Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design 1 Aug 24, 2013 8:49 pm Hi Everyone, We moved in to our current house in Melbourne about 2 years ago and never have time to look after the nature strip after it was left by the builder in a devastated state. The nature strip was full of grass before they started house building and was covered with patches of tuscan topping and small broken pieces of brick in patches after they completed the house. Over the last 2 years various grass(Kikuyu)/weeds have grown in it. but there are still patches where there is nothing due to the toppings/bricks pieces. I was planning on restarting it so I sprayed Round Up a few months ago (winter) and most of everything has died off. As the weather is getting warmer again I notice new weeds/grass are starting to germinate and I seeded Emerald Kikuyu and Tall Fescue without removing the dead grass. It has been 2 weeks now and the seeds I sown have not germinate but the wild grass/weed are clearly coming back. My question is should I be removing the weed before re-seeding (I would think yes)? By what method? Shoveling will obviously work but too much manual labour. I am also thinking of at least getting rid of the toppings/stones/brick pieces and perhaps may be removing a few centimetres over the whole nature strip and relay with some lawn blend soil I could get from Garden Centres. Perhaps then I can really restart the nature strip with Emerald Kikuyu in October. Can I just dump the new soil on top without removing the existing soil and dead weed? What would be the best value for money method to do this? In view that I have probably wasted the fescue and emerald kikuyu seeds and fertilisers. Perhaps Fu or some expert could give some advice. Thanks. Re: Suggestions to restart nature strip 2Aug 25, 2013 7:02 pm Hi there, The tall fescue you seeded will come in a week or so, the soil is very cold atm so germination takes a bit longer. The kikuyu won't germinate atm because of the cold soil, if you read the Emerald kik box it says soil temps need to be over 20 degrees to germinate, which is late spring early/ summer in melb. Your kik seed may just sit there till spring then come up or it may just rot. The seed mixes you used usually have a fast germinating cover crop which you could be mistaking as weeds?? Either way you can selectively spray out any weeds and leave the fescue intact, but you need to wait a month after the fescue germinates. You can spray with amgrow Bin Die or anything by yates with dicamba in it. Then in late spring oversow the strip with emerald kik pure seed (little packet) not the blended box. Or if you start again, round up the lot, maybe even a second go if more weeds pop up. Then cultivate the area, and spread seed again. Re: Suggestions to restart nature strip 3Aug 25, 2013 7:42 pm Thanks so much BeatrixKiddo for your reply, finally someone is responding I will try your advice about oversowing pure Kikuyu seed in October, hopefully the dead common Kikuyu does not come back to life again. If all else fail I may have to try to restart next year as October is the best time for Kikuyu. Speaking of cultivator have anyone used this one? Are they good? http://www.quicksales.com.au/ad/1733871 ... pQodnnIAUQ Re: Suggestions to restart nature strip 4Aug 26, 2013 9:39 am Doesn't really matter if the old kik comes back, it will just blend through the new emerald. I forgot to mention another way you can do it is to plant small squares of roll on kikuyu. You just buy a couple of rolls of turf (about $20) chop them up in to squares (about 15x15cm) and plant them out. By about mid summer your nature strip will be fully covered. Way quicker than seed but not as easy as just throwing out seed. You can do this with any roll on summer active grass like kik, buffalo or couch. If you want to use kik choose Village green or kenda. Most turf farms/resellers wont let you put an order in of a couple of rolls, so just head down to your local nursery and get them to add a couple of rolls to another larger order that will be delivered to the nursery. Re: Suggestions to restart nature strip 5Aug 26, 2013 7:59 pm Hi BeatrixKiddo, Thanks for the suggestions. I called up council today and complained about nature strip not been reinstated after house building, guess what they agreed to reinstate my nature strip. I think I will throw some Emerald Kikuyu seed in after they have reinstated and seeded it. Thanks for all the advice anyway, I am sure it will be useful in future. Hi everyone, Just wondering if anyone has switched from a small square tile insert or normal square waste to a strip drain at all, and if so did the plumber or diy-er… 0 13128 Hi, Looking to add an ensuite to one of the bedrooms and make it a Master BR. Please see the attached current floorplan. Need suggestions on what's the best way to do… 0 7337 |