Turf Management

Turf Management

Want your lawn to be the envy of the neighbourhood? While grass is fairly low maintenance, if you show it some tender love and care, it will reward you by flourishing. Here are our top tips for managing your turf.

Turf Establishment

If you’re installing new turf, we recommend utilising 10 litres of water per square metre upon installation. There’s a simple trick to figuring out how long it will take to water your new lawn area with that amount of water. First, time how long it takes to fill a 10 litre bucket. The divide that time by 10 to get a per litre time and multiply that number by the square meterage of your lawn. For example, if it takes 30 seconds to fill a 10 litre bucket, and you have a 180m2 lawn, then the following equation applies:

(30 seconds / 10 = 3 seconds per litre) x 180m2 = 540 seconds (9 minutes) for the entire lawn.

During the first week after you’ve laid it, water your new lawn up to three times per day to help replace lost moisture in the turf. By the second week, roots should have formed so you can reduce your watering to once per day. Encourage your roots to go deeper by watering a little bit longer. By week three, drop back to watering your new lawn a couple of times through the week, again increasing the watering time to encourage deeper rooting. By this third week, you should also begin mowing – though never mow more than 1/3 of the leaf at any time.

Full establishment could take between one and three months. It will depend on the season and weather at the time you lay it.

Maintenance Watering

Once your lawn has become full established it will generally require less watering, however deep watering is always recommended on all grasses to help promote that deep root system. We recommend once or twice per week, depending on the weather and the time of year.

If you have Sir Walter grass, signs of drought stress to look out for include a blue tinge and shrivelling of the leaf. For Couch Grass and other varieties, look out for browning and shrivelling of the leaf. Leaf death will be swift if left unchecked.

Mowing

Regular mowing with a sharp blade is recommended for all lawns. The frequency will depend entirely on growth rate, which is effected by the season and weather patterns in your area.

If you have Sir Walter Premium lawn or other Buffalos – mow areas in full sun between 25-50mm and shaded areas at a slightly higher height cut of between 50-70mm.

For Couch Grasses and other varieties – areas in full sun to be mown between 10-20mm and shady areas up to 50mm.

Pests

Lawn grubs can be a pain and cause some damage but a healthy lawn should recover quickly. You can safely use most pesticides for lawn grubs on all grass varieties.

Weeds generally only tend to take hold on unhealthy grass which may be caused by excessive shade, high wear and tear or poor nutrition. So regular maintenance of your lawn will generally mean you avoid weeds taking root. Never use products containing Dicamba, DSMA or MSMA on soft buffalo lawns.

There are also a few fungal diseases that can affect turf. They generally take hold during periods of high humidity and rainfall. Avoiding fertilising with high nitrogen fertilisers during such times should do the trick and keep your lawn fungal free.

When using any pesticides, always remember to check the label and make sure it’s suitable for your lawn type.