OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums General Discussion Forum Lawn Care & Maintenance Santa Ana - Melbourne - What to do in Winter?

Hi Cirillo,

You are in the similar situation to me and that is that the house shades a major part of the lawn during winter and over a period of years the lawn just won't be able to handle it. What will happen is that you'll end up with fungal type issues within the root system and that's basically cancer of the lawn. I know that in time I'm probably going to have to deal with it also but until then I'm going to do my best to keep it's health in the best shape.

It would be good to have sun tracking mirrors that reflect light back onto the lawn, but hey this James Bond technology isn't going to happen for me.

Cheers,
BB.

Hey Cirillo and Bonnar Bloke,
Dormancy sucks particularly if you love looking after turf. You guys should start looking into zoysia matrellas for some more shade tolerance, the only problem is I'm not sure if they handle the cool all too well. ShadeTuff is sold commercially up here (in Brissie) for about the same price as Sir Walter. I know Lawn Solutions Australia (the Sir Walter group of growers) have brought in a number of zoysias from the states. I reckon Zeon Zoysia which is on the Olympics golf course in Rio will become the next Sir Walter in Australia in the next 5-10 years. Zoysia japonicas can also handle shade (50-60%) although don't have the fineness of leaf that the Matrellas do (they are much similar to Tall Fescues) but you can still mow it low. I have seen Empire Zoysia mown at 11mm being used on tees before. I know they have some cool tolerance though as wild genotypes grow as far up in the latitude zone as Korea. You can buy a seeded zoysia japonica cultivar zenith online from seed stores and I think Viro cells (plugs) of empire zoysia online too. Might be worth a trial in a small section. As far as more cool tolerance and shade tolerance in couch goes I know some growers have Northbridge and Latitude 36 up here in trials (they aren't for sale yet). Lat 36 was bred for cool tolerance and grows high up in the transition zone in the states. The LSA growers have TifGrand and TifTuff on trial and were bred for shade and drought tolerance. You probably wont see these around for a few years though. Your other option is just have 1 week of dormancy (if that) and grow grass all year round by moving up to Brisbane, you can grow the stuff on a rock up here .

I feel that people in southern Victoria have been conned into thinking santa Anna couch is a good domestic grass. Some years ago I was talking to a turf supplier in geelong and he said it was initially only used on the Bellarine penis ulnar as the climate was more suited to it, and then the suburbs of geelong begun to order it. It really looks crappy in home situations when the home owner plants it in the wrong areas, let's it grow long and fails to fertilize, scarify and generally look after it.
Ooh after it.

Well no time for me to sulk with my nose pressed up against the glass cos I been super tied up with work. Great to check back in however. An update on my March laid turf which is on the south side of a 2 storey home, I was surprised by a couple of things.
Firstly, It didn't brown off over winter as I have been led to believe and witnessed as well. Don't know whether that was because it might have been a warmer winter. There appeared to be a little greying of the thatch in some not so robust turf mats, but other than that held up super well
Secondly I haven't had the mower on it since late May or Early June and it is just now starting to send out some creepers around the edges. I have had some winter weeds that I have spent the winter picking out by hand
Pleasantly surprised on both counts ....but am now ready to get it cracking for its second season. looking forward to mid to late October to get it knocked down and top dressed with sand to smooth it out some more
Will post some pics as I go through the process.