Palmetto’s First Haircut

I mowed our palmetto instant turf for the first time. Look how awesome it looks! Who knew I’d be this obsessed with lawn? It’s so spongy and soft and lush. And green! I love it! 

Question: other than spending hours cutting the edges with secateurs, what’s the best way to neaten up the edges around the shed and garden beds?

And you can’t possibly have a post about the backyard without a photo of Lloyd. I thought I’d sit back and admire our lawn for a bit on a recliner chair that my sister bought me. Lloyd decided the extra height was just what he needed to get the best vantage point for his fly catching. No flies died. 

Burnt Patches

Our lawn is going great guns. It’s lush and soft and happy. Except for a few little burnt circles like this. I’m wondering if they’re a burny combination of Lloyd’s wee spots and the hot sun. Been trying to water a couple of times a day to wash away the dog wee. Don’t know what else it might be..?  

The Lawn And The Weeds

Our Palmetto lawn has spruced up nicely and is looking much less dead. It’s firmly attached itself now. We’ve still got it fenced off from Lloyd but he’s allowed on the lawn when we’re there so we can start disciplining him when his little paws accidentally scratch the surface in what would likely accidentally turn into a digging frenzy if left without intervention. Accidentally of course. 

While Lloyd and I were watering the lawn (which involves everyone getting very wet cos there’s nothing better than water coming out of a hose when you’re a puppy) I noticed that heaps of weeds are growing in the lawn. I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen the end two in our garden before either. So annoying! But it does keep me entertained while watering – looking closely for more weeds. 

It’s been a month today since Adam laid the lawn so it’ll be time to start fertilising soon. The lawn guy said to start fertilising after a month but all the fertiliser packets I’ve read say to wait at least 6 weeks. I reckon I’ll give it another few weeks. For now I’m just going to keep hand picking the weeds out but will look into weed and feed products if the weeds get the better of me (which they tend to). Who knew there was so much to learn about lawn!? 

Update on the Sickies

After many posts in the past asking for advice on my sick plants I thought I’d update you on their progress. 

Magda last summer:

Magda now:

Middy last summer:

Middy now:

These two didn’t get burnt in the recent heat we had so hopefully their mature enough to survive this summer without damp cloths draped on them. 

Robyn Gordon last week:

Robyn Gordon today:

Edit

New growth! Still early days obviously! 

Maggie last year:

Maggie now:

Getting there! I hope there’s a happy news story to come out of our new lawn which is looking a little dead :?. I hind sight, laying it the day before a 35°c sunny day might not have been the best idea. I’ve been giving it a whole lot of love and water so fingers crossed! 

Note: the attractive fence is so Lloyd stays off the grass for a few weeks. 
Really bad patch near the path:

Everyone cross your fingers that water and love will bring it to life! 

Palmetto

Lawn! 

It’s going to transform our backyard! 

Stay tuned for final product! So excited! 

Just Mowed My… Weeds

This is my lawn. I consists of white clover, sedge, cleavers, cat’s ears, caustic weed and so many more weeds that I’m yet to identify. Sedge is my least favourite!

But what to do??

I’m thinking the best thing to do would be to dig them up and start my lawn again. I’ll spray them really well, dig them up, spray again, make everything slightly more level than it is now!, top dress and seed. It’ll be a big job but I think it’s the only option. Has anyone done this before? If so some advice would be great! I really really don’t want the weeds to come back after all this work!

Pre Lawn Mower Days

When we moved into our house it was a disaster! We re-stumped before we moved but they could only get to the old stumps through the floor. Of course, the floor boards practically crumbled after they were lifted to put in the new stumps because they’d been attacked by borer.

Our house is around 120+ years old and still had the original red-gum stumps. The floor was, and still is, very uneven.

 

One of the worst intact original stumps. Many were actually in half. These were holding up our house!

The walls were lath and plaster which of course just crumbled and cracked under the slightest shift in the house. Photos didn’t do it justice but here’s an idea of what our walls looked like after the re-stumping.

One of our crumbly walls. My partner conveniently went away for work just in time to avoid the horrible job of patching and these walls ready for painting so I did the whole lot!

To top it all off, our roof leaked. 

So we were living in a house with a crumbly floor, cracked walls and a leaky roof. Needless to say, buying a lawn mower was low on our list of priorities! As a result, our lawn soon looked like this:

I can proudly say that since this photo we’ve planted many plants and have mown our lawn dozens of times! I’m not sure what our lawn is, but it certainly grows well in winter!! I mow it about every 2 weeks and although it’s a pain, it’s really rewarding because the weeds are slowly coming under control and the lawn is flourishing. Here it is a week and a half after its shortest mow yet:

Given that weeds are still quite prevalent throughout our lawn, we generally throw away our lawn clippings, but lately I’ve just been using the mulching attachment on our lawn mower and leaving the clippings on the lawn, especially since I’ve been mowing it so frequently. I’m not sure if this is wise or if I’m just spreading weed seeds throughout my lawn. We’ll hopefully get onto buying a compost bin soon and I can put the clippings in there.

What do you do with your lawn clippings?

-Spread them on the garden?

-Put them in the compost?

-Throw them in the green waste bin?

-Use the mulching attachment on the lawn mower?