Low water lawn
Episode: #8 19/5/07
Presenter: Neville Passmore
Neville and a team of helpers get into his brand new backyard to plant out lawn that will cool the outdoor living area and poolside to be.
The solar passive design of the house means that there is a giant overhang on the north facing wall of glass creating shade in summer the problem is that most lawns hate shade. Also Neville needs a hard wearing grass to place between the pavers.
Palmetto Soft Leaf Buffalo (Stenotaphrum secundatum ‘SS100’) grass is the variety Neville is going to use, it thrives in shade and is extremely drought tough and as we all know Neville’s passion is to save water.
Neville is going to be watering his lawn with the ‘purple pipe’ which will be delivering treated grey water to supply the entire needs of the grass from below. Although in the long term the purple pipe is a great water saving system, it will take about 4 weeks for the Palmetto roots to establish so overhead hand watering will be needed in that time.
The concept of using grass between the pavers is that it gives a solid surface at the edge of the decking but is capable of absorbing rainfall rather than creating runoff. The grass cools the paving so we don’t end up with a hotbox courtyard.
It is always great if lawn looks good all year round. Palmetto has excellent cool season colour in contrast to couch grass which turns brown as soon as it starts getting cold.
Out the front of Neville’s house the environment is a very different situation, it is open and exposed and it is completely surround by hard hot surfaces of the bitumen of the road and the driveway. So the lawn that is needed is a drought tough variety that doesn’t require a lot of maintenance.
Empire Zoysia (Zoysia japonica ‘SS500’) is going be laid out the front and it is bulletproof. By that Neville means it has the lowest water needs of all available turf varieties and is a slow grower which means roughly 70% less mowing than a Kikuyu.
Neville thinks that the Empire Zoysia is the lawn of the future for the whole of Australia it has been extensively tested in all states from inland divisions as well as coastal gardens.
The root system its like a wire brush there are more of these rhizomes or creeping stems than couch and Kikuyu which gives this grass great drought tolerance and incredible structural strength, so it is ideal for retaining sloping sites or coping with hard wear from kids and pets.
So the message is lawns are good! They unite and cool the landscape and today’s varieties mean you can enjoy their beauty at the same time as being waterwise.
Ozbreed
www.ozbreed.com.au
Presenter: Neville Passmore
Neville and a team of helpers get into his brand new backyard to plant out lawn that will cool the outdoor living area and poolside to be.
The solar passive design of the house means that there is a giant overhang on the north facing wall of glass creating shade in summer the problem is that most lawns hate shade. Also Neville needs a hard wearing grass to place between the pavers.
Palmetto Soft Leaf Buffalo (Stenotaphrum secundatum ‘SS100’) grass is the variety Neville is going to use, it thrives in shade and is extremely drought tough and as we all know Neville’s passion is to save water.
Neville is going to be watering his lawn with the ‘purple pipe’ which will be delivering treated grey water to supply the entire needs of the grass from below. Although in the long term the purple pipe is a great water saving system, it will take about 4 weeks for the Palmetto roots to establish so overhead hand watering will be needed in that time.
The concept of using grass between the pavers is that it gives a solid surface at the edge of the decking but is capable of absorbing rainfall rather than creating runoff. The grass cools the paving so we don’t end up with a hotbox courtyard.
It is always great if lawn looks good all year round. Palmetto has excellent cool season colour in contrast to couch grass which turns brown as soon as it starts getting cold.
Out the front of Neville’s house the environment is a very different situation, it is open and exposed and it is completely surround by hard hot surfaces of the bitumen of the road and the driveway. So the lawn that is needed is a drought tough variety that doesn’t require a lot of maintenance.
Empire Zoysia (Zoysia japonica ‘SS500’) is going be laid out the front and it is bulletproof. By that Neville means it has the lowest water needs of all available turf varieties and is a slow grower which means roughly 70% less mowing than a Kikuyu.
Neville thinks that the Empire Zoysia is the lawn of the future for the whole of Australia it has been extensively tested in all states from inland divisions as well as coastal gardens.
The root system its like a wire brush there are more of these rhizomes or creeping stems than couch and Kikuyu which gives this grass great drought tolerance and incredible structural strength, so it is ideal for retaining sloping sites or coping with hard wear from kids and pets.
So the message is lawns are good! They unite and cool the landscape and today’s varieties mean you can enjoy their beauty at the same time as being waterwise.
Ozbreed
www.ozbreed.com.au
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