this post was submitted on 08 Apr 2024
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Gardening Australia

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Lawn Rescue (aussie.zone)
submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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I have a depressingly destroyed lawn. Partly dog damage, partly lack of care.

Its mostly buffalo, but some couch self seeded and grows better than the buffalo does, so i'm inclined to leave it and let the two types grow where they like it most. Is this a good idea?

We are thinking to get some top soil, but don't know what time of year to put it on.

We also need to replace the sprinklers, but i haven't really found a type/brand that i'm happy with yet.

Any ideas and advice anybody has would be greatly appreciated!

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

If you want lawn you probably want to do it now before it gets any colder. It's going to be much easier to replace the lot in one go rather then trying to work around what you may want to keep. Good opportunity to level off any bumps and fill in any shallows.

If I had a yard like that I'd be drawing up plans for fruit trees, veges, herbs, you name it. Is it smaller than it looks in the pic?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

Hmm, replacing the lot sounds like a bigger job than what i's bargaining for.

So full story, bought a real fixer upper of a house. Picture late 70's build, couple cheaply done additions, nice enough at one time, but after years of it being a rental, plus its age, the house needs a lot of attention. Consequently the garden has gone a bit haywire, especially with the introduction of the dog.

Eventually we'll get to re-landscaping, no joke the picture there is a third of the grass previous owners have laid, way too much for me, fruit trees are definitely on the cards.

But fixing the garden is a few years away, as we're renovating the house itself first.

So, with all that said, i'm not looking for a fantastic lawn, because we'll probably rip at least half of it up in a few years. I's just looking for some tips to get it to regrow and stop turning it into a dustbowl for now.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

If you are just after adding some green to the lawn, and not to fussed about two different grasses growing, I recommend Garden Basics 1kg Tough And Hardy Lawn Seed. I have had a lot of success with my lawn, either growing back grass from where I went scorched earth with weed killer, or growing grass back from removed garden beds. I got about 5-6 boxes of it, and sprinkled it around my front and back yard before we got all that rain here in Brisbane, plus a little bit of fertiliser to help.

Here are some photos of the growth, following from death by weed killer.

Front yard

Back yard

Lemon tree base

The following are before and after, about a month apart from each other. Re-growing from removed garden beds.

Tree 1 garden bed

Tree 2 garden bed

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Wow! Yeah, thats coming back nicely. Maybe i'll have a look at these lawn seeds again. I saw them at bunnings the other day and wondered if they might be the go to cover the patches for now. Cheers!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Some easy hacks I've used before

Use an application of Seasol liquid fertiliser to revive dead/struggling lawn. It's getting a bit cool now but you could probably still give it a feed.

Mow without the catcher on so the grass gets recycled back into the lawn.

I've had some success mowing leaves into dead parts of lawn as well. Sometimes it just needs to retain a bit of moisture to get started again.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Yeah, i started using seasol its worked well in many of the parts. I might try the dead leaves idea as well