Total Turf Services

This depends on how much shade/sun your property has, also what are you wanting from your lawn, does it need to be hardy for children or pets or does need to be an ornamental type lawn.

Yes it does, but this depends on good base preparation and again the having the correct grass species for the property and its requirements.

Yes …. But you need to find an operator who does follow up maintenance as the rate of seed that is applied is very high and as the plant matures it is prone to disease as there is too much seed.

This depends on grass type that you select … cool season grasses definitely need watering in the warmer months, warm season grass like couch and Kikuyu are drought tolerant grasses, so require little or no watering.

This is quite common especially in cool season grasses … during the warmer months with high humidity lawns can get various forms of fungus disease and by watering your lawn your only spreading the disease … it will probably need an application or 2 of a Fungicide

Couch grass (like Kikuyu) is a warm season grass … when it starts to get cooler or the lawn is hit with a frost it can loose it’s colour … it is called going into dormancy, the couch grass will recover once it starts to warm up. We can apply a growth hormone to encourage stimulating the growth of the couch grass.

This again depends on the grass type you have on your property … if you have an ornamental lawn (cool season grass) I am recommending using a quality turf fertiliser and apply every 6 weeks … with a warm season grass you can fertilise every 6 weeks but this can be extended to 8 – 10 weeks.

Yes you can reduce the amount of water you have to apply … if you are building a new lawn use a soil rather than a sand the soil will hold more moisture to the lawn in the warmer months … you can also apply a granule wetting agent which will assist you in reducing the amount of water you have to apply … remember warm season grasses have high drought tolerance.

There are some chemicals you can apply to your lawn … since 1st July 2015 the chemical laws changed in New Zealand … most chemicals you can purchase now come in 1 litre bottles and have been diluted down … the chemicals we use have to be applied by a certified “Growsafe Approved Handler”

Basically you get what you pay for … if you buy cheap soil expect ‘WEEDS’ … if you want a clean soil expect to pay top dollar per cubic metre

This will depend on a few things … grass type selection … if you want an ornamental lawn that requires watering I recommend a quality soil or soil/sand blend … with warm season grasses a soil/sand blend is good as a pure sand base will only dry out in the warmer months.

Again this depends on grass type … typically here in New Zealand we tend to mow our lawns far too short … ornamental (cool season) grass should be mown no shorter than 50 mm (I prefer a higher cut 65 mm) … warm season grass can be mown at any height but I prefer to keep them around the 15 – 25 mm height.

We find this is very common question … Answer … profile … the lawn profile probably has I very high clay content … my suggestion is to apply high rates of soil conditioner and do it annually as you will see vast improvement in drainage in the winter … if you are building a new lawn on a site that has high clay content … I recommend that a product called WDG Reno-Gyp is worked into your lawn base … this will break down the clay content.

Yes you can … but remember select the right type of grass for the property (do it once … do it right) … key to any lawn is the right grass type and PREPARATION

This could be a couple of things … over time lawns build up a thatch layer which can make the lawn uneven … the other is worm castings … the worm casts come to the surface creating an uneven surface … we apply 2 – 3 applications of an organic worm control product to our lawns every winter to prevent this.

Could be a few things … grass seed … but more commonly it will be insects … generally in winter it will be the worms … but in summer it could be grass grub … grass grub will destroy your lawn as they eat the roots of the plant.

This is a tricky one … we get a lot of call-outs from people that have sprayed for Hydrocotyle onto their lawns … then saying that their lawn is dying off … what we generally find is they have sprayed the chemical onto the Hydrocotyle on either a couch or Kikuyu lawn … the active ingredient in ‘Hydrocotyle Killer’ is Triclopyr which is not recommended to spray onto warm-season grass like Couch or Kikuyu.

If you have an ornamental lawn (Tall or Fine Fescue) installed and you want to keep it in pristine condition … the day it is installed is the day it starts costing you money … to keep it looking it’s best you need to fertilise regularly (every 6 – 8 weeks) water frequently during warmer months, then there is the weed/rogue grass control plus insect and disease control