Rajesh Koothrappali
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- Oct 15, 2013
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- ya mum!
In the absence of a gardening / landscaping thread (at least from the searches I did) I thought I'd start one.
So some serious effort yesterday. Laid new turf. For anyone considering it, I'd say do it yourself if you're physically able. It's tough and dirty work but you're in control of gaps and attention to detail. Not to mention the immense satisfaction once it's done.
Anyway, I thought I'd share and get people's opinions and thoughts on what else we can do. We're at a state we'd happily call "complete" now.
When we moved in, we knew the grass they had wouldn't last with having a giant dog - and it didn't. It was a very fine grass with no runners (surface or root) and no ability to self repair. I think it was a fescue (sp?) variety. This is how it looked almost exactly 12 months ago to the day.
And this is how it looked up until yesterday... Thanks Harley! lol
We have managed to keep the trees nicely trimmed at least.
Now we ended up going with Kikuyu for the new turf as it's the toughest grass there is while still being a medium softness. Surface and root runners, self repairing and quite aggressively growing, which equals good weed tolerance. It's also a more "emerald" green than buffalo varieties (which tend to be quite a dark green) and maintains its colour all year round (where buffalo browns off). It's exceptionally hard wearing and doesn't need a lot of watering once it's established. The effort with Kikuyu is mowing and edging - basically keeping it under control. Effort which I'd rather, than effort to keep it nice.
So it now looks like this...
We added the fence and concrete slab back in September so we have a "dog yard" for Harley when we're not home. We're also going to move our table and chairs as well as the BBQs to the concrete slab area, as it comes directly off the kitchen. The covered alfresco area will get a new outdoor couch setting with coffee table and some clear, automatic cafe blinds before next winter. We may put a shade sail over the concrete slab but there's already shade thanks to the fast growing boundary trees.
I have thought we could do with some ground cover plants and/or flowers around the bottoms of the trees rather than just bark as it looks quite "clinical" as it is. But then, would that spoil the simple, neat look we have? I have thought about a hanging garden for things like chillis and spices on the side of the house too, but would that look over the top?
Like I said, we're at a point we're happily calling "complete" for now but like modifying cars, there's never really such a thing as complete when it comes to house and garden stuff.
A final question... Is a whipper snipper the best option for really neat lawn edges?
So some serious effort yesterday. Laid new turf. For anyone considering it, I'd say do it yourself if you're physically able. It's tough and dirty work but you're in control of gaps and attention to detail. Not to mention the immense satisfaction once it's done.
Anyway, I thought I'd share and get people's opinions and thoughts on what else we can do. We're at a state we'd happily call "complete" now.
When we moved in, we knew the grass they had wouldn't last with having a giant dog - and it didn't. It was a very fine grass with no runners (surface or root) and no ability to self repair. I think it was a fescue (sp?) variety. This is how it looked almost exactly 12 months ago to the day.
And this is how it looked up until yesterday... Thanks Harley! lol
We have managed to keep the trees nicely trimmed at least.
Now we ended up going with Kikuyu for the new turf as it's the toughest grass there is while still being a medium softness. Surface and root runners, self repairing and quite aggressively growing, which equals good weed tolerance. It's also a more "emerald" green than buffalo varieties (which tend to be quite a dark green) and maintains its colour all year round (where buffalo browns off). It's exceptionally hard wearing and doesn't need a lot of watering once it's established. The effort with Kikuyu is mowing and edging - basically keeping it under control. Effort which I'd rather, than effort to keep it nice.
So it now looks like this...
We added the fence and concrete slab back in September so we have a "dog yard" for Harley when we're not home. We're also going to move our table and chairs as well as the BBQs to the concrete slab area, as it comes directly off the kitchen. The covered alfresco area will get a new outdoor couch setting with coffee table and some clear, automatic cafe blinds before next winter. We may put a shade sail over the concrete slab but there's already shade thanks to the fast growing boundary trees.
I have thought we could do with some ground cover plants and/or flowers around the bottoms of the trees rather than just bark as it looks quite "clinical" as it is. But then, would that spoil the simple, neat look we have? I have thought about a hanging garden for things like chillis and spices on the side of the house too, but would that look over the top?
Like I said, we're at a point we're happily calling "complete" for now but like modifying cars, there's never really such a thing as complete when it comes to house and garden stuff.
A final question... Is a whipper snipper the best option for really neat lawn edges?
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