OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums General Discussion Forum Lawn Care & Maintenance Lawn care FAQ

Ok I have a few Questions that I think would be a FAQ about lawn care so I will number them out and everyone can give their answers.

1. How often do you mow?

2. At what height do you mow?

3. Do you fertilise? If so with what and how often?

4. Do you water? If so how often and what type? IE sprinkler, soaker hose.

5. Have you top dressed you lawn? If so what materials did you use?

6. What sort of weed control do you use?

7. What sort of mower do you use?

If you number your answers it will make it very easy for anyone to flick though all the answers

Also if you Think of another Question let me know and I will edit this post.

Cheers BDA

1. How often do you mow? When it begins to look uneven and a couple of cm higher than when mowed

2. At what height do you mow? lowest setting on the toro (not very low at all) 5th hole from the lowesto n the victas and the 4th ot 5th hole from lowest on the rovers.

3. Do you fertilise? If so with what and how often? I did once, that was two years ago when there was no lawn.

4. Do you water? If so how often and what type? IE sprinkler, soaker hose. I use one of the good ole fashoined round sprinklers, do it when its dry in summer.

5. Have you top dressed you lawn? If so what materials did you use? no

6. What sort of weed control do you use? none, the kykuyu seems great for pushing weeds out if its watered.

7. What sort of mower do you use? Generally a toro mulching mower but also test run second hand machines a few times before selling them.

Being a qualified greenkeeper, I may be of some use here.. . These answers are similar to how we used to look after the greens and tees on the course, just tweaked for a home lawn situation where it doesn't need quite as much attention.

1. How often do you mow? Every week in summer, sometimes twice a week. About every 3 weeks or so in winter

2. At what height do you mow? Summer height, I'm guessing about 9 or 10 mm (haven't measured it yet), winter a few mm more say about 14-15mm. I leave it longer in winter to retain moisture, and also to try to prevent weeds as much as possible, although it doesn't always work. It depends on what sort of grass you have too, those heights are for Qld Blue couch.

3. Do you fertilise? If so with what and how often? Spring and Autumn, at the moment I'm using Munns Golf Course Green. I also scarify and aerate before fertilising.

4. Do you water? If so how often and what type? IE sprinkler, soaker hose. Not with the current water restrictions. It's been raining enough anyway.

5. Have you top dressed you lawn? If so what materials did you use? I haven't yet but I've been thinking about it, I'd most likely use a sandy loam, which would go on after fertilising.

6. What sort of weed control do you use? MCPA/Dicamba. More commonly known as broadleaf weed killer.

7. What sort of mower do you use? SB Model 33 16" cylinder mower.

At the course obviously we'd mow more frequently, and also spray for disease and pests regularly, monitor the soil and water it to a program, but I don't think that's really necessary in a home lawn situation.

2. At what height do you mow? Summer height, I'm guessing about 9 or 10 mm (haven't measured it yet), winter a few mm more say about 14-15mm. I leave it longer in winter to retain moisture, and also to try to prevent weeds as much as possible, although it doesn't always work. It depends on what sort of grass you have too, those heights are for Qld Blue couch.

Wow I have been going the other way and my heights are a lot higher. I have only just changed over to a cylinder mower in the last 6 months or so and I don't think I would be able to mow my lawn that low as it is to bumpy??

7. What sort of mower do you use? Generally a toro mulching mower

I have been using a toro 22" self propelled for the last 18 months or so before changing over to a scotty 20". I still mow the footpath and front yard with it but will probably change over to the scotty some time in the future.

1. How often do you mow? Summer twice a week. Winter once a week or so

2. At what height do you mow? With the toro 40mm and 20mm with the scotty

3. Do you fertilise? If so with what and how often? cochie hydrogreen but it is a bit on the $$$ so will stop it soon and start doing everying myself.

4. Do you water? If so how often and what type? IE sprinkler, soaker hose. No

5. Have you top dressed you lawn? If so what materials did you use? No but will be as soon as it heats up again and was thinking sand??

6. What sort of weed control do you use? cochie hydrogreen

7. What sort of mower do you use? Toro 22" self propelled and 20" scott bonnar

Yeah, you probably won't be able to mow that low if it's bumpy, but that's where the top dressing comes in, because that will level out the ground and make it smooth and flat to mow on. The thing I've noted about my SB, and likely yours too, is that they can be set low like a bowling green, but also the highest setting is I think about 25 or 30mm, so you could probably mow it high with the Scotty as well. Also the roller will help level it out but it won't do as well as a good top dress. Probably best to top dress it first. Personally I'd go with the sandy loam rather than straight sand, because it has a small percentage of soil and clay which hold nutrients and also bind it together.

The reason I mow short in summer and long in winter is because couch is a warm season grass, so it grows at its best in summer, it can be cut short and still look great, it also rains more. In winter you're trying to keep it as healthy and green as you can because it's the grass' "off season" if you will.. if you mow too short it could well brown off.

I have heard of people keeping the grass shorter in winter, the theory being it "uses" less moisture because the blades are shorter. The problem is, in winter it gets less sun, that's why I'm inclined to leave it a bit longer.. more blade surface area to catch the lessened amount of sun. I have mowed it short in winter before and in my experience doing that it just browns off and looks like crap.

A well-known Victorian gardening guru (Kevin Heinze, now dead) advised very strongly in his TV show that grass needed to be left longer in summer to "give it a chance" in the relatively tough conditions of intense sun and dry roots. That is, water retention was the issue. He then reminded people at the beginning of winter to set the mower lower if they really felt they needed to, but remember to jack it back up in summer.

Obviously the issues that led him in that direction are almost reversed in coastal Queensland. In Victoria, if you cut grass - even kikuyu - short in summer it will suffer, and show it. It can take quite a while to recover.

Yeah, well in the southern states it's mostly cool season grasses, so that makes perfect sense for those species. You're right, it is reversed up here where we mainly have warm season grasses. It seems the basic idea is if you want to cut it short, do so in its growing season and leave it a bit longer in the "off" season.