OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums General Discussion Forum Lawn Care & Maintenance Fixing a Spongy Kikuya Lawn

Hey All,
My mother in law has asked me to help fix her spongy Kikuya lawn.
She currently has a mower man who mows it once a fortnight which I know this probably isn't enough this time of year but she doesn't want to spend more money.
He advised her last week that he struggled to get through it & that she may want to look at dethatching.
My question is will dethatching help with the sponginess or am I best just to keep cutting it & lowering the deck height over and over? Then let it grow back
Cheers
Robbo

Hi Robbo,

You can easily just chop it right back, it's another lawn you just can't kill. The stuff is strong enough to break concrete apart.

These lawn mowing blokes are rogues. They just just keep raising the height of their mowers each time and clip off the top 5 mm. They're done in a matter of minutes then take the money and run. It's thievery under false pretences.

Cheers,
BB.

I think you're a bit tough on us lawn mower blokes BB! The majority of lawn mower blokes are in to simply mow lawns on a regular schedule, we mow lawns and want to leave each job in a nice looking situation, and if the means raising the mower height to leave a lawn looking nice, so be it. Most of our customers haven't a clue about lawns, they don't know types or cool and warm season grasses. Anyway, that aside, I agree kyk is bullet proof. I have taken lawn down for a client , warning that it won't look pretty for a week or two. The lawn came back and the old customer is happy.

BB this is a little classic, the Jims man who does our lawn and our next door neighbours, in doing the edges over the years had dug trenches about 6 inches deep against all the concrete. My wife fell over in one so I had to tell him not to do the edges and I filled them up with soil. About a month later the neighbour fell over in the ones at her place. The Jims man obligingly got soil from the garden supply, filled in the trenches and gave her a bill for it. Gotta laugh

I rest my case !, thanks Norm.

Now in regards to "bellarinelawns" comment, may I respond ?

I probably shouldn't have generalised as much as I did, so I'm going to say "some" of these guys are Cowboys and are only in it to make fast money and not really do the right thing by the customer as is the case with Norm's Jim guy as that's the same franchise that does my neighbours lawn across the road. Every week they turn up and one guy pulls out the Honda and the other guy grabs the brushcutter, then within 7 minutes they jump back in to the new dual cab Hilux and they're gone. BTW these people have Santa Ana lawn as I do, now when my neighbours last went away leaving me to mind the place I thought I'd do them a favour and mow their lawn just prior to them returning home, so I drove the Scotty over there and pushed it into and I stress "into" their lawn and basically lost it in the 6 inches of thatch. I just pulled it out and drove it home again. Can you honestly say that these guys are educating their clients ? or just taking their money and running. I know what I'd be saying to them, as I already have and now they're about to commission me to do the scalping and scarification this coming October.

BTW their Jims contractor has now been relegated to once every 3 ~ 4 weeks as they are sick of being worked over.

I'm not trying to shoot people down here, but a little honesty wouldn't go astray as the customer will eventually find out and the inevitable is inevitable. Jim's man is retrenched.

Anyway that's my take on it.

Cheers,
BB.

You see this in all sorts of professions though. Those that actually have an interest and passion for what they do and those that are just about the money and whatever they can do to get more or get it faster they will.

It may not actually be something malicious, they might actually have zero interest in lawns so have no idea what they are actually doing or think in their mind they're doing a good job.

The problem is usually the passionate person that does right by the customer usually doesn't do as well financially as it's just a different personality and mindset.

BB I have to be fair to the Jims man who does my front lawn and nature strip, he only charges me $10 for it, and the good thing is now he doesn't have to do the edges . At the end of the day they do work hard for their dollars when you compare it to the fat cats in this country. You don't see too many Mower Men driving around in a new Mercedes or Audi

Hi All
Hmmm....here's my 2 cents worth.
With the utmost respect to Bellarinelawns, Man you have a golden opportunity to capitalize and actually increase your margin to sales here. Better to have 15-20 clients that appreciate and respect your devotion to your craft than have a hundred clients with spongy kikuyu. I will only use my own situation to elaborate here. I am a simple homeowner who practiced and experimented with my nature strip of "kyke" for a couple of seasons before I attempted the back yard with Santa Ana. Neighbours laughed the first year with "Mate what have you done to your grass????". The second year it was "Mate are you sure this is the right thing to do ?"
The last couple of yrs my neighbours are all coming in early spring and saying "So what do you reckon should I drop my mower to zero yet or am I jumping the gun?"
It is exceptionally difficult running a business, I am absolutely certain of that. But when your work is on show .....that 15-20 loyal and trusting (educated and informed) home owners can quickly snowball into an empire.
Good luck
Joe