OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums General Discussion Forum Lawn Care & Maintenance Leveling Couch Grass

Well I can guarantee you that you are right about this season being unusual. Here on the farm we've noticed strange weather all year. The plants started reacting to the weather in mid February as if it was mid autumn. Spring isn't in full bloom yet either. Ground temperatures are lower than any year I can remember for this time of the year. Our Parsnips should have started to re-shoot their leaves but the old ones are still hanging on because again ground temperature is too low. Even our potatoes that we've started harvesting are still in late winter mode. We did get a mild winter though. Almost no frost this year which was good

Well it's finally starting to happen..............green stuff is emerging....

I'm glad to hear!

I got sick of waiting this week so i have it a hit of some 46-0-0 Urea that we get specially made for the farm. It has greened up really well but the real test will be after I mow it tomorrow

Must admit this weekend would be a great time to scalp it regardless of any brown spots.

Mine is suddenly come to life and I'm seeing the diference every day now.

Once it's greened up I'll take some more shots and post them up.

Next year I'll do a full scarification and start a fresh with a rescreed and adding more sand to the final top surface. This year as the lawn is still under 12 months old I feel it just needed a really hard crew cut and a slight top dressing and let it establish for the next 12 months.

Cheers,
BB.

My lawn is 8 months old so apart from a decent scalp and perhaps an initial level in one area which dropped a fair it I think I will be in the same boat. I really want to level the lot but I just don't think it's the best idea yet. Also the spot which has dropped will take more than a couple of instalments of sand to get it to the same level as the rest.

On a side note, this 30 degree and sunny day is fantastic. Last week I brought it down to almost scalping and it didn't look great after that. After a mow today I'm amazed at how little browning there is. I just wish some of this sunny weather was sticking around...

Hi Cirillo,

Mine has taken off apart from a section that sits in the shade most of the day at the moment until later in the season when it's all in full sun all day with the sun heading more south in the sky. The rest of it is getting the ground temperature up with all this sun we are getting here in Adelaide.

Honestly don't be too afraid to get heavy handed with the cutting back, as long as it has roots in the ground it will re-emerge big, better and stronger. It's just that type of grass.

Yes I do agree with adding layers of sand in very sunken areas. I wouldn't add any more than about 25 to 30mm in one go. It'll come through that without any issues.

Cheers,
BB.

Mine resembles a lawn again rather than a beach. BB, you're right about the Southern aspect areas, as mine are slowly filling into those areas once the sun gets higher in the sky.

meanwhile in Brisbane.....................we are mowing every 3 days taking off 10-15mm each time

negative of fast growth is that lawn only looks nice after mowing for a day or so then gets scruffier IMO

spot on there.

Hi Folks
With regards to leveling, I did mine and put a fair amount of sand into depressions etc. With all the wind and generally crappy weather we've had over the last few weeks, a couple of spots have depressed again. Am I able to continue to lightly build up the sand as the grass fills in or would that be considered stressing the lawn throughout its growing season?
Cheers
Joe

Hi Joe,

Honestly there's no way that you'll stress Couch grass at all, only if you tip petrol on it will it suffer, so don't hesitate to put more sand over the top. I will say though it would be best to keep it damp until the grass comes through it and stabilises the surface.

Cheers,
BB.

Hi All
Just wanting some advice. I am young and have always loved seeing a nice lawn.
I laid my grass last December and doing my best to get it perfect. I have wintergreen couch and it seems to get thatchy very quick. I also have the the problem of the mower digging in on the side and leaving brown spots as the ground isn't flat enough. My front yard is on a incline what is the best way to go about fixing my issues?

At what stage did you start mowing with the cylinder mower again?

Hello Mr mr,

Who's your question directed at ?

Cheers,
BB.

Bonnar bloke
Sorry I tried to reply to a photo.
After cutting the lawn right down and putting sand down. At what stage do I start using the cylinder mower or do I cut with a bush mower until the sand has all disappeared?
The couch has covered about 85% of the sand at the moment.

Hi Mr mr,

It sounds like I'm responding to "Happy Gilmore".

Anyway you should be fine with your Cylinder cut if you've already got 85% coverage. I'd wet it down lightly half an hour before just to keep the sand down and not flying around due to the reel motion.

Cheers,
BB.

Hello guys

Fantastic topic and a great read a lot of great advice and tips learned for a newbie like my self.

Thanks,
Clarkey

Hi All,

There is some discussion of herbicides here, so thought I would post here.

I did a scarification of my couch lawn in early January (in Sydney). It has come back well in most areas, but is thin/bare in areas that are shaded by trees etc. I hope the Couch can come back in those areas come spring. Otherwise I appreciate any advice on giving it a helping hand.

My main issue at the moment is winter grass. I keep pulling it out by hand which takes a long time, and a few weeks later it looks the same. I have done some research and found two products, but happy to choose anything else. The first is Embargo which is mentioned here. This seems to be a pre-emergent and I may be too late to use that as the winter-grass is already quite actively growing. The other is Dimension EW. This is a pre and post emergent and seems to control a wider range of weeds. Perhaps this is a better choice given that I am late on the pre-emergent timing? Any advice appreciated.

Also, I use Kamba M to control broad leaf and creeping Oxalis with limited success. It seems to knock the weeds about, but they most often recover. Can anyone suggest something better for particularly the creeping Oxalis which is difficult to remove by hand. Most of the broad leaf is easily hand weeded, so I mainly want to get rid of the stuff that is not and creeping oxalis is a real problem for me.

Cheers,

Adrian

Hi Adrian,

Just a quick piece of advice regarding scarification. January is just way to late to do this. Generally one would apply this process late October (depending on the start of the season) into early November. January is really far too late and the lawn doesn't get the opportunity to recover enough in that short time frame.

Cheers,
BB.

Hi BB,

Yeah, I knew it was risky, and it has mostly come back well. There is an area that was not coming back under a tree. This was in the middle of February and we were still having long hot days. I trimmed the tree back and it is doing much better. Thin but mostly covered and not bare. I should have done that when I did the scarification and I think it would have been fine. There is a few areas in my lawn that just don't get great sun and they are suffering, so I have learnt from this process not to get too heavy handed with the lawn areas that grow slowly due to low light. Probably best just to scalp those areas and not do the full scarification and leave that for the fast growing parts of the lawn. I think it will all come back in time. I also have been battling army work the last 2 months which has not helped anything, but the 90% of the lawn is looking pretty good at the moment.... much better than it did when it was badly thatched.

I just need to get on top of the winter grass.... any advice on a product to use for that? Preferably something with both pre and post emergent properties.

Cheers,

Adrian

Tribute will kill annual grass in couch and will control kikiyu in most cases. Note word control. Winter is the best time to attack this problem,

Ended up getting Pronamide which is Propyzamide. $300 for 5L which should last forever. I was searching for suppliers of Winter grass herbicide in bulk and it is not that readily available, so had to go to a commercial supplier. They recommended this as pre/post emergent that should be used in Autumn and Winter and is cost effective. They had other very expensive alternatives. Will update how it goes.

Hi Adrian,

wow, you should decant it into smaller quantities, say 500ml and sell it off to recoup some of your costs as 5 litres will last you a lifetime and the next, unless you have a golf course to do of course.

Cheers,
BB.

I have a lot of winter grass!!

I wanted about 1L, but could not find anything. It seems winter grass herbicides are either really small from bunnings or are commercial size from a comercial supplier. I have some family/friends with Couch and similar issues, so it will come in handy. Hopefully it is effective!

So this Pronamide seems to work well. I have no more wintergrass. One area of my lawn was infested. You could barely make out the couch between the wintergrass. Now it is just Couch. That is not to say my lawn is weed free. I was out with the Dicamba on the weekend trying to get rid of broad leaf and oxalis. Hopefully I get that under control before they really take off in summer.

Is there anything I can do for my Couch in winter. It looks tired probably just because it is dormant. Is there anything recommended to get things rolling nicely into Spring? I still have some bare patches from the scarification. Hopefully in spring it takes off nicely and covers the bare patches, but I want to do whatever I can to get it moving as quick as possible as soon as possible.

Cheers,

Adrian

Hi vosadrian,

It's dormant and as such there's not much you can do. As they say in winter, "Don't Poke the Bear". It should've been fertilised in Autumn with a certain type of fertiliser which at this moment I can't remember its name, but I'll add it tomorrow. This should be done as a shutdown procedure prior to winter break.

all you can now do is wait until late October, depending upon when the season starts and then scalp it again and let the season do it's magic.

Cheers,
BB.

Update..............Fertiliser is Munns Emerald Green

Thanks BB.

I did fertilise in Autumn, but just used some Scotts with lawn grub insecticide, which may have been the wrong thing. Appreciate if there is something that is particularly good that I can use next time.

Cheers,

Adrian

Hi all,

A great read this thread was. I learnt a lot.
I have a question regarding lawn going to seed.

I try to mow twice a week, but once a week in a pinch. I have Windsor Green couch.

My problem is that the seed shoots just get laid flat against the lawn and look unsightly after the mow.

How do others tackle this?

Cheers,
Tony

Hi Tony,

This is simply happening due to bad reel to bed knife adjustment, in other words too much of a gap between the two components which is simply allowing the antenna heads to slide between the two and not be cut off.

I'm not sure what state your reel and bed knife are in, maybe you can enlighten us about it, but if it hasn't been done in quite some time then you'll need to get both sharpened and re-installed with the correct adjustment so that this doesn't happen again any time soon.

Cheers,
BB.