Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design 1 Mar 21, 2013 2:24 pm We have just purchased a year old new house an as usual the grass was well an gone. After reading many posts here I decided to remove all the turf an 100mm of underlay an start from scratch. I guess this will be my thread for Brisbane people an where the things I'll be using an where to buy them as unlike Perth some items are quite difficult to find. So here goes. Property location Wavell Heights 4012 400sqm block Still trying to work out how to upload pictures! This is the front part of our yard. About 80-100mm has been removed here mostly turf underlay but looked like good soil. Lots of nut grass. This is the side part you see going around from the upper picture to the right. 90-110mm removed here. Can see how the back sub soil holding more water. Here is a little plug i dug to see what was underneath the top is about 90-110mm down and the base of the plug is another maybe 100. I wanted to dig to 200-300 to see what was bellow it but maybe another day. Thats a 3 and 2m3 bin my calculations where just about right probably a bit under. I found this guy to be pretty cheap bins. I think both for a week was 230. Seemed cheap to me as most other places where in the 300's. One thing i found is that most places will not pick up soil because of fire ants. Make sure you ask first before you pay for it. I had to ring 4-5 different places before this guy said "yip, put what want in it" This is the nature strip. I will be dealing with this later an will probably just call someone to dig it out due to street access. The grass here has been sprayed over 4-6 weeks with non select and sempra. I gave up trying to restore it. This is what the inside part of my yard looked like before i cut it all out. Not much nut grass here was more on the inside. I will be following the FU turf soil post but will be using a coir and blend 50:50 organic soil:organic compost mix. Im tending towards just coir and compost but everyone keeps telling me it will sink. Hope no one laughs but this is what im trying to achieve at least on our side of the boundary. I really have my heart set on a Princess 77 or Tiffway but i know that both are couches and are not recommended. Re: Brisbane returf project 2Mar 21, 2013 6:23 pm They are wonderful varieties on a golf course You may well achieve the desired effect with a few other grasses. To get that finish you will need a cylinder/reel mower and finding a recon one from a mower shop is just the ticket. If you can get some sand blended a little deeper than your 80-100mm along with zeolite to make the structure a little more open. Zeolite should be easy to find because all of the big hardware places coloured green have to have it in their pool isle as ZeoChlor sand filter replacement. They have to. Those who say the level will drop would be right. You want to avoid rich composted layers of soil over poorer soils. Lets think ahead. There is going to be some very dry and tough conditions ahead and for a lawn to have a deeper root structure is going to make or break a lawn in the future. Though as BK has mentioned recently, simply mixing organic material through deeper won't be the answer. Changing your clays structure (amending it) will mean using perlite, zeolite and sand. The organic material is going to really be best as something other than the coco peat for you. By all means though, it will make a mean topdress over the years to come. If you want the putting green, a putting green you will have. Re: Brisbane returf project 3Mar 21, 2013 6:34 pm Oh, for that verge, why bother with putting lawn down? Plant a beautiful native verge. Would cost less and have almost no future maintenance costs other than your time once or twice a year to trim things up. 10-20mins at least. That would be less time than mowing A native verge would look fantastic in that spot. They always attract a wealth of life to a home. It just makes sense. For a lawn look, maybe a mass planting of Casuarina "Cousin it". Together they will look like a Japanese moss garden without a scrap of work. Another absolute gem is the prostrate Melaleuca hypericifolia. Re: Brisbane returf project 4Mar 21, 2013 8:44 pm One thing i told the wife i will not buy a "normal" mower. It has to be steel, it has to have HP it has to be what the grass deserves. So before i had any grass i picked up this 5hp Honda Scottie. Perfect match. I was cutting the weeds the first week i got it. The weeds looked so good! Honda first pull first start. My neighbors laugh now but that will be the end in a few months. As of the last few weeks i have started to find some prices on the materials. I will post more accurate ones as i get closer. Im not sure if its ok to post the suppliers. I really dont care who they are so long as i get it at a rate to make this project worth while. Bentonite 25kg $5.80+ I used my abn to get this (i am not a landscaper or anything like that). It is trufeed but its available in medium and powder. Powder over the phone price is $10 odd. $5.80 is my quoted "trade". Pick up is around darra/oxley somewhere, ill confirm later. If anyone wants to get in on a pallet let me know, who knows what it might drop down too. I dont know how many bags are on a pallet. This place can get perlite but only in bulka bag. I dont need that much but id be happy to split it with someone if the price is right. Organic Soil 40+ m3 Compost 40 m3 5mm Both come from recycled tip waste. I am still finding out if its half pasturised and nut grass free or i will kill someone. There is a place on southside who do certed organic but they want $120 m3. Steves do a naturemix, again $100+ a m3. I cant afford that. I am ordering 6-8 to do my inside. Another 10 to do nature strip. I am undecided again on compost or organic soil or blend. I have recently read a pdf by turspec and they rate according to water table and root zone to 100-150 max. No need to blend more than that. Im not soil scientist but a very very helpful person (who i will name if asked) at Hortco here in Brisbane is helping me create the perfect turf. I dont mean to question you FU. But the coco has excellent cation exchange, water holding and cost. Its $100 a cube or $4 a block. 20 blocks to make a cube with 15L of water on site. Dolomite 25kg $7 (to balance the coir high PH, coir importer said 2kg m2) Zeolite (wont buy from green building) Pearlite (Yet to get a price on my abn from the coast) Bactivate (waiting) microsoial powder (waiting) As for buying from the green building, i try not too. i did see seamungus for the big pail there in the $39 mark not a deal breaker as its rate per sqm is easy my area. I am reading a bit about worm tea from Wormtec (sorry) an it looks promising. Not sure how to use against say fish fert and molasses My thinking is that if your a cash surplus and dont care for details or work fly in FU he will sort it out. Im not, so i gota hunt it out. I want some option on my turf please. Is there a device to measure light on the grass over the day? A great turf guy mentioned zoysia to me again (Arcardia, Troy, good dude) i know you love that FU. We put down 16sqm at our first house according to the Troy , ie no prep and starter fert..and it never died, never went brown, an in the year only mowed it twice. He mentioned i can mow it 5mm if i want. I dont know if a broad leaf will handle it. Our new house has more sun on the nature strip and ok sun on inside property. I so want the couch for its size but ill seriously be angry if i install it an it wont take. Another random qld turf guy said tiffsport needs 8hours. Nature strip no probs. ARGGG! Re: Brisbane returf project 7Mar 26, 2013 10:23 pm Ok updates. I have my raw materials minus soil. I hunted an hunted an i bring you the best deals in brisbane (for you sunshine coast people i have a place for you too)! Bentonite powder 25kg $5.80 Pearlite, tried everywhere but $22.50 100L is best you get Dolomite $9.50 ish 41kg (coco peat balancer) Zeolite 25kg horticulture grade, I think 4mm. 25kg $12.50 All from Acacia Ridge Farmlands. Speak to Louise tell them Hetal sent you. I used my abn but I'm sure she will hook you up. I got all of there zeolite stock an i have more on order next week. 0-0.7mm is available but I didn't take it as it seemed quite too fine. There coco peat if you go down that route is 30 odd buck's for 300L un hydrated. Through wholesale I got 20 bricks (1m3) for $80inc pick up Logan ish through Galuku Sydney. If you want to know just ask. Pearlite is really pricy should I use more? I'm a only at 1sqm at moment. Zeolite I'm only at 1kg m2 I can easily (cheaply) double it. Bentonite 3kg m2 looking at my soil I see clay at 250mm down. Now i need a rotary hoe. If i hire it its 100 odd a weekend. I still need to do another 60 sqm after im done with my inner area. Does anyone have one i can hire off you or im buying one because to hire it would almost cover its cost in 3 weekends. I was asking Louise about a microzial powder and she said they have just had one in thats in the fridge and although $120 for 500 gram sounds the same as the MAI product. It only uses 25gram from my caculations per 100sqm top water in so it will go a while. Its called something like activate or something like that. Re: Brisbane returf project 8Mar 27, 2013 4:44 pm Only use the bentonite on sand. If no sand, don't use it! Re: Brisbane returf project 10Mar 30, 2013 12:46 pm As in Perth sands. Your sandy loam is a god send for you. The other amendments will greatly enhance all that though Re: Brisbane returf project 11Apr 28, 2013 7:16 pm Ok i know i went awol for a while. I have a nut grass issue. I spent a few weekends with round up and powerfeed an with all the brisbane rain over the last few months we have alot of shoots. I decided i cant wait for roundup/powerfeed to work so all my weekends where spend mattocking the soil and hand sifting the nuts out. In some areas its crazy. I gave up for now as i dont want to use up all my sempra. I started on the mow edge and i got a guy coming out to laser level my boxing on Tuesday. My original aim to use empress has failed as no one has it in Brisbane only EZ. I love the look of empress as it more like couch and can be mowed 3mm but my turf guy said you can mow EZ to the same height. I dont know. Re: Brisbane returf project 12May 29, 2013 3:59 pm It has been over a month since my past update: I have had a few mistakes and some success so here goes. http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/82 ... 35812.jpg/ This is a 5kg block of coco peat. I put down 30 blocks I think for 70sqm. If you have not played with this before its cool stuff. It comes dehydrated and you add water to it in a wheelbarrow and it expands something like 5-8 times its size. Uploaded with ImageShack.us This is one block after about 15L of water. They take 15L do not add more or less. It makes a fluffy brown light soil type mixture that does not stain or smell (not manure type anyway) It is not itchy as that is that what I thought it might be. I tired originally doing it in rubbish bags but did not work out well as they kept getting holes. If you poke it around and break it up with your hands, it hydrates probably in 10-15 mins and is ready to use after that. It holds water very very well. It rained next day and it went a dark brown and stayed dark brown for at least 2-3 days before going lighter. Uploaded with ImageShack.us All spread out it’s about 3-4cm thick here. Uploaded with ImageShack.us Half mixed in by hand of the pearlite. I had to mix it ASAP as the pearlite is 1) Very very light and will blow away I thought 2) Very expensive. The kids came and played in the fake snow and the neighbors came and took pictures. Lesson learnt here is to cut a small hole in the pearlite bag and walk it around. I forgot above that there was bentonite put down under the coco peat. I only read this after I read on here probably should not have used it. I used 100kg of it. Mistake number one. Mix it in with the soil when you put it down even if not hoe-ing it right away. It rained next day and the clay got wet and was a real B$#@H to mix through as it clumped in sheets. Next time id only add it the moment the soil is ready to rotary hoe. Uploaded with ImageShack.us Couple of friends I hired to come mix it all up. I added 100-150grams/sqm of seamungus on the day. Uploaded with ImageShack.us All done. Currently missing turf (obviously) and still needs the mico defense, worm wee and kelp added and the molasses and power feed. I did not do the bactivate. My next step is to level the soil as it very soft at the moment. Maybe wait a bit to see what weeds come up and pull them out before laying the turf. Question, when i level the soil and compact. If im looking for a dead level surface can i use loam and screed level and then turf over? I know my turf guy cuts the turf accurately at 50mm and im looking for a flat-ish surface that will only need small amounts of sand later to fill lows on the turf surface. Re: Brisbane returf project 13May 29, 2013 8:31 pm Screed it, compact it, screed it again removing high bits and filling the low bits. Compact it again then screed it again filling low spots with sand. Don't compact too hard you only want to make it a firmish surface, especially since you have loam which can compact way too hard for good root penetration. Btw what ratios did you end up with soil:compost/coir? If you amended over say 25-30% it will sink... If you did lay your turf 100-200mm higher than you were going to. Re: Brisbane returf project 14May 29, 2013 10:05 pm Over 70sqm I put 2m3 of partially broken down compost soil manure an about 1.3m3 of coco peat. It made up a thickness on the base soil about maybe be 50-80mm then it was blended together with all the other amendments. 100mm-200mm? At the moment the perimeter edging is level with my soil height so it needs to compact down about 50mm so the heights work. The amended soil is very potting mix soft an I'm hoping it will firm up a bit or I'm going to have a hard time getting the finish I'm after. Re: Brisbane returf project 15May 30, 2013 8:22 am Oops, meant 10-20mm.. Ok you need to factor in the coco peat and compost/mature will break down to about 20% of their original volume within in 12 months. But at the volumes you used you should be ok. If it was me, I would lay the turf 10mm higher than the edging, better its a tad higher for 6months than having to topdress later... Use a thin layer of sand on top of your soil mix when doing the last screeding if you cant get it dead flat. Re: Brisbane returf project 16Jun 08, 2013 9:49 pm Absolute massive day. Me and 4 friends came out this morning and we started. There was a lot of delays as my friend wanted to do the electrical properly for the led garden lights and drainage. We started laying at 10.45 an didn't finish till 5pm. We ordered 70sqm and the turf guys delivered 70sqm including some no so usable 2-3 meters. We struggled to get it all down and chased squabs at the end with small scrags to get the sq m done. Re: Brisbane returf project 18Jun 11, 2013 8:16 pm Good job using the coco peat, it has amazing cation exchange capabilities. Do future top dresses using it too. As for nut grass, look for a herbicide containing "Endothal" it will sort it pretty quick. remember, as I always write, a splash of seasol and a few drops of dishwashing liquid as well. spray in the morning and not before rain. Re: Brisbane returf project 19Jun 11, 2013 8:56 pm Farmcraft Seasol 2L keg $20 od bucks. 1.25 or 1.5L power feed $13 and 22kg molassas $29 I have some questions. 1) How soon can i start the leveling process? Ie sand or coco. I took out about 1 barrows worth of my soil mix after scraping and im happy to sit there grinding it by hand for top dressing it. 2) I read today eco88 that i saved from my first revival is synthetic fert. I have 1kg of mycodefence once it stops raining to water in. I have seamungus in the soil already. I dont want to kill the myco-bacteria in the soil by using the eco88. The day i laid it it rained all night and the next day all day. I didn't want to do the myco as i thought it would rain away. Im hoping this weekend it starts to hold sun and i can drench it in and establish it. Thoughts? 3) When do i seasol/powerfeed/molasses? Also how much of the sea/p.f? I did my wormtec product (1L) over 70sqm in my Hortec metered sprayer the next day with tank water of laying and i have 4L left still. I have a jar of pure kelp extract powder i have used with the wormtea (25grams/1L). 4) Should i roll the turf? The sub soil is still squishy to walk on. Im more concerned about levelling or should i wait 6-12 months. The zoysia i have been told doesnt like to be top-dressed. If this is true whats my maintenance to get it square leveled or "graded" as they call it in USA. Also i went with Zoysia Marella and absolutely love the way it looks. It looks like couch. I have seen it cut to 3mm in Ascot and it exactly what im after. Time to sharpen the Scottie. Re: Brisbane returf project 20Jun 13, 2013 1:04 am 1. I'd use a bit of sand (in this case) as a top dress, though I would suggest you wait till into the spring before you do it. It all has to settle in and often mowing is enough to ensure things firm up and even out on their own. 2. Not great to pump fertiliser into new lawns (yes there are endless advices that suggest otherwise) This will harm the soil microbes which are in a very fragile state in newly prepared soils. Far better to nurture them instead. Into the coming years, use the synthetic fertiliser at 10-25% of what is recommended as an application rate. 3. Molasses will be the most important of all the things you can use (after the Myco product) Seasol and Powerfeed are of tremendous benefit right from the start however. These are different to fertilisers (even if Powerfeed is fortified with NPK traces). They will help the soils ecology far more than the lawn directly. With that comes almost immediate improvements to the lawns growth above and below the ground. 4. Yes, roll the turf. Yes wait to top dress (see 1.) Not true about the topdressing and again comes back to info on EZ stemming from very poor turf care, or mainstream soil prep and ongoing care. Top dress with coco peat. Wonderful stuff. WA Horticultural Media President and highly regarded Turf Consultant, Nick Bell, has done many trials with top dressing and finds Coco peat to be excellent as a lawn top dress. (As do I) It may well be a nice look to keep lawns cut that short. Though for a lawn to be healthier, 40mm is a better height. Lots of work and resources to keep a lawn to bowling or putting green height. Daily - tri weekly mowing pretty much. DIY, Home Maintenance & Repair That laser level looks lovely! We bought one for less than a quarter of that price off eBay. It worked really well for us and it's still going now, five years later. After… 1 16711 If you need to pay for a project manager you would be well advised to just engage a builder who would take full responsibility for the build. As opposed to you OB where… 5 15071 |