:45 pm Have you got the opportunity to use something else? Make sure you browse the turf laying threads before doing the job. Please disregard any advice till you read them then weigh up what you get given. What is written here will greatly differ from common advice and for good reason. Having couch in a domestic garden is like having a wild bull in the garden. It's a beautiful turf for large commercial areas but domestically.... Do a google street look of let's say... Butler or Darch or Success in Perth. Have a look at the garden beds. More couch than plants or black mulch. You will struggle to control it. I firmly believe that if the turf industry promoted this cheaper turf less, then people would be less Liney to have had so much negative experience with turf and love turf instead of see it as too hard. Re: Is it the right time 3May 07, 2011 9:17 am Fu Manchu Have you got the opportunity to use something else? Make sure you browse the turf laying threads before doing the job. Please disregard any advice till you read them then weigh up what you get given. What is written here will greatly differ from common advice and for good reason. Having couch in a domestic garden is like having a wild bull in the garden. It's a beautiful turf for large commercial areas but domestically.... Do a google street look of let's say... Butler or Darch or Success in Perth. Have a look at the garden beds. More couch than plants or black mulch. You will struggle to control it. I firmly believe that if the turf industry promoted this cheaper turf less, then people would be less Liney to have had so much negative experience with turf and love turf instead of see it as too hard. Thanks Fu. I'm in Melbourne and a landscaper will lay the turf for me. He already put 100mm lawn mix. Initially I decided to go for Sir Walter Buffalo but the grass doesn't look nice at all. Was looking for some finer leaf grass and come across Santa ana couch. Is there any other finer leaf grass thats not invasive and avilable in Melbourne? Is it the right time 4May 07, 2011 9:38 am A layer of 100mm of lawn mix just doesn't cut it. These things need to be turned through your existing soil to around 300mm deep. What happens is you have a very shallow layer of soil that the roots predominantly grow in. That means it's the layer of soil that heats the most, dries the most, gets the coldest. The roots won't go very deep. It builds you an expensive lawn compared with when an actual compost and amendments are mixed with the existing soil on the property. Then roots go far deeper and the turf won't become a headache. It will almost take care of itself. Is it the right time 5May 07, 2011 9:48 am Empire Zoysia would be the other one to get but it won't work very well with the soil type used and method of the soil prep already. If fact it wont at all Buffalos when clipped high, cared for organically and not subjected to pesticides can be wonderful lawns that just beg to be laid on when it's a warm summerday to watch the clouds go by Is it the right time 8May 07, 2011 1:14 pm It can but it will look like rubbish. Turf is an investment for the home. Re: Is it the right time 9May 07, 2011 7:52 pm Fu, what do you mean? Why would it look like rubbish? It won't be able to break into the soil and establsih the roots? Or because of something else? My signature is distracting people from my wise posts ... Re: Is it the right time 10May 29, 2011 7:36 pm Fu Manchu Have you got the opportunity to use something else? Make sure you browse the turf laying threads before doing the job. Please disregard any advice till you read them then weigh up what you get given. What is written here will greatly differ from common advice and for good reason. Having couch in a domestic garden is like having a wild bull in the garden. It's a beautiful turf for large commercial areas but domestically.... Do a google street look of let's say... Butler or Darch or Success in Perth. Have a look at the garden beds. More couch than plants or black mulch. You will struggle to control it. I firmly believe that if the turf industry promoted this cheaper turf less, then people would be less Liney to have had so much negative experience with turf and love turf instead of see it as too hard. Fu What did you mean by "Having couch in a domestic garden is like having a wild bull in the garden"? Re: Is it the right time 12May 30, 2011 8:57 pm khpatoary Fu Manchu Have you got the opportunity to use something else? Make sure you browse the turf laying threads before doing the job. Please disregard any advice till you read them then weigh up what you get given. What is written here will greatly differ from common advice and for good reason. Having couch in a domestic garden is like having a wild bull in the garden. It's a beautiful turf for large commercial areas but domestically.... Do a google street look of let's say... Butler or Darch or Success in Perth. Have a look at the garden beds. More couch than plants or black mulch. You will struggle to control it. I firmly believe that if the turf industry promoted this cheaper turf less, then people would be less Liney to have had so much negative experience with turf and love turf instead of see it as too hard. Fu What did you mean by "Having couch in a domestic garden is like having a wild bull in the garden"? Just like a wild bull in a garden. couch won;t stay in the lawn areas. It WILL get into any garden beds and be very invasive. Hmm what about something like Nara. that's fairly fine leaf, native, waterwise, or slower growing. Empire, followed by the Buffalo lawns of sir walter and then sapphire. Re: Is it the right time 13May 30, 2011 11:43 pm Couch isnt as bad in vic as its in wa. Kikuyu is way, way, way more trouble down here. It grows year round while couch has a nap from now till sept. Both are great in vic if maintained properly. I have cared for a santa anna lawn and its a ripper grass and works really well down here hence why its still sold by all the turf farms. Its just not a grass for those who dont want to edge and mow. Re: Is it the right time 14Jun 05, 2011 11:10 pm khpatoary Fu What did you mean by "Having couch in a domestic garden is like having a wild bull in the garden"? The stuff grows mental. I am always left scratching my head when people put a dinky concrete or metal lawn edge down at great expense to keep a grass out that can send runners 3m deep given the chance. It is my very firm belief that both couch and kike are the sorts of grasses that are best left for where they look their best and are maintained at their best. Like watching a wild animal being set free. Golf courses, public parks and large council open spaces. Just really wonderful stuff. If you're ever playing golf and see some weirdo hugging a beautiful Santa anna green, it's me I'm a massive admirer of a beautiful professionally cared for turf surface. Professionally cared for where budgets must be met and resources are used to perfection. I don't think there is barely a house with in the 3 or 4 suburbs around me that doesn't have someone wishing they never had couch or worse still a lawn because of couch. Its used in nearly every home. Why? Its cheap and fast growing. What does that mean for the owner in a domestic application? Well it means you'll be on the end of a mower every weekend for a start if you want it too look any good. You will forever be trying to remove it from the bloody garden beds. Those that don't have it in the garden beds will be a slave to the task of keeping it out. It is one of the toughest of course, yes it uses stuff all water to stay alive. That however is different to staying looking good and for that more water is needed than many other varieties. Or to break it down again the owner of the turf will be inclined to use far more than is needed to look good. That lends me to another point that I'll address in a sec. It does in time detract significantly the appearance of an entire suburb. As the homes age and the lawns are cared for less or the homes are rented out, things get a bit messy. That is when people get sick of it. That is when people get the idea that making their house look like fricken lego land is a good idea and get plastic grass. The toupee of the landscpae world. I just see much happening created by many non specific elements of the turf, landscape and nursery industries that are giving the plastic grass people everything they want and shrinking their own industries future growth. ... and that is why I am such a big fan of better suited domestic turf varieties. I want you to enjoy your turf. I want you to never regret having turf. I want you to have a turf that doesn't suck money from your pocket like a vacuum. I want you to have a turf that makes plastic grass look like as cheesy as a toupee'. I want your turf to have a positive effect on the air around your home, I want your turf to sequester carbon effectively. I want your turf to rarely need weed sprays. I want your turf be an experience in sustainability that you can teach others the same methods with. I want your turf to use half the water of your neighbours and look twice as good. It's all like the common turf care info you get told. Not much is really worth much domestically. All the info is derived from highly skilled professionals that manage massive areas of turf every day of their lives. They need to use fertilisers and water beyond what many can fathom. However when that info is used by unskilled or semi skilled contractors or people in domestic applications, we get a very different outcome. Grossly misused fertilisers, pesticides and fungicides. They have health issues for both the soil and you. Environmental problems that cost tax payers a lot. I firmly believe, along with quiet a few others, that domestic turf management and commercial turf management need to be two very different skills. Anyway whah whah whah, blah blah blah. Is that an ok answer? Summary, Buffalo and EZ are just great domestically compared with the rampant couches and Kikes. You know how you get the crazy cat lady in the street or in each suburb there's one? well there is also the crazy old lawn bloke too. He's the guy who will be retired and mow a Kike or couch to perfection each day, vacuum the lawn each morning and play classical music to it. He is the exception to the rule for domestic use of these. There will be exceptions Re: Is it the right time 15Jun 06, 2011 12:09 am Fu I'm no expert but this has been my experience, we have two couch lawns (not sure on the exact variety) in the Adelaide hills, our front lawn wasn't watered the entire summer (we had allot of rain but still some long hot periods) and it looks fantastic, very dense and only required mowing about 5 times over the entire summer. We have heavy clay soil surrounding the lawns and have never had couch come up in the garden beds, the only way it ever gets in is if it grows over the top of the edging...but it never gets far because it just stops. Under these conditions couch seems like an ideal choice to me... Re: Is it the right time 16Jun 06, 2011 12:22 am Well brace your self, cause I'm comin' over to hug ya lawn... 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