"Jeremy Cullinan" wrote in message
...
Hello all,

We have recently bought a house that needs new lawn- we basically have
bare
clay with some patches of kikuyu at the front. My questions a

1) What is the best way to kill off the kikuyu? Should I use Roundup or
similar?

Napalm followed by autoclaving the soil? Sorry 'bout the joke, but I hate
kikuyu and nothing works really well on it.


After I've gotten rid of that I want to rotary hoe some mulch and gypsum
in,
maybe add some topsoil and lay some turf on top (in March/April?), so;

2) What would be the best type of turf to use to suit my requirements
which
a low maintenance, preferably self repairing, low water requirement,
stays green in winter, can handle hot sun as well as shade and is
reasonably
drought tolerant.

From my research so far I am leaning towards either Sir Walter Buffalo or
Plateau Couch. Has anyone got any experience with these and if so what is
your opinion? I haven't found too much info on the plateau couch around.

Regards,
Jeremy


If you go with buffalo and decide you hate it, it is easy to eradicate, the
same can not be said for any form of couch. OTOH, if you want a lawn that
will recover from being allowed to almost totally dessicate, then couch is
the best.

I'd use the buffalo and wear the water bills... we bought tall fescue mix
turf and it was a big failure... then I bought a square of buffalo turf and
planted it in the bald bits... it is spreading very nicelly. I now no longer
understand why *anyone* buys fescue... if looked after, buffalo looks GREAT.

Although you can lay turf at any time, I suggest that spring is way better
than Autumn for buffalo, because it will start growing pretty quickly then
and not be in its dormant state (dormancy reduces the resiliency for
recovery from the turfing/laying process)

Buffalo goes a bit less lush in winter, gets a few more brown bits but does
so evenly and still looks mostly green. best hints for a buffalo lawn....
keep the water up to it in summer by watering in the morning.

Shade hint for buffalo... if the spot gets good sun in summer, buffalo will
survive even if it is 100% shade in winter. It will go more daggy than
usual, but keep some green bits and perk up nicelly when you start treating
it good and it gets sun and warmth.