turfing diy

[tattmun]

any brudders here know how to do a garden turfing overhaul?

have tried weeding by hand, hoping to cause those weeds to extinct eventually.. however, it seems impossible.

so, i am considering to do an overhaul of the whole garden.. what kind of grass would u recommend? i like the soft type, but dont know what's species it is..

any tips? pls help.

[bslee]

Hehehe... this is one of my upcoming projects in the near future. I think I've to dig up and discard a few inches of old soil, together with whatever old grass roots and all. Then order a small lorry load of riversand and spread it out. Go Sungei Buloh nursery and find sufficient grass patch to cover the intended area. Its going to be labor intensive I think. Now I can plant that Bermuda grass as my neighbor have tarmac their garden. If it was still cowgrass?, my garden would be a disaster in no time.
Ya lah..must SWEAT lah!.
Hope I'm not wrong what I intend.

[termibait]

I have done for my small garden. i think few inches is not enough as i m currently facing the problem of old grass roots....u will need to dig at least 1 to 2 feet. apply stones, soils,riversands for few layers until the desired level. i bought carpet grass(not sure it is called bermuda or carpet grass). agree with bslee, it is really labour intensive...and i have yet to complet another half of my garden. my garden is at both left and right of my driveway.

[VeeJay]

I did mine 5 years ago....but still those weeds do come back from neighboring house which we wont have control off...due to wind factor.

After soiling and sanding, I used the soil impacter/compacter - ( not sure what its called) (borrowed), to harden the soil and to have a slight slope so that water would run down easily during rain, else you would have higher chances of growing fungus.....which it does anyway

I think my grass is called pearl grass, if i'm not mistaken, it doesnt grow high and fast in hot sun, but under shade it goes extremely fast!

[bslee]

I think there's 2 or more important issues here.
1. Soil preparation is nearly everything to the longivity of your new lawn, meaning, rid of all old grass roots if its of another breed like cow grass or others.
2. Isolation from any other source of other lawn grass, especially cowgrass, like having a wall to isolate or if you're lucky enough your neighbors on both sides don't have any lawn grass. If you're divided by simple fence and the neighbor have cowgrass, you can say bye bye to your nice new lawn in couple of years.
A coincidental visit to a mat salleh friend of mine who lives in a nice bungalow somewhere far from KL recently contracted to transplant about 3000 sq.ft of lawn to what he said was Taiwan grass and slow growing type. Of course his perimeter is walled up and it looks beautiful. The bill came to about above RM8k meaning its RM2 something per sq ft with some free after sales visits to ensure all's ok. I'm sure lawn contractors will luv a sizeable contract like that. Me, just a mortal with small patch of terrace house lawn...so DIY lah..

[CCY]

Well... I don't know if barrier wall is effective in the long term but nothing beats regular weeding . No two way about it. Just yank it out as soon as you see it and I don't see a reason that you have to wait until it spread to half the lawn and cry over ...

[bslee]

Agreed. A lawn have to be maintained anyhow. I'm quite sure a wall does help.

[ESLord]

I did some survey sometime ago as well when i did my lawn.

It generally cost RM2/sqft to have it done by the nursery.
If DIY, will get to save a little, the grass cost Rm2 per piece, measuring 1'X2'. Ie rm 1 per sqft la. That also require hard labour to remove the old grass, loosen the soil, put riversand, proper leveling etc....

I end up do it myself, was rather free back then and wanna get the sense of satisfaction.... but sort of regret it after suffer muscle pain in my arm for 2 days! There was philipine grass and taiwan grass, i forget what i took and din know the different.

As Veejay said, those exposed to the sun stay short and tidy. Those use which can't get direct sunlight (beside wall and under pergola) got long and quiet ugly. It shall be the same whether DIY or have a pro to do it for you.

[Ms Lim]

HI,

I am a new member here. am starting to learn and dressed up my empty garden. i would love to adopt above plants/trees should any of you are shifting and may not want to bring over to your new hse. thx

[cpleong]

hi all,
what would be the "least maintenance required" turf you know?

I currently have Philippine grass - short when it's hot, long when it's shaded. It grows into areas I don't want it to grow into (e.g. into plants and choke them), and from time to time, I do need to maintain it's growth pattern.

I've cleared all of it from weeding already - so it's very nice to step on. Am thinking of re-turfing (and probably give the philippines grass away), if only someone can help convince me that there's a better alternative turf grass.

Getting old la - can't keep up with the grass (children?).

[bslee]

Hey Mr Leong,
If you're going to re-turf, I'd love to accept your offer of your old grass, maybe can I use your whoever contractor to transfer the old grass to my place? Of course I'll pay for the labor incurred.. I have to remove 3 pine trees from my garden to make way for new grass too. PM me when you've made your decision?..

[bslee]

I've not delved into looking out for all the options of available carpet grass here but I'm told the local nursery can arrange a variety of options to your budget and satisfaction.

[coleslaw]

leong,
i hope you are not thinking of DIY. your garden is so huge..standing up straight after that will definitely be a problem!!
i have pearl grass and to me, it's low maintenance. i don't bother very much about it. still looks ok to me!!!

[kwchang]

I agree with coleslaw - Pearl grass is better than the golf-course turf varieties. Pearl grass is like the normal cow-grass (Axonopus compressus) but probably a different species. It does not grow tall and I had not have the need to trim it since that day we planted it about 5 years ago. Some people are not so lucky as I know of someone's Pearl grass being infected by fungus. One thing to note that Pearl grass loves sunlight and if it grows under a shady tree, it may revert to becoming "long" (ie grows higher and needs to be trimmed). By the way, Pearl grass like cow grass is quite dominant and does not allow for infiltrators like weeds that encroach on the golf-club turf varieties.

You can buy Pearl grass slabs quite cheaply at the various Sungei Buloh nurseries

[bslee]

You can buy Pearl grass slabs quite cheaply at the various Sungei Buloh nurseries

I may be at S.Buloh area with wifey to check out new plants for the house next week. I'm going to survey what available grass there. Hope those flers are desperate for business and lower prices than usual in this economic gloom?..