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Gardening in Oz

Lawn Identification

12 years ago

Hi all,

I'm a fairly young and budding gardening... I've just moved into a new rental and the lawn is in serious need of some tender love and care. However, can someone please help me to identify the type of lawn I have? I'm getting lots of broad leaf weeds and I want to use a weed'n'feed mixture, but need to be sure that I don't have Buffalo or Durban...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/o7djbkgvkuhq5bz/IMAG0103.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vypahd8y6or5yzw/IMAG0104.jpg

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Jace

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Comments (4)

shaxhome (Frog Rock, Australia 9b)
12 years ago
Appears to be good ol' Kikuyu...Pennisetum clandestinum. If you find a way to kill it, you'll be a very rich person. Turf managers will lay wreaths at your feet and pay millions for your secret.

Spray with impunity. It even laughs at Glyphosate (RoundUp).
funnelweb
12 years ago
Yeah, look, I've tried with moderate success 'Once a year Weedkiller', I can't recall who puts it out, could be Yates. If you look along the shelves in the big Green store you should find it. I've also found 500 strength Glyphosate over a couple of doses has a decided affect. Other than that, good ole Kerro (kerosene) will do it. Mind you, leave it a season before you plant anything else.
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Oh the grass is there. Look harder. If that is at least 14 inches long, then it is King Ranch bluestem. For years the state has been planting it in the medians along all the interstate highways. Now it is invading everywhere. I have a house in George West which is trying to be invaded by the KR bluestem. I am surrounded by it on 1 acre and it had made inroads before I bought the house. I have allowed my St Augustine to grow unmowed and that seems to have stopped the weeds. I do not have enough of the bluestem to experiment with keeping it mowed as a turf grass. If it would stay down, it might actually make a nice, native, lawn. The color is good. The only problem is the seed stalks.
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Here is the second picture!
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It's barnyard grass, a.k.a. cockspur grass, Echinochloa crusgalli, or one of its very close relatives, can't get it closer than that from the picture supplied.
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What about signal grass? Click here for more pictures.
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elleau
11 years ago
Can't see the images. They might be removed? Kikuyu are very hard to get rid of because you can't easily kill them even by using the best weed killer. If you don't have any choice, pull them out!
growd
11 years ago
Why would anyone in their right mind want to kill kikuyu? It's the toughest lawn around and after planting several other types of "hardy" lawns at great expense I can promise you once it's established you won't need more water for it than for the others. Kids, dogs, your mother in law, NOTHING kills kikuyu. Feed it, water it, mow it and enjoy it.

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