Grass question for everybody

21 years ago

Since you are all such a wealth of information - here it is. Imagine you have 1.5 acres, a large portion of which you are trying to get grass onto. What do you do?? I have large areas of dirt, plus large areas of mixed grasses, seemingly in little tufts. It looks like a reasonable cover but when you walk through, it is very sparse with plenty of dirt in between. Do I a) not worry about it and slowly keep adding garden beds as finances permit; b) extend the house loan by $30,000 and turf the lot; c) seed; d) use runners; e)sell up and move to a unit near the beach and feed indian minas breadcrumbs on the balcony. Plus what grass do I plant - for every variety I've heard of, someone seems to think of it as a weed (except the expensive turfs like cooch and sir walter). Plus has anyone ever heard of Condamine Cooch and can tell me anything about it. Thanks all in advance for any advice received.

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Comments (12)

gratlog
21 years ago
I think you have to really try to get cooch somehow.
Imo it is the only grass to grow in Qld, but what would I know as I have a Heinz lawn (57 varieties)lol
You will find once you get a strong grass going it will soon spread. Good luck
richardqld
21 years ago
Couch grasses are very high maintenance to keep looking good,i would always recommend a soft leaf buffalo variety in your climate.I think in your situation i would be trying to minimise lawn and maximise your garden beds,To have a great lawn requires a lot of water.
Good luck
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User
21 years ago
Hi our block is 3/4 acre and we never planted any grass on it, turf, seeds, or runners.
And I mowed it today and cannot believe how wonderful it looks as I never water it.
We, Hubby and I built built our house 4 years ago and it took us a while to get into the garden
So we left the grass bit to nature and she sure has done a marvelous job on it
After that rain we had a few weeks ago that native cooch of sorts is so green
you would not want anything else, so try leaving it if you can and just mow whatever comes up
As all those fancy turfs die in the dry season anyway as they need heaps of water
Cheers...MM
ashmeri
21 years ago
Condamine couch, is called Lippia and is a bad environmental weed.
It looks quite pretty when it flowers but the bees love it so you can get bee stings when you walk on it or the children play on it.
You are better off just putting round a few couch runners and letting nature take it's course, much safer in the long run.
We have 1 1/2 acres of mown grasses that look great when green with a bit of couch starting to grow in places.
Marion
User
21 years ago
I dont know what kind of couch grass we have, it never flowers it just gets these
seeds spikes if we dont mow for six weeks. I just love this couch, no maintenance, no water
And best of all not much mowing Cheers....MM
Rose_Qld
21 years ago
Hi Larsman
How strongly do you feel about lots of grass? Could option a) be expanded to included clumps of local vegetation further out: eg small/ med trees, understory, vines. Once established, preferably with deep rip lines and mulch etc, these are low maintenance and much appreciated by wildlife. Do you like any of the native grasses and tufties? Species like wallaby grass, lomandra and dianella (various cultivers, can be divided easily) etc. You can buy the grasses as plugs I believe.

Before we moved to suburbia, my husband made a playing field out of degraded land for the kids. Quite an undertaking from memory....think he used Dawson River couch. This was outside Rockhampton; 7 years on, it's doing quite well.

If you have some couch you're happy with, allow it to seed and perhaps slowly discourage undesirable spp with careful spot spraying but be warned, Roundup positively encourages broadleaf weeds to follow and the cycle never ends then. Digging out the unwanted grasses in selected areas before seeding if you have the time and energy can work. Some suggest mowing after seeding and spreading the results on the barer areas.

Did the rain soak in well? We had a barren area last spring, sandy and water repellent. I think we had good results from a granular preparation. It was Munns Wetta Lawn and Garden (No financial interest.) If your block slopes, I'd be looking at some kind of swales to get maximum soakage into the subsoil. These can be disguised with plantings.
Rose
Sparaxis
21 years ago
Grass seed is cheap. We have 1 acre here and have NEVER turfed, and I wouldn't deram of it, because I let all the grass go brown over summer. 30,000 would buy a lot of plants and mulch, and you would have a wonderful garden in a very short time. You would even be able to budget for some hard landscaping out of that, if you do it yourself.
My first outlay would be on a rotary hoe, and some basic garden tools.
User
21 years ago
I too go with the mow, mow, mow, theory. The people across the road from us did one half of the front lawn. They weeded and sprayed, top dressed, seeded, watered and anything else you can think of. On the other side of the driveway they did nothing but mow what was there. Over the years, you wouldn't know the difference.
Cheers,
Dee.
popi_gw
21 years ago
Hi Larsman

I had the same situation when I moved to my place, 5 years ago. A sparse, neglected weedy 2 acresish, and it had millions of little rocks all over it.

I look at it now and marvel at the way it has all turned into lawn. I have simply spent years mowing it. The grass (weeds) just spread. There are all sorts of plants in it, couch, kikuy, native grasses, and some other weeds I havent been able to identify, as yet. I must admit I did buy the odd cheapy seed packet from the supermarket and just chucked the seed around when i knew it was going to rain.

So that was a very cheap way to turn weeds into lawn.

Good luck with your patch.

Oh, if you are doing garden beds, you cant go by the newspaper, mulch method.

Popi
Liatris
21 years ago
With your level of water restrictions, you might as well flush $30 000 down the drain as fork it out on turf. A decent garden can be created for little cost by visiting markets, exchanging plants and propagating your own.

Work on one area at a time, and as you clear out the existing grass for a garden bed, transplant it to a bare spot. This is time consuming, but it's also free. Your transplants will require a little water 'til they settle back in, but after that, the grass you already have has show that it can look after itself.
ginnybee
21 years ago
When we bought our place over 3 yrs. ago the lawn was all but dead due to total neglect & drought we have planted cheap mixed rye grass seed & Kikuyu runners it has become quite a hobby for my husband & now we have the greenest lawn on the street& it cost next to nothing
Jan.
calthrop
21 years ago
Larsman,back in the mists of time I had a rental house with a sparse tufty looking lawn and figured that the tenants would just park their cars on it any way.
They watered it occaisionally but just kept it mowed short
quality wise it was the worst lawn in the street but kept short it was neat and didn't cost the earth to maintain.
I have had neighbors in the past with "bowling green" lawns and figure that they obviuosly have time to waste on a lawn. I would rather spend the money on other more important things like my garden and my animals.
Best of luck and remember its for enjoyment not pain.

Grass question for everybody

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