OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums General Discussion Forum Lawn Care & Maintenance New Playground for all my Scotty's

This one is more so for the people here on the ODK Forum that know me personally and know that I haven't had a lawn at my new home to hone my craft on. The last house we owned had a snooker table finished front lawn and now it sadly looks like a wilderness gone wrong, it's really sad when you do all that work and people just go and dump their wrecks on the lawn like a Westfield parking lot.

Anyway here is a shot of my new Scott Bonnar playground that I've just planted 2 weeks ago and will post progress shots of as it spreads it's wings.

I've not been totally out of SB territory as I planted a small lawn at the side of the house midway through last season and it's looking pretty good so far. I'll post a shot of that section tomorrow,

Meanwhile here's the new one............






Here's the side lawn as promised, remembering it's only about 9 months old

Hello Mod BB

Westfield parking lots never look good...
I'm glad that you are now defining your territory - as an SB oficianado.
The green-coloured missile silo is very cunningly disguised.
Do the neighbours suspect your plan to ...

Best of landscaping.
-----------------------------
Jack

At least your lawn will be the envy of all the neighbours, albeit that the scotty may be overkill on a lawn that size.

Hi Mod CyberJack and Mod Bigted

Sadly that Dr Evil style missile launcher silo is a Power connection point in the street that many of us have. I rubbed it back and painted it cottage green and will make up a small cylindrical trellis to slide over it and then plant a small climber around it so as to hide it. Once all the plants go into the feature garden that's in the part you can just see that is not yet done it will hide it anyway.

As far as not enough lawn for a Scotty is concerned there's plenty more around the side (not pictured) that will require mowing.

I will agree with you that a 20 inch is definitely overkill and not viable, but a 14 and 17 will most certainly get a good run around the park.

I still to this day have my 14 inch daily driver (unrestored) that I bought back in 1985, gee that's 30 years ago now, how time flys.

More update photos to come.

Cheers,
BB

That side lawn is sensational!
Your daily driver should do a very nice job.
Next photo should show SB stripes.

--------------------------
Jack

For you Jack I shall do that and take a photo and post it up, the mini MCG look.

Cheers,
BB

Just for you Jack,



I've just cut it today and given it some Scotts Lawn Builder as it's due for it's next dose.

Not forgetting this lawn is only 9 months old.

Cheers,
BB

For only 9 months it looks amazing

Fantastic!

There's nothing like a reel stripe.
I wonder how old folk walk down the footpath though?
Has Adelaide come to this!

The grass is coming along nicely.
I'm envious.

----------------------------
Jack

Hi Jack,

Basically as we are in a short street that's not a through road we don't actually have a designated footpath and one has to walk on the road surface. The footpath where you see the two cars parked on is in fact my property as council didn't want to lay a footpath and the previous owner put it down. I'm the only one in the street that has a paved section out the front and down the side since we're on the apex of a 90 degree bend in the road.

Cheers,
BB

Progress Shots !




I must admit that it's happening rather slowly compared to the Santa Ana of many years ago when you bought it in 12 inch square blocks and it was made to be cut into plugs. It seems that now with it only being able to be purchased as roll out lawn there is not enough root system attached to the lawn (much thinner) thus it spends more time initially trying to re-establish it's root system before it wants to spread and grow outwards. It has had two hair cuts already but it's not really sped the process up like it used to in the earlier days of Santa Ana.

Cheers,
BB.

Looking really good.

People would have no idea that this was once the norm when 'growing' a new lawn.

Looking good.

Newbie question here but is that Santa Ana you planting? Is this the normal way to grow it? I used a seed based couch, so this process is new to me.

Also I notice that you used I think sand instead of soil how come, or am I looking at it wrong lol

I'm not much of a grass grower , but it seems everytime I do try with seed, the pigeon problem here in S.A holds its head up high, they can clear a paddock in a day !!!

Santa Ana is a hybrid (inter-species cross) couch. It does not produce a viable seed so the only way to establish the grass is with actual turf.

Hi Solman,

Yes your observation is correct it is an 80/20 sand mix. In my case where I have a rather raked slope this gives far better drainage than soil. Basically soil will have the water just flow straight off the top while sand allows deep root drainage.

Here in Adelaide, one of our best football grounds (Football Park at West Lakes) was based on sand and thus it could rain all night and most of the day and 20 minutes after the rain stopped you could play footy on the surface with no water pooling effects what so ever.

BTW. the new Adelaide Oval redevelopment was resurfaced with 72 Semi-Trailer loads of roll out "Santa Ana" from Bormann's Turf Farm at Langhorne Creek, SA, specially grown on plastic.

I've grown all my couch lawns in sand and have never had an issue, in actual fact Munns Lawns recommended a 80/20 sand soil mix back in the 1980's when Santa Ana was all the rage.

The way I've used plugs is the standard way of sowing Santa Ana, you can also shred it and bury it and get a rather even growth, but on a raked surface I've chosen the planting plugs method.

Hope this explains what it's all about.

Cheers,
BB

Thanks BB, very helpful as usual. Is Santa Ana a preferred grass say over bent grass? Reason I ask, is that I started to grow a section of my lawn in Mumms pooch cooch, but now I'm considering grow a small putting green in either Santa Ana or bent.

Hi All,

Well here is an update on my Scotty's new playground.






Also an update on the Weeping Maples in the centre of each quadrant, they suffered from transplanting stress and looked as if they were both going to pass on, but they have started developing new shoots and are coming good, phew !, was starting to get worried about two new trees at $150 each.


Cheers,
BB

Well, here is another update on the progress on my new front lawn.







Here's an update on the weeping maples,complete with their gazebo's to keep our 44 degree sun off them while they are still finding their feet.




Cheers,
BB

Oh wow is that the proper way to do grass?

I just did my small back yard and used roll on turf from a farm. Screeded and everything but that just looks super smooth.

Have you got sub surface irrigation?

Hi roverdude45,

I don't know about it being the proper way but it sure is the cheapest. If I had done it in roll out turf then it would've cost me about 1.75 K, but the way I've done it cost me around $68.

Honestly, in the early to mid 1980's this was the only way of planting Santa Ana Couch. You bought it in 12 inch squares and it was around 3 inches thick, thus it had a good root system attached and when cut up into one inch square sods and planted it would spread rather quickly as it still had a good root system attached. All you had to do was cut it's head off weekly to encourage sideways spread rather than upward growth. I did a lawn back in 1986 which had full coverage within 4 weeks which isn't possible nowadays.

Now, basically all you buy now is roll out in 2.1m lengths and the thickness is only 1.3 inch thick which means most of the root system is still with the lawn farms and all they do is top dress the sliced out areas and 6 months later they have another crop ready to harvest. It's a win win for them.

So with such a reduced thickness when you cut it into sods it spends well over a month in self survival mode due to having its root system cut away from it and thus is the reason why lawn sellers tell you to keep roll out lawn very wet for the first 4 to 5 weeks while the root system attempts to re-establish itself.

If you look at the first post I put up with the initial photos you'll see that the lawn was planted in mid October 2015 and now we have full coverage and it's mid January, so thus why it's taken so long, but I will say that many folks in my street had a bit of a dig at me on why I did it the way I did, but when they walk past now they are full of compliments on the result so far and also when told what my outlay was they are staggered compared to what they paid for roll out and to also have the job done by a contractor.

I guess one can always say self gratification is the cheapest form of pleasure. LOL !!!!

Cheers,
BB

PS. Just to answer your question on sub-surface irrigation, no I don't as I could have issues when scarification is done and tubes may get hit or sliced.

That result speaks for itself really! Me and a mate were looking at your thread post dates and 3 months doesn't seem that bad!

I've just built a place here in Perth and the front landscaping you get 'free' as part of the developer package. Means you don't have to pay for it directly out of your pocket - so everyone just gets it done. But they're typically smashing these jobs out and the results aren't anywhere near as good.

Mine is coming along OK. I leveled it out as much as I could and mixed in some stuff to give it a boost before the landscaper guys came in (although I see in the thread you've never had a problem turfing on sand!).

Can I ask does it need to be top dressed soon after full coverage? Is it lumpy at all in between the gaps or does it even out?

I don't see any retic heads in the pics, do you handwater - it looks so even? I recently replaced all my heads with the MP rotators because we're close to the coast and most of the water was getting lost to the sea breeze on normal spray heads. Results seem to be good so far - less dead spots and lawn is making a comeback where it was previously patchy.

Hi roverdude45,

It's a very interesting bunch of questions you bring up.

I had another resident in the street stop yesterday to congratulate me on the "now" best lawn in the street, honestly I get rather embarrassed by these comments as I know that the lawn is basically like a young child just entering primary school with much development to go before it leaves school.

If you look closely you can see the original mother plants by the light dotted bits. This is from constantly mowing it low and sending a message to the original sod to grow sideways instead of upwards. You are not really achieving much by filling in the low spots early in the period of the lawns development as we are trying to achieve the same thickness in the low spots.

This all takes time and there are no real short cuts. At the beginning of the next season I shall be doing a harsh cut back to the soil level and then doing a re-screeding of sand over the top of the whole lawn area and then applying fertiliser, then within 3 weeks I should have a totally even surface that will have a groomer reel used on it every second cut just to keep it thinner and not thatch up.

Currently I am cutting the lawn with my 14 inch SB 45 every two days.



Cheers,
BB

Hey BB

I swear last time I had a quick read of your reply there was more about that car! Sounds like you're passionate about at least one other thing than turf/mowers!

I've had a few buzz boxes myself growing up, 2 or 3 180sx's, s15, evo, skylines. My old housemate had an rx7 fd and boy did that thing go. Getting older now though (past 30) and now have one car between me and the missus...lol. Cx-5 to make it easier towing/transporting stuff for the house. Although I'm sure she was sold on it more for the potential baby carrying capacity!

But back to your lawn! So how do you water!? I couldn't see any retic heads in any of your pics and its got me bugged!

Roverdude45

Great job BB! Those progress shots were fantastic

After doing some research and looking at your lawn in this thread I think I'll go with Santa Anna over windsor green. Also I've been told by many people that if you have kids then Windsor Green is useless as its growth rate is so slow it doesn't repair in time

Hi roverdude,

Yes you are correct that there was quite a bit extra about the car but it was basically written for you and once I knew you had read it I edited the post as it's really not relevant to the thread. Hope this explains it for you.

Cheers,
BB.

Hi Cirillo,

Thanks for the words of encouragement as I appreciate it. I've also had many comments from most of my neighbours in the street and I have to say it's becoming a bit embarrassing as I now have some pretty high standards to keep displaying.

I think you've made a wise choice in normal SA Couch. Now all you have to do is decide on how you're going to do it ? either like myself and only spending $68.00 on lawn rolls and cutting it up in to plugs, or shell out over $1,000 in using roll out turf.

I must admit for instant gratification (now that sounds a bit sus) go with the roll out, but if you're a bit more of a saver then plugs are the only way to go. The only issue with plugging your lawn is that you've now missed the season for it to grow and gain full coverage. This needs to be done later October early November.

There is also another way that it can be done and that is to shred instant turf through a chipper machine (mulcher) and then rake it into your prepared surface and spreading a bit more soil over the top and watch it grow with plenty of watering. If I had my time again I would use the shredding method as it eliminates the scenario of mother plant bumps in the lawn which I'm going to have to deal with over the next season until I've scarified them out at the beginning of the next season.

Cheers,
BB.

Being mid to late summer and having small kids that are bursting to get on to the lawn I think roll out is my only option. Being just under 50m2 it's not too bad. I've called Paul munns and they'll deliver for $9 a square meter. Garden grove are around the same price. I grew up and work in Virginia (live in the western suburbs) and there's a turf grower there but he's not too keen to supply direct. I've got trucks so I'd be happy to pick up myself. Oh we'll no biggie.

What irrigation do you use? I was thinking underground irrigation to water the roots directly

HI Cirillo,

I use above ground irrigation with my pipework being far enough down and also being on the outer edges as below ground irrigation is just too susceptible to being hit when scarifying every couple of years.

As far as lawn choice is concerned, I pretty much thought that roll out would be your only option at this late stage of the season.

Cheers,
BB

Ahh this explains it


This sounds like a real interesting way of doing it.

How often do you scarify BB? Is it as required or do you do it periodically?