green fingered advice needed.

[stuart]

anybody out there got any good tips on growing a couple of patches of lawn? in the turkish climate. apart from watering it thats all i know! the ground i am talking about is covered in weeds at the moment.advice would be appreciated.

[Sandrats]

Plenty of on line links, but this one should do the trick:

http://www.gardeningdata.co.uk/lawns/seeds_lawns.php

but in essence its all in the preperation, remember this lawn could be there for decades, basicly get rid of all rubbish, stones and weeds, dig over the area to a depth of a few of inches - then deliberately walk all over it to firm the soil back down, ensuring it is level (no dips or raised areas - quite difficult to do in reality).  Leave it for a week check for dips etc again (remove any more weeds - and there will be).  Sow your grass seed, water, keep watered well and standback, after a few weeks the seed will have germinated and once about one inch high give it a very gentle cut, soon you'll be sick of the sight of the lawn mower.

But remember the preperation is nine tenths of the effort required.

[brianthegardener]

This is a good reply from Sandrats with a good link posted,Stuart, the way to get rid of the weeds, which is esential is to either dig them out one by one,not a nice job, or spray them off with a total weedkiller, i would suggest Round Up, this is animal, children friendly and will not harm the soil, if applied as instucted on the bottle.It is available in Fethiye, "Honda Shop". My only other coment is i would leave the grass to grow to 3 inches before mowing and not mowing to a height of less than 1 inch for the first year.....good luck with your project...follow the link provided by Sandrats and you cant go wrong.

[stuart]

thanks for taking the time to post the usefull info. i have absorbed it and will act accordingly.. sounds a bit like hard work though!! one thing else! i heard somewhere there is grass seed you can buy that grows green grass even if not watered. is that wishfull thinking? or knobhead talk lol!

[tinkerman]

if you put a drop of whisky in the water it will come up half cut

[brianthegardener]

Keep wishing Stuart...if only it was true...

[lindacarl]

There IS supposed to be a lawn seed that ONLY needs cutting once or twice a year. It actually comes from Turkey. I vaguely remember that Hanel were said to be using it. ANYONE? I only knew about it because I worked with an ex botanist Jayne - who used to buy speciality grass seed for 1st class golf clubs (we have a few in this area!).
I've got NO idea what it is called OR where you can find it. I have a feeling we've discussed this before on here?

IF someone knows what it is & where it can be found I'd love to know too. I'm damned if I can remember Jaynes' last name - otherwise I'd try & find her & ring her to ask.
IF you know someone from a really good club (I think it's only bought by the top ones as it can be a bit pricey) - please ask them. Once or twice a year would REALLY suit us!

[kevin b]

What about astro turf:D

[Scunner]

I found the ideal grass for my garden and used it throughout. It's a special type called "marble".

[lindacarl]

Bit slippery that around the pool!
I think we have a similar idea on gardening. You would ALSO be called a philistine by our neighbours who were dismayed we'd cut down the WELL overgrown garden. I didn't quite get that!
As you've probably noticed my fertiliser of choice is Round-Up.

Our worst nightmare would be if the sale fell through & his horticulturist fiance had undone all the good work we did by replanting all the beds we had put material down to stop anything growing & covered with stones. Also if they replanted those damned banana trees we paid a fortune to have removed.

We will be returning full of trepidation!