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It's Turf At The Top: Choosing The Right Variety of Turf For Your Needs

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You might think that one kind of turf is very much like another - after all, it's just grass. However, the modern turf market sells a gigantic variety of different turfs, each with their own particular blend of grass species. 

When purchasing turf for a lawn, the most important concern is what you're intending to use your lawn for. High-grade turfs may look magnificent, but they will quickly turn into a rutted quagmire if you're going to be using your lawn for sports. Conversely, an ornamental garden laid with hardy, utilitarian turf will never match the beauty of one laid with finer grass species. With that in mind, the following is a brief guide to choosing your turf based on what you intend to use it for, rather than comparing the merits of individual cultivars.

Activity lawns

If you're cultivating a lawn as a good place to kick a ball around, or as a place for the kids to play, you'll probably be looking for substance over style and a turf variety that can take a beating. That's not to say that these turfs are ugly, far from it, but they will not have the fine, evenly-sized leaves of a more delicate turf. Your main concern here is looking for grasses that won't be killed easily by wear and tear and that will recover quickly when damaged. The following species of grass are excellent choices:

  • Common couch
  • Hybrid couch (requires frequent fertilising)
  • Kentucky blue grass
  • Zoyzia grass (recovers more slowly than other hard-wearing turfs)
  • Kikuyu

Ornamental lawns

If you're willing to put the work into creating and maintaining a beautiful ornamental garden, you'll probably want a lawn to match. These turfs are relatively fragile, and many require high levels of maintenance in the form of watering and fertilising, but the results of all your labours can be breathtaking. Suitable grasses include:

  • Greenlees Park couch
  • Legend couch (tougher than most ornamentals, but slightly less fine)
  • Creeping bent grass
  • Fine fescue

Low-maintenance lawns

If you lead a busy lifestyle, you'll probably want a lawn you can leave alone for most of the time with the assurance that it would dry out or grow three feet overnight. These turfs are tough, slow growers with low water requirements, and the best are resistant to weeds and fungal infection. Consider the following grasses:

  • Soft-leaf buffalo
  • Common couch (may yellow somewhat without fertiliser use)
  • Kikuyu
  • Queensland blue couch (poor resistance to drought)
  • Zoysia grass
  • Saltwater couch (excellent for drought-afflicted areas with high soil salinity)

Shady turfs

If your lawn is small and enclosed, or if it's going to live under the shadow a stand of trees or other sources of shade, you'll want to choose a turf that won't turn yellow and die at the first sign of a shadow. These grasses are generally a slightly less vibrant green than other varieties, but unlike other turfs they generally only contain a single species of grass, giving it an attractively even quality. Suitable grasses include:

  • Soft-leaf buffalo
  • Wintergrass (very coarse, and considered a weed by some lawn purists)
  • Zoysia grass

If you need landscaping supplies to change up the look of your lawn or to maintain it, find a business like Aussie Rockmen in your area.


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