Had 1/2000 year drought, lost a lot of Kikuyu lawn, winter, what to do?

[OnTheGrass]

Hi all.

Im fairly new to all this lawn stuff but Im fast becoming addicted (has anyone else found this to be like a hobby/fun?)

I have a 6hp John Deer self propelled. single blade and 72l catcher, all in as new condition.

So, in my country it gets to about 32 deg Celcius (~90f) in summer, so not overly hot. However we had an incredible drought with 3 months of no rain. I also have a big native tree (gorgeous Metrosideros excelsa). And I have gardens surrounding the back yard lawn, the front of house faces the ocean, so that is also another factor. The lawn turned to rock with 2 inch cracks and recession from the concrete etc it was that bad. Now its winter it has grown back some, but I have a lot of weeds and still bald patches in the areas that lost all grass and dirt turned rock hard.

So what should I be doing now its raining again in winter, about 18 during the day, 10deg at night, so a mild climate all year round.

I thought I could just put a fork into the bald patches and over turn them to brake it up, then spray the weeds, wait for them to die back, then over seed the entire lawn with a a yates Kikuyu mix, give it some rain then put a fast release fertiliser onto it?

Given the grass has gotten too long, how short should I cut it now, to try and get the root height down etc?

I cant find a dethatching rake here, so I plan to just wait for summer and spray some D-Thatcher into the lawn.

The grass is a beautiful deep green colour, so hopefully I can get the entire lawn back to this colour and have it adding value to my home?

Thanks for any tips about the above.

 

[bertsmobile1]

too cold for Kikuyu this time of year to do much growing
So hit the weeds with Round Up etc then water in fetrilizer & seaweed onto the kikuyu, up to the edge of the bare / poisioned patch.
That will encourage the Kikuyu to grow over the bare patch.
Don't worry too much iif you get a bit of posion on the kikuyu, it can take it
Keep up the routine of posion the fertilizer over winter
Optimum lenght is 4 "
Any longer than that & you get fungal problems at the ground level
Any shorter and you get sun ontothe ground & weed germination.

 

[OnTheGrass]

Thank you

What is a good temperature for Kikuyu? Its sunny at the moment but about 70f. Whats odd is this Kikuyu is growing super fast at the moment. Im sure its the rain after being so dry over summer.

I use to use a seaweed water through product in Australia where its much hotter and much less rain so had to run sprinklers. But forgotten its name, any global seaweed/fertiliser you could recommend?

I presume any generic yates lawn weed spray on will do the trick? I see a lot of clover.

Wow 4" sounds really long to me, here people cut down to 30mm (1.2inch), but happy to follow advice.

I have thought about tearing up the lawn with mini bob cat and starting again but seeding something I can cut ultra low like on a gold fairway, but not sure what grass seed would be suitable. Im in walking distance of 2 world class golf courses so Im sure their greens and fairways must use a seed that handles the salt air.

Is it possible to mix seed to get a carpet like lawn or would be best to remove Kikuyu all together? Its not often we get drought here, in fact its known for being a rainy place.

Im considering getting a fiskars or flymo to replace the John Deere. So much noise. And it appears if you keep on top of your lawn a flymo or even better a fiskars are easy to push through. 60sqm is not a lot. The only issue is I do get pine tree needles from the neighbour and the native tree drops twigs (not hard to spot) and its leaves are quite course when dry. BUT I could just vacum and mulch with my 4 in one blower/vac/mulcher the pine and native tree leaves prior.

The 6HP John Deere self driven blade brake clutch mower seems overkill for 60sqm. Im considering paving the sides which is where it got dried out and paving reducing to about 50sqm.

So if if I just reel mower, what kind of seeding would be good for that nice carpet like lawn? Might not do this year but will consider in new year. They say a high quality lawn can add 10s of thousands to a property. We have the view and the beautiful tree and ground level decking out the back, so a high quality carpet like lawn is what Id like to achieve. No rug rats or pets to worry about.

 

[OnTheGrass]

I just read 15 deg celcius is the minimum germnination, so I might just fit it in over next 2 months. I need to really break up this soil where its bare as its growing moss now, possibly add some top soil? We are based on reactive clay. So I think if I have desires for a putting green lawn it will have to wait until I do a major and dig 2-4 inches off the top and fill with quality soil. Or I could just rip out current kikuyu and put new soil over what the kikuyu is surviving on. It really is super hardy and when well watered goes very green. We were raised to think it was a weed, but its gained popularity on coastal properties.

I just re read you said roundup for the weeds. Got some of that already.