Kikuyu is one of those grasses that grows like a wild fire in the right conditions. Here is a picture of it invading a highway. Back in the 70s in California the highway department had one truck hydrosprigging kikuyu and another truck spraying it to kill it out. It was growing over the roads and causing accidents from cars slipping on it. Since you measure in meters I must assume you do not live in the US. Where do you live? Kikuyu can be a tame grass when the conditions are not quite perfect for it. If you live in California, then all you need is for one sprig to take hold and you'll soon have an entire lawn of it. If you are in the US you might consider Tech Turf buffalo grass by the Turffalo company. It is plugged in and spreads much faster than any other buffalo I am aware of. Here is a picture demonstrating the spreading over a sidewalk a few weeks after it was mowed. My understanding it you can have a full lawn of Tech Turf in a month by sprigging according to the directions.

Must of been lucky. Bought an MTD at Ace hardware (Ace Special Edition) with a 42" cut and 16hp Tecumseh. Aside from the normal problems of your MTD of that era IE having the grille mounts break off after a few years) it's been great, and it was only replaced as it was really starting to not work well on hills, and in the last year has been a case of "What's going to break next when I mow?". A key to remember is any NEW tractor in that range is going to be light duty. If you have more an acre to mow with it, a newer, higher end, used model is a probably a better option. You'll get a lot of life out of one though if you keep it well maintained. Take care of it and there is no reason why you should not get a good, usable life of about 10-12 years. one other thing to keep in mind; the chief complaints of many people on a mower it seems is the motor. That is the most important part of a mower besides the transmission on a Hydro equipped tractor. The engine is going to what will go wrong 9 time out of 10 on a mower, and is often going to be to blame for issues with cutting (due to lack of power) and reliability.

Larry, I suppose you can do it if you want to. I don't know of any reason why you shouldn't. It can only help the plants. Sometimes the newer growth is lighter merely because it is new, and then it turns darker as it ages.That could be all you're seeing. I'm all in favor of doing the watering and feeding because anything that makes the plants stronger also will make them more productive. If you don't want to have to worry about the grass going crazy, you could put down cardboard with mulch on top to smother most of that grass near the runners and just leave the soil bare right where the runners touch the ground so they can root into the ground as they grow. Dawn

hi fred, the biggest problem Ive found is how fast it drains so if she has the money, they do make special lawn loam mixes to put down first. I didnt do this but I mixed in a bit of yellow sand before I started. soil wetter is a definite must if its the grey sand, and scotts have a new lawn fertiliser which I used on mine and its for establishing new lawns (between you and me, I think its mostly blood and bone with a few other things mixed in) :) but it worked well. manures are also good and help hold some moisture (makes quite a difference in summer).