Inverted Reality

 

Lawn Progress

Last week I posted about my new lawn. A lot of prep went in to getting the soil and levels right, irrigation, and of course the rolling and compacting of the lawn. [gallery link="file" columns="2"] Ten days later and things are going very well. The lawn is looking great, growing fast, and happy in it's new environment. It's doing so well that it's pretty much ready for its first mow. I'll be giving it a buzz sometime this week. Not too short! I applied for exemption from the Water Corporation, for watering in and establishing new lawn. They posted me a watering schedule, which I've programmed in to my irrigation controller. The lawn is happy with the watering which in it's current 2nd week is 2x waterings of 5mm per day, every day. I had to program some of the zones differently, as one zone is on regular pop-up style sprinkler nozzles, and other zones are on MP Rotator nozzles (which deliver 1/3rd the water of a regular nozzle) Here's some information on the type of lawn I've installed:

Palmetto Buffalo Grass is a tough, soft leaf Buffalo, that is available Australia wide. This turf provides a lawn grass that has excellent winter colour, and can generally out compete weeds when established. Palmetto Buffalo Grass generally requires less watering and less mowing than most other turf varieties available in Instant Turf rolls or slabs, and in Viro-Cell Lawn for patch up.
Stenotaphrum secundatum 'SS100' is the genus, species and cultivar name of this turf. Thus 'SS100' is the cultivar or variety name of the turf. Palmetto is the trade name, or brand name. more on the Palmetto web page

Filed under  //   Home   Hunter   establishing lawn   irrigation   lawn   lawn mix   mp rotator   new lawn   palmetto   roll-on lawn   sod   stolon   turf  
Posted February 23, 2010
 

Blogging is like growing grass

For the past few weeks I've been preparing the house for new lawn. We've had a lot of new landscaping done, including retaining walls, poured limestone, new patio, etc. While we do not have a lot of space, we've come up with a way to maximise what land area we do have, that we are allowed to actually develop and use for living space. The front yard used to be a horrible grass slope, completely unusable (for living space), and awful to mow. We've retained it up, levelled it, and turned it in to a courtyard with approx 50sqm of new living space. It's a space to sit and enjoy a wine whilst watching the kids run around. Still a little way to go until things are looking finished around here though. New Palmetto Turf [gallery link="file" columns="2"] Establishing your blog is sort of like establishing your lawn. The blog needs a lot of attention in the beginning while the root system develops and the lawn blog grows. Subscribers will come if the effort is put in from the start. Good content, regardless of topic, is worth coming back for.

Filed under  //   Home   blog   blogging   lawn   turf  
Posted February 14, 2010
 

Irrigation of the nation

I've been so busy around the house lately, with all the works going on, new patio, new ground work, new retaining walls, etc. I've been breaking my back preparing the remaining areas for lawn and gardens. Getting soil levels right, removing rocks (boulders), bringing in additional soil and installing reticulation for the new lawn / gardens. This week I finally finished the majority of the retic system. I have four zones. Three for lawn areas, and one for a garden bed. Lawn areas include the front verge of approx 8x3m which has eight regular popup sprinklers, a front courtyard lawn area of unusual size (lets just say 6x4m) which has five MP Rotator 2000's on popup's, and a rear 4.5x5m section with four MP Rotator 2000's on popup's.

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What the heck is an MP Rotator? It's a pretty neat popup sprinkler nozzle that waters the lawn more slowly, evenly, and reachers further than a conventional popup spray nozzle. (oh and they look hardcore) The down side is, the nozzles are $25 EACH. (don't hit em with the mower!) This weekend I'm bringing in the final "lawn mix" soil, to get the areas up to level and ready for the new lawn's arrival. I'm going for Palmetto which is a Buffalo variety. I can't wait! (it's going to look good AND keep the dirt and crap out of the house). Stay tuned for awesome pictures of super greenery!

Filed under  //   irrigation   landscaping   lawn   mp rotator   palmetto   retic   total eden  
Posted February 5, 2010