OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums General Discussion Forum Lawn Care & Maintenance 2016/17 Lawn Pics

Hi BB

I used buffalo pro weednfeed a couple of weeks prior to scalping it. Since then it has had 2 applications of Seasol complete garden care solution in the appropriately measured dosage rates.

The perimeter bricks are there to stay and the lawn has had 2 cuts with a Scotty in recent days.
There, I think that covers it all. Thanks for the feedback and please dont hesitate to pass on further advice

Cheers
Joe

Upping the ante here:

Ahh a Grooming reel, that will most certainly help and promote growth.

Did you purchase it like that ?

Cheers,
BB.

Where did you get the grooming reel mate it looks awesome? Thank you

Nah, got the machine via gumtree for a pretty good price, although it was a fairly new machine it hadn't been looked after that well. Probably left out in the weather etc. but nothing major wrong. Blunt reel, bit of rust, roller clutch needing adjustment.

Got the grooming reel made by: http://www.golfandbowlingmachinery.com

They turned it around in less than 2 weeks. Very good service. Especially since they hadn't made a shaft to suit this machine before.

Looks great. The big question is how does it perform?

Not entirely sure yet. The clippings in the catcher are noticeably more brown and stemmy compared to the cylinder mower clippings. The lawn certainly looks scruffy after grooming, but then the mowing afterwards is probably more effective as the grass is standing up.

How low do I go with it?

Hi rikaussie,

It's doing exactly what's it's meant to be doing and that's de-thatching the above ground growth as it is a verti-cutter and the reel mower is a horizontal cutter. Santa Ana likes to be thin on top (unlike us men) and allow the sunlight to penetrate to the soil.

Cheers,
BB.

Hi All
A further update on the progress at my place. The grass seems to be filling in nicely albeit a little slower than I may expect. BB, I took your advice and treated the lawn with Scotts lawn builder to help it along. I am still feeding it every 10 days or so with Seasol as well.
Overall the lawn appears healthy but does appear to be filling in slower towards the brick edging closest to camera. I wonder if this might be due to that area being subject to little or no sun during winter.
1st pic with mowers in frame taken a couple of weeks ago
2nd pic with the faintest hints of striping earlier this afternoon
Happy New year All
Joe

Hi Joe,

Well it's looking good so far and we've still got at least 3 active months of growing to go so it'll only get better.

I'd be cutting it without a catcher every 3~4 days at this stage and you'll find it will be superb for the winter shut down period and I feel you won't have to do too much to it next season apart from regular maintenance and normal up keep.

Well done.

Cheers,
BB.

Hi rikaussie,

Just out of interest, there's an identical Masport machine on Gumtree right now and the seller wants $1000 for it, minus a dollar. It's only set up as a cutting machine and not a groomer like yours.

I'm sure you're going to have quite a lot of success with your Masport.

Cheers,
BB.

Cool... the one I purchased was advertised at $900. But I paid sub $700. I knew I would have to fork out for the grooming reel so didn't want to pay too much and wasn't fussed the reel was blunt etc...

I was keen to get hold of an SB45 but they are hard to find in Melbourne.

Hi rikaussie,

So Melbourne is short of a Model 45 or two ???

Do you want any ? as I've got plenty stashed away over here in Scott Bonnar's home town of Adelaide.

Cheers,
BB.

Oh yeah! Let me know what you've got?

Just gotta work out transportation!

My mower is in desperate need of a sharpen. But can't bear to part with it for a 10 day turn around at this time! Backup is required!

Cheers

Here's my Santa Ana today after mowing. I scalpped it 2 weeks ago so there's a little bit of recovery to go, but un all I'm happy with it. It's been just under 11 months since I laid it

Hi Joe,

Wow that's great in just two weeks. Must admit I would've thought it's a bit late in the season for scalping, but obviously not.

Hows that issue with the front lawn going against that wall area ?

Cheers,
BB.

Hey BB

it wasn't a proper scalp, I just mowed a little too low and it happened to scalp. I didn't want to have multiple levels so I just kept going. I did hit it with some ammonium nitrate and a decent 90 minute soak straight after and followed up with another a really strong kelp and seaweed solution and another 90 minutes of water 3 days later to try and get it to bounce back as quick as possible. I normally use the kelp and seaweed weekly anyway (I purposely had it made up as a weekly applicator anyway but this time there was a double application).

The front lawn is actually recovering better than I expected. I've been giving it 10 minutes of water on dusk every night and when it's forecast for 35+ I've been giving it an extra 15 minutes at about 8:45am. Even though it's getting better, I will be killing it off in march and reseeding with Tyee Bentgrass. It is a new generation Bent and much more heat resistant. I does have a tendency to produce more thatch than the current Penncross in the first 12 months but after that results show that from about 18months onwards, thatch levels are almist identical.

Hi rikaussie, what did the custom made grooming reel set you back??