NOTE:  THE HEAT WAVE HAS COME IN MANY PARTS OF AUSTRALIA SINCE FILMING.  ALTHOUGH YOU CAN SAFELY LAY TURF ON VERY HOT DAYS, YOU ARE PROBABLY BETTER OFF TO WAIT FOR SOME COOLER WEATHER BEFORE ORDERING YOUR TURF.

In many ways there’s nothing better in all the world than a beautiful lawn. 

 TIP:  If you are a “weekend warrior” going to lay a new lawn and haven’t worn your leather work boots for some time, it’s a very good idea to wet them before you put them on.  This softens the leather and reduces the chance of blisters as you are working.  Once you have finished with them there are leather protecting products, such as Dubbin, that can be applied that will keep the leather soft so that the likelihood of blisters next time you wear them is minimized.

Before laying turf, good preparation is essential.

Clear the area where the turf is going of any weeds or old pieces of turf.  Use a mattock to gently remove these.

Use a rake to level the area as well as rake up any weeds still lying around.

TIP: Professionals use a Lawn Leveller to get a billiard table smooth finish – these should be available at hardware stores or can be hired.

Next put down a layer of coarse sand.  This provides perfect growing conditions for the turf – and it’s quite easy to level too.

Bear in mind that you may need to adjust the underlay of sand etc so that the new turf will butt up neatly to any existing lawn areas.

Roll out the turf – just like carpet!  Cut the edges then trim and curve other areas where needed to make a neat job of it.  If the butting up etc isn’t perfect, don’t worry.  Once there’s a couple of weeks’ growth, any mistakes will be covered up.  We used Sir Walter turf – www.sirwalter.com.au

If planting turf on a slope, plant across the slope otherwise the water will run down between the rolls and wash the underlay away.

If you want to use seed for your new lawn, follow the preparation stage up to the layer of coarse sand, then sow your seeds.

A big plus with laying new turf is that you can use off-cuts to repair any existing problem areas.  Go to damaged areas or holes that the dog may have dug.  Put some garden soil into the holes and a small layer of sand then carefully shape & place the off-cut on top.

It is absolutely critical that you water turf in very well for the next few days.  If it dries out, it will die.  So make sure you will be able to (& permitted to) water the turf in well before undertaking this project.

NOTE:  If you order your turf much in advance of when you plan to lay it, it’s essential that the rolls aren’t allowed to dry out.

To give the grass a boost, put a slurp of Seasol Super Soil Wetter + a slurp of Nitrosol into a watering can & water that into the lawn, treat it as if it was a pot plant.  Do this once a week and in around 4 weeks the lawn should be doing very well.

Copyright CTC Productions 2009