Instant Lawn's success depends on professional preparation

Instant lawn soil preparation secrets.

Instant Lawn success recipe

INSTANT LAWN - COMMON MISTAKES:

• If you leave the lawn too long before laying it down.
• Poor soil preparation.
• Not enough watering of the lawn.
• Too much water.
• Not enough regular mowing.
• If you lay the lawn when it is too hot, it is detrimental.
• If you allow the lawn to dry out, you will not succeed.

Soil Preparation

• Remove all building wastes & weeds.
• Rotary hoe or spread a free draining soil 10-15 cm or loosen ground and mix in appropriate soil conditioners. (For acidic soils add lime for heavier clay soils add gypsum, for sandy soils simply mix in organic material with a rotary hoe).
• Level the surface and eliminate drainage problems by making the soil drain away from the house.
• Apply a 'lawn starter' fertiliser - which you can buy from your local hardware store or nursery.
• In hotter months moisten the soil but do not make the soil too wet; do not lay lawn on dry hot soil.

Lawn Laying Guide

• For best results your new lawn should be installed as soon as it is delivered.
• On hot days the stack should be in the shade and sprinkled with water until it is laid.
• Firstly spread your lawn starter fertiliser evenly over the area to be planted and lightly rake in.  (If you forget to put it under, it is not crucial and it may be placed over the top - make sure that it is well watered in).
• You should start away from your stack of lawn if possible to avoid walking continually over the newly laid lawn.
• Choose your straightest and longest edge; start with rolling your lawn out without pulling or stretching, pushing the roll edges together staggering the joins in a brickwork pattern (this helps control weed growth between sections). You may need to peg grass on sloping areas to prevent movement. (Avoid gaps or laying over each other).
• Avoid leaving narrow strips at the outer edges, as they will not retain moisture as well at the edge.
• On hot days lay a section of lawn and lightly water then lay the next section repeat until all the lawn is laid. On cool days all lawn can be laid at once.
• If trimming is required just use a bread knife to cut around edges.
• Within 1 hour of laying lawn squash beneath feet or roll well to remove any air pockets (do not roll cool season grasses) and water thoroughly.
• For Drought Tolerant Grasses (Kikuyu, but not LM or cool season grasses) top dress with a washed river sand or sandy loam (1 cubic metre per 100 square metres of lawn) Top dressing improves the establishment of the grass significantly.
• After the lawn has been down two weeks it can be mown, the first mowing is usually done a little higher than normal.

Watering for the first two weeks is critical. Keep the lawn moist but not laying in water for any great length of time.

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