I am after some advice on top dressing my lawns. I live in Newcastle NSW and
my lawns, whilst they look not too bad, are a little sparse in areas and
probably not as level as they could be. Is anyone able to offer some advice
as to how best attack this issue? Any information on what to use, when to
use it, etc would be appreciated.

Hi,
For the last two houses I had, I used premium garden mix from the local sand
& soil suppliers. They even told me not to do that. They told me to get a
mix of sand or something. But I told them no. The first time i did it was in
late spring. The grass turned out so nice and green and thick.. (kikuyi
grass - the common one).. The second time at my other house i did was during
Feburary.. The grass was shit when i moved in, and after 3 weeks..( we had a
lot of rain in late Feb in sydney..) the grasss was really green,, compare
to what it was before,, patches here and there,, and yellow in places and
the no grass in areas and very hard.. Even the neighbours were suprised when
i got it that green.. they all wanted to know what I used..

Cya


"Mr David R Thomas" wrote in message
news
I am after some advice on top dressing my lawns. I live in Newcastle NSW
and
my lawns, whilst they look not too bad, are a little sparse in areas and
probably not as level as they could be. Is anyone able to offer some
advice
as to how best attack this issue? Any information on what to use, when to
use it, etc would be appreciated.

Mr David R Thomas wrote:

I am after some advice on top dressing my lawns. I live in Newcastle
NSW and
my lawns, whilst they look not too bad, are a little sparse in areas and
probably not as level as they could be. Is anyone able to offer some
advice
as to how best attack this issue? Any information on what to use, when to
use it, etc would be appreciated.

Andrew G gave some quite detailed instructions on this ng a couple of
months(?) ago. You could do a Google search for them.

Jane

"Jane VR" wrote in message
u...
Mr David R Thomas wrote:

I am after some advice on top dressing my lawns. I live in Newcastle
NSW and
my lawns, whilst they look not too bad, are a little sparse in areas and
probably not as level as they could be. Is anyone able to offer some
advice
as to how best attack this issue? Any information on what to use, when
to
use it, etc would be appreciated.

Andrew G gave some quite detailed instructions on this ng a couple of
months(?) ago. You could do a Google search for them.

Jane


Thanks Jane.
For the OP a quick reply :-)
If the areas are sparse due to walking areas they may need aerating as they
are probably compacted. Use a garden fork or similar to put holes in those
areas.
As for Top dressing a good mix is sand and chook poo. Roughly 25 or 30%
chook poo, the rest sand, all mixed first then thrown on with a shovel. If
the sparse areas are almost bare putting in runners in those areas from
elsewhere on the lawn will help.
You could use good soil, or potting mix as someone said, but sand is
probably the cheapest and still does a good job with chook poo.
I would have said to wait 'till the end of Winter, say end of July even, as
you will get better/quicker results. Reason being if the lawn is anything
other than Buffalo, it will be pretty much dormant.
Having said that we have got some manure fines in at work for fertilising
Tee tops.We are on the Mid North Coast (Forster) so much the same climate.
First time we will be doing that at this time of the year. So maybe it won't
hurt too much.
Even a pH check wouldn't go astray, and if it's quite out, adjust as needed.
A spread of Gypsum would be and idea if the soil is quite clay.

Good luck


--
Remove "not" from start of email address to reply

"jpd1009" wrote in message
u...
andrew,
Thanks for sharing this info, I am up for doing this soon...
You talked about the time to do it and referred to buffalo.

i.e. "I would have said to wait 'till the end of Winter, say end of July
even, as you will get better/quicker results. Reason being if the lawn
is anything other than Buffalo, it will be pretty much dormant."

Any other info to share wrt top dressing buffalo? My new baffalo lawn is
9 months old and has settled and is need of some fine tuning (level
wise).

Glad I could be of some help.
To be totally honest I don't have much experience with Buffalo other than
that I know broadleaf killers sprays or "weed and feed" products aren't the
best to use on them. Some can be used at weaker rates or less applications,
but check the directions.
So in other words one thing you want to avoid is weeds. So if you do want to
topdress for level purposes it is probably best to wait to the start of
Spring, or when the lawn starts to vigorously grow. Reason being is that if
some areas are quite low, then whatever you choose to topdress with may have
to go on thick in those areas. You will have to wait for the grass to come
up, and in the meantime weeds could grow there. So keeping a check and hand
weeding would be a good idea.
If you are going to put it on a bit thick, perhaps lower the amount of chook
poo by a bit. You can use a lawn leveler to spread the topdress mix, or an
old style window frame (e.g like those that had 4 panes or more of glass,
divided by wood) dragged around does a good job too. Even make one.
In the future as the "matting" of the lawn thickens up you may want to
dethatch it. You could hire a machine, or if you are feeling up to it, use a
spade and about every foot or 2 push into the lawn to cut the runners. This
is much like pruning the grass to encourage new growth from runners. This is
done with any grass that has runners.

Hope that helps a little

--
Remove "not" from start of email address to reply


thanks

-james

andrew,
Thanks for sharing this info, I am up for doing this soon...
You talked about the time to do it and referred to buffalo.

i.e. "I would have said to wait 'till the end of Winter, say end of July
even, as you will get better/quicker results. Reason being if the lawn
is anything other than Buffalo, it will be pretty much dormant."

Any other info to share wrt top dressing buffalo? My new baffalo lawn is
9 months old and has settled and is need of some fine tuning (level wise).

thanks

-james

Andrew G wrote:
"Jane VR" wrote in message
u...

Mr David R Thomas wrote:


I am after some advice on top dressing my lawns. I live in Newcastle
NSW and
my lawns, whilst they look not too bad, are a little sparse in areas and
probably not as level as they could be. Is anyone able to offer some
advice
as to how best attack this issue? Any information on what to use, when

to

use it, etc would be appreciated.

Andrew G gave some quite detailed instructions on this ng a couple of
months(?) ago. You could do a Google search for them.

Jane



Thanks Jane.
For the OP a quick reply :-)
If the areas are sparse due to walking areas they may need aerating as they
are probably compacted. Use a garden fork or similar to put holes in those
areas.
As for Top dressing a good mix is sand and chook poo. Roughly 25 or 30%
chook poo, the rest sand, all mixed first then thrown on with a shovel. If
the sparse areas are almost bare putting in runners in those areas from
elsewhere on the lawn will help.
You could use good soil, or potting mix as someone said, but sand is
probably the cheapest and still does a good job with chook poo.
I would have said to wait 'till the end of Winter, say end of July even, as
you will get better/quicker results. Reason being if the lawn is anything
other than Buffalo, it will be pretty much dormant.
Having said that we have got some manure fines in at work for fertilising
Tee tops.We are on the Mid North Coast (Forster) so much the same climate.
First time we will be doing that at this time of the year. So maybe it won't
hurt too much.
Even a pH check wouldn't go astray, and if it's quite out, adjust as needed.
A spread of Gypsum would be and idea if the soil is quite clay.

Good luck


--
Remove "not" from start of email address to reply

great help...thanks!

Andrew G wrote:
"jpd1009" wrote in message
u...

andrew,
Thanks for sharing this info, I am up for doing this soon...
You talked about the time to do it and referred to buffalo.

i.e. "I would have said to wait 'till the end of Winter, say end of July
even, as you will get better/quicker results. Reason being if the lawn
is anything other than Buffalo, it will be pretty much dormant."

Any other info to share wrt top dressing buffalo? My new baffalo lawn is
9 months old and has settled and is need of some fine tuning (level

wise).

Glad I could be of some help.
To be totally honest I don't have much experience with Buffalo other than
that I know broadleaf killers sprays or "weed and feed" products aren't the
best to use on them. Some can be used at weaker rates or less applications,
but check the directions.
So in other words one thing you want to avoid is weeds. So if you do want to
topdress for level purposes it is probably best to wait to the start of
Spring, or when the lawn starts to vigorously grow. Reason being is that if
some areas are quite low, then whatever you choose to topdress with may have
to go on thick in those areas. You will have to wait for the grass to come
up, and in the meantime weeds could grow there. So keeping a check and hand
weeding would be a good idea.
If you are going to put it on a bit thick, perhaps lower the amount of chook
poo by a bit. You can use a lawn leveler to spread the topdress mix, or an
old style window frame (e.g like those that had 4 panes or more of glass,
divided by wood) dragged around does a good job too. Even make one.
In the future as the "matting" of the lawn thickens up you may want to
dethatch it. You could hire a machine, or if you are feeling up to it, use a
spade and about every foot or 2 push into the lawn to cut the runners. This
is much like pruning the grass to encourage new growth from runners. This is
done with any grass that has runners.

Hope that helps a little

--
Remove "not" from start of email address to reply



thanks

-james

Hello everyone -

We have two young dogs (7 months), one of which is a real Mr Destructo in the garden. He digs in the lawn and just killed a large climbing plant by chewing through the stem. Not good.

The main problem we've got right now is that he damaged a large patch in the middle of the lawn by chewing the buffalo grass. Apparently, all of those criss-crossing runners are fascinating to a Jack Russell. He doesn't seem to be doing it anymore, but I've got this 15 square metre patch that is basically bare runners. They are still green and trying to shoot, but not really getting anywhere (plus it is late winter here).

I have just topdressed the entire area with a good soil mix, thinking that they may not be coming back very well because they aren't really in much soil at the moment - more just a tangle on top of the soil.

Has anyone had any experience with this? Does anyone have any suggestions?

My husband isn't into gardening and I am. Unfortunately, it is HIS dog doing all the damage!! Please help before I start contemplating dogicide.

In article ,
kimsr wrote:

My husband isn't into gardening and I am. Unfortunately, it is HIS dog
doing all the damage!! Please help before I start contemplating
dogicide.

Canicide, methinks.

Is he in obedience lessons yet? Maybe the instructor would have some advice.

--
Chookie -- Sydney, Australia
(Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply)

"...children should continue to be breastfed... for up to two years of age
or beyond." -- Innocenti Declaration, Florence, 1 August 1990

On Saturday, June 21, 2003 8:04:17 AM UTC+1, Mr David R Thomas wrote:
I am after some advice on top dressing my lawns. I live in Newcastle NSW and
my lawns, whilst they look not too bad, are a little sparse in areas and
probably not as level as they could be. Is anyone able to offer some advice
as to how best attack this issue? Any information on what to use, when to
use it, etc would be appreciated.

http://www.lordswoods.co.uk/top-dres...-dressing.html

they will give you advise if you call

On Fri, 29 Nov 2013 00:00:43 -0800, williammwill wrote:

On Saturday, June 21, 2003 8:04:17 AM UTC+1, Mr David R Thomas wrote:
I am after some advice on top dressing my lawns. I live in Newcastle
NSW and my lawns, whilst they look not too bad, are a little sparse in
areas and probably not as level as they could be. Is anyone able to
offer some advice as to how best attack this issue? Any information on
what to use, when to use it, etc would be appreciated.

http://www.lordswoods.co.uk/top-dres...-dressing.html

they will give you advise if you call

And I though the yanks were stupid and arrogant when they thought that
aus.gardens was gardens in austin Texas, USA, but now some stupid pom
comes along and assumes all Newcastles are in the UK. Also lacking a
calendar it seems.


BTW David, if you're still here, how is the lawn and what did you try?