Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design Re: Lawn failure, what to do now. NOW WITH PICS. 21Feb 19, 2014 7:22 am OK so if I get some of this: http://www.yates.com.au/products/pest-c ... ler-dipel/ And that will help with grubs. The question then becomes how best to go about improving the soil and whether to oversow with more standard fescue, RTF fescue or start putting in plugs from another grass. I still need to roundup the couch and Kikuyu also. Re: Lawn failure, what to do now. NOW WITH PICS. 23Feb 19, 2014 8:30 am Your thanks are much appreciated. Not everyone is so gracious. It is still mid February. I would be waiting a month before I started any repairs. Also read the instructions thoroughly before using any chemical treatments as there may be a warning against sowing seed etc during the treatment phase. If not, I would still err on the side of caution. You have a large lawn that will be a great feature once it is established. You need to treat the whole lawn, not just the dead areas. Those dead patches were once lush. Tall fescue and kentucky need to be high cut and this also offers protection against the moths that lay the eggs. It is more efficient to spray any chemical treatments late in the day as many chemicals break down when exposed to ultra violet light. Over fertilising, particularly during Summer, can acerbate the situation and should be avoided. I have 3 compost bins and I mostly sprinkle the compost over my back lawn. My last place had the lawns mounded and they looked great. I thought that I had mounded the back lawn at my current abode but it is too flat for my liking. If I could produce enough compost, that lawn would be well mounded by now. I wouldn't top dress with anything but home made compost. 3in1 Supadiverta. Rainwater Harvesting Best Practice using syphonic drainage. Cleaner Neater Smarter Cheaper Supa Gutter Pumper. A low cost syphonic eaves gutter overflow solution. Re: Lawn failure, what to do now. NOW WITH PICS. 24Feb 19, 2014 7:52 pm I don't have any compost to use unfortunately so any fertiliser must be bought. I can get horse manure easily? The question remains, how to repair it. More fescue, rtf fescue, buffalo etc. Also, excuse my ignorance but I've got no idea what a mounded lawn is. Re: Lawn failure, what to do now. NOW WITH PICS. 25Feb 20, 2014 11:15 am LawnHater I don't have any compost to use unfortunately so any fertiliser must be bought. Compost and fertiliser are worlds apart. You would be using much more compost than fertiliser by volume...that's why I mentioned that I use my home grown compost to lightly top dress my lawn. If it raises the levels in time, then it is another advantage as it is an aesthetically beneficial landscaping feature. Don't be concerned about top dressing if you want to seed first but don't overdo the depth. LawnHater I can get horse manure easily? You wouldn't put stable straw or horse manure straight onto a lawn. You have the room, why not make a couple of large compost bins? Layers of horse manure, newspaper, dry organic matter, lawn clippings (if you don't use a mulcher mower), vegetable scraps and other suitable material mixed with blood & bone and potash will provide your lawn with the best biannual (spring and autumn) lawn treatment it can possibly get. In the interim, I would be looking to get some bulk suitable compost and top dress. Your alternative is to laboriously use plugs or else rough up the surface and sow. LawnHater The question remains, how to repair it. More fescue, rtf fescue, buffalo etc. That is up to you. If you are prepared to maintain the area, then I personally would sow tall fescue for the look. Even with a tank, you would still need to outlay for additional water but even a hundred dollars spent would buy a lot of water for a big benefit. You can offset the water use six months a year by plumbing the tank to the main toilet and laundry. You can also give the lawn a deep watering by watering the lawn when it is raining in deference to the tank overflowing when full, even in winter. 3in1 Supadiverta. Rainwater Harvesting Best Practice using syphonic drainage. Cleaner Neater Smarter Cheaper Supa Gutter Pumper. A low cost syphonic eaves gutter overflow solution. Re: Lawn failure, what to do now. NOW WITH PICS. 26Feb 20, 2014 11:51 am The amount of compost I'd need for this yard would require vary large bins and more material than I have (grass clippings, veggies scraps etc). Bringing in fertiliser/top soil once a year is probably easier. You mentioned top dressing or using plugs/sowing, are you now referring to the actual repair process? As I understand it, this grass will not repair itself so I'll have to re-seed it at minimum. Assuming you mean top dress the lawn/damaged areas then seed. As for water, I think you need to have your water using devices on different plumbing to do that, and given the tank would be a good 20m away from the house there's extra cost in that (the trenching is not so bad as I am running power to the shed shortly and was going to run mains water to the tank with a suitable pump so that if the tank ran dry mains would cut in, so I always have water in the shed). Would Buffallo require less water? Would it crowd out the fescue or just work around it? Re: Lawn failure, what to do now. NOW WITH PICS. 27Feb 20, 2014 12:37 pm LawnHater You mentioned top dressing or using plugs/sowing, are you now referring to the actual repair process? As I understand it, this grass will not repair itself so I'll have to re-seed it at minimum. I was mentioning your alternatives. It is up to you. LawnHater Assuming you mean top dress the lawn/damaged areas then seed. I would lightly cover the seeds. LawnHater As for water, I think you need to have your water using devices on different plumbing to do that, and given the tank would be a good 20m away from the house there's extra cost in that (the trenching is not so bad as I am running power to the shed shortly and was going to run mains water to the tank with a suitable pump so that if the tank ran dry mains would cut in, so I always have water in the shed). Be aware of the regulatory minimum distances apart that different services have to be when trench sharing different services. LawnHater Would Buffallo require less water? Would it crowd out the fescue or just work around it? I have never had buffalo. I am just posting about lessons learned from my own experience in a different location. I am not a professional in this field but I love the environmental and aesthetic benefits of having a well managed good lawn rather than hard paving that contributes to the urban heat island effect and ground water depletion. There would be plenty of information available on the web about buffalo etc. If you decide on buffalo or something else, then mass sowing and top dressing would, I think, be the best way to go. There will be others with different opinions, you need to work through whatever information you get. Also, don't ignore the information available online. 3in1 Supadiverta. Rainwater Harvesting Best Practice using syphonic drainage. Cleaner Neater Smarter Cheaper Supa Gutter Pumper. A low cost syphonic eaves gutter overflow solution. Re: Lawn failure, what to do now. NOW WITH PICS. 28Feb 20, 2014 2:21 pm Cheers for the point re trenching, I was under the impression that as long as the trench was deep enough it was fine, 600 for power, 400 for water. I have the warning tape also. There's ton of info online but it's the same stuff I went through last time only to end up using the wrong seed so I'm skeptical. Re: Lawn failure, what to do now. NOW WITH PICS. 29Feb 24, 2014 7:18 am Sprayed grub killer on the weekend, took bloody ages because the packs didn't seem to want to mix properly, VERY frustrating and just makes me hate the whole process more. That's my rant. Have decided we'll be planting some more trees down the back, so hopefully the shade makes life easier for some of the grass. Spoke to a helpful gent in Bunnings who has RTF fescue and he confirmed it does repair, but much slower than Kikuyu, which suits me as that means it's less aggressive. I'll do some more research and follow his suggestion of speaking with a rural supply store about it more. I'd rather the maintenance of watering more in summer (especially once we have a tank) than heaps more mowing in the heat from a warm season grass. the leaves that are now underground go yellow, the tips that poke through photosynthesise and have chlorophyll, same reason they grow rhubarb in the dark. 5 4835 9 24757 This is one of the reasons I decided to go overseas for my double glazed windows. As the builder indicated, he's worked on many upmarket builds, these were the most well… 13 19080 |