Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design 1 Aug 09, 2012 4:23 pm Hi all, New to the forums and already overwhelmed by all the info and help provided in various threads. The wife would like to get rid of the (loosely called) grass and replace it with something that actually looks like lawn. Our soil is heavy clay here in Guildford so the area can easily turn into a slippery mud pit, especially where it's most shaded. I want to use grey water as main water source for the turf using Netafim Bioline AS (with the necessary filters) and that has to be installed about 10cm below ground. So I'm thinking the best plan of attack would be to kill off the current grass, get in a dingo and dig it all up and the clay about 10cm. Till it and then lay out the drippers. Put down organic compost and additives (spongolite and perlite). The Fu Manchu guide then talks about cultivating deep as possible which would of course destroy the drippers. Is it necessary meaning doing the cultivating and then doing the trenches for the drippers? Is Empire Zoysia good for well shaded area (some spots might only get some light early morning). Cheers -cdbrown Re: Perth turf - out with the old in with the new 3Aug 10, 2012 12:54 pm Yeah looks like the drippers will have to go in after the soil prep work is done. It would be quicker to lay the drippers on the clay and then put the good soil on top but this won't provide the best result. Trenching it is! As it's heavy clay and I've read that I need to get sand mixed in with the compost soil at 40:60 (sand:organic). What I'm not sure of is how much I should order - should I allow for 10cm or 20cm? Area is 56m2. Re: Perth turf - out with the old in with the new 4Aug 16, 2012 11:47 pm Make sure you talk with the SwanRiver trust about using Grey water near the river. they will have good advice about which "enviro" sensitive products are suitable for use in Perth. Grey water use is controversial here and for good reason. Our soil structures and water systems are a little different to anywhere else in Australia. Contamination from grey water is a real problem. You are lucky to be in one of the few areas of clay along the sand plains. You'll want to add sand, zeolite and compost. Composts should not be added at any higher volume than 20%. Over that and it ends up in the river. There are not any soils that cater adequately for that so buy them separately and blend with the clay. Compost from The Greenlife Soil Co or Eureka Compost. Use a compost rather than "lawn mix". Anysort of sand will do. Don't fuss too much with which one. Also some liquid humid products like EcoAmino Grow or Powerfeed. they break clays far quicker and better than gypsum. You may wish to add Dolomite of lime instead of Gypsum. From memory, your clay is not going to respond to gypsum. Blend the soils with your existing clay soil to around 30cms if you can. layering soils will backfire in a few years and make that lawn bloody hard expensive work. Do the hard yakka now and kick goals for ever more. They using concrete or timber sleepers? Timber or steel uprights? Any drainage behind sleeper? 3 5891 Is it possible to render an old corrugated iron shed.I have heard that it can be done if it is covered with chicken wire first.Not sure of the ratio of the render mix and… 0 4897 Thanks Chippy,I do have one that I levered out. I'll try to find a brand name on the windows then do some searching. Here is a photo where you can see how worn they are. 2 7959 |