Need help with my buffalo!

Hey! As per my photos I’ve got a yard full of buffalo which I fertilised at the start of summer and water infrequently. In the past 3 or 4 weeks these patches of what appears to be dead grass are popping up!

I’ve never had this problem before. Could anyone guess what the problem may be?

Thanks!

Hi, not a great gardener. We rent and our landlord doesn't like how dead our grass is. We've tried weed and feed, but these weeds are pervasive, watering just makes it worse. I don't really want to do anything that will destroy the lawn and just want the weeds to be gone? What even types of weeds are these? We also have wheat growing lol From the Adelaide region! Thanks

What’s the best way to get rid of this invasive grass? The rest of the lawn is a beautiful couch but this one section has been slowly overtaking everything. I was manually weeding it for a while but it’s got away from me. It grows and seeds far faster than the couch, requiring me to mow more often. Do I need to nuke the whole section with weed spray and start again? What else can I do?

“Tif tuf Bermuda” laid 14 months ago. I have dead spots in my lawn, any ideas on how to fix it? The white granules is Shirley’s No17 by the way

I've been mowing the lawns of an NDIS client of mine for nearly 2 years. There have been some issues with grass just dying in one section of the lawns (first photo). I mowed for the first time since Christmas today and there is now a huge dead patch in the previously pristine section of grass on the opposite side of the driveway. He's been replanting as many sprigs as he can as well as removing what he believes is the culprit weed that he believes is smothering the grass from below (4th photo).

I feel terrible for him. He's got terminal cancer. His wife is suffering from Alzheimer's and his lawn that he's nurtured for 70 years is dying in front of his eyes. Does anyone have any idea what to do to fix this?

What’s the best way to rejuvenate our lawn? Was looking nice and green but got destroyed over Christmas. Did a light dethatch, and scalped it (wrong time of year I know. Learnt immediately after) and have also chucked some Seasol on it. The green is slowly coming back but very patchy. I think it’s Kikuyu based some other posts I’ve seen on this sub. But could be wrong. I believe we have a mix too because some of the grass is very soft with thin blades. So a help with an ID would be appreciated too.

https://preview.redd.it/qsy12lfztcbe1.jpg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8574dbf1944cf0279affce206bdc1a7b1582ff9a

Over the Melbourne spring I've had what looks like Asian Basil invade my garden beds, front lawn and nature strip. I've been pulling it out by hand when I can but with the recent weather it's become insurmountable.

The nature strip and front lawn are far from pristine with plenty of broad leaf leaves so my goal is just to stop the spread in mine and my neighbour's gardens.

What can I use to kill it off? Some kind of selective herbicide?

Kind thanks for your advice!

About six months ago, we had the white pebbles at the front of our house replaced with grass, so that our son had somewhere to play outside. Our house is on the side of a hill, so the backyard is just a path behind the house followed by a step slope.

What I've now discovered is that this area, the only level bit of the front lawn, turns into a swamp after rain. To the point where I can't mow it. Unfortunately it's the only place we can put the swing set.

As such, I'd like advice on how to handle it - how to keep it kid and swing friendly without the mud.

Hi all,

Prefix, I don't have any "grass" per-se, it's just natural field, so bunch of weeds, but before I invest anything into laying turf etc. (as I can't afford it right now) I'm hoping to do some free research on what weeds I currently have around the place, so when I inevitably encounter them later on, I'll know what to do about them - also so I can make the right choices in the first place.

I've got four labeled photos, if people could help identify the main weeds in each would be super appreciated!

Noting the grass in image 4 is I believe common couch? but interested in the flowery seeds type weed.

Cheers!

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Brown spots developing in buffalo grass. Patches starting to die. Any advice on how to treat?

I have empire zoysia, renovated 28th November, very happy with everything overall so far but have a couple questions!

I’ve included photos, 1 is during renovations, 1 is 16th December and 1 is today post mow (pretty obvious which is which)

One note is I have not yet done a top dress so some of what I’m seeing I believe may be the different levels.

1. Post mow you can see the discolouration in the lines, am I mowing a bit too low? It’s the second level on my ego and I believe about 35mm.
2. Some areas are still a bit thin whilst some are nice and thick, patience or am I missing anything?

Hey Folks

I've been away for a while (2 weeks) and today returned to inspect my lawn. We have had about a full weeks worth of wet and rainy weather too.

I've always known I had a bit of a mixed bag, but today tried an app (Picture This) to identify the different types.

I know nothing about what's good or bad - only that I want to eventually arrive at a nice consistent green lawn!

I seem to have the following all competing:

1. Hairy Crab Grass

2. Carpet Grass

3. Kikiyu grass

4. Buffalo grass

5. Goose Grass

6. Panic Veld Grass

Do I need to remove any of these? Which will become dominant and take over? At this stage, after the extensive clearing done previously, anything green that resembles Grass, is good (I think). There are patches of the different types, but seems to mostly be Buffalo and Kikiyu going at it, with patches of Veld and cran quite strong in other areas.

Also:

Why would I be finding mushrooms in my yard? Does it mean termites underground or just healthy soil?

Lastly, I've found weird patches of what look like eggs on grass? What is this?

TiA.

Have a bit of bastard lawn and trying to work out what I’m dealing with.

This particular plant is in a patch, seems to grows in runners, and grows much taller/more quickly than the rest of the lawn.

Pics of it in natural state plus pulled.

Any ID help appreciated!

My buffalo lawn turned into this with lots of dead patches recently, I did a soapy water test and couldn’t find any grubs. Any suggestions on what would have caused this and how it can be recovered?

Hi, we moved into a new house in October, the lawn was originally lush though some parts grew much faster than others. After a mow in late November the slower growing parts started to yellow, with some areas worse than others.

Could someone please help ID what sort of grass this is, and how we can get it nice a green all over again?

We have a Labrador so there are some well defined pee patches. We try to water the spot he pees in to minimise that. Are the other yellow areas simply from mowing too short in summer or is something else at play? We’ve gotten a sprinkler to run at sunrise and sunset last week.

Any tips and suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

New place has grass which needs some love. Any one able to identify? Only ever had Sir Walter Buffalo and this doesn’t look like it has the same runners. Keen to get this looking healthier.

Hey friends,

A couple of weeks ago our landlord got some people in to get rid of a bunch of trees in our backyard.

We are wanting to put some grass in to make it less like a dirt patch.

We’re completely new to this kind of stuff and don’t really know what we are doing. Would more would we do other than go to Bunnings, get a bag of seed, and follow the label?

Any advice would be fantastic.

Thank you!

Central Queensland, inland north of the tropics line.

I have a mostly buffalo lawn that grows pretty fast at this time of year (about 2" a week). I don't have too many problems with weeds apart from a bit of nut grass and the odd cats heads I need to pull, but pests are a problem.

I usually mow once a week fairly low (#4 on a makita mower) and water deeply once a week (4-5 hours with a string of those baby wobble tees) and I have pretty deep roots as a result. Sometimes I will water mid week around concrete edges because it dries the ground or if it's particularly hot - I let the grass tell me when it needs it.

I get heaps of mozzies around the house with no standing water so I suspect they're in the grass. I also get lots of cockroaches and they slowly infest the house as the pesticide gets close to its end of effect period.

The cockroaches are everywhere in the lawn and they are very thick if I don't get a chance to mow the lawn on my usual schedule (normally because it rains too much to mow).

What can I use on the lawn to get rid of both mozzies and cockroaches? Every search I do only has results for house / patio type of control and not a lawn application.

So, long story to read. I am a gardener, and love plants but never cared about lawns. Always saw perfect lawns as a waste of water in the past.

I rehabilitated my mother in law's grass over a 2 year period making the soil heathy again, in 4 years I haven't made a dent in mine. I decided to take radical steps finally. Doing half my backyard at a time, mostly because I'm still midway through building a very obscene cubby house.

Location

NSW, south south west Sydney.

Current soil state

Clay base, and about 2-3 inches of absolutely spent hydrophobic cigar ash as soil. Zero life left, and ph tested today averaging 5 with several locations pushing 4. Free draining but zero retention.

Method so far

I've just come out of a winter where I dethatched and grew green fertilizer as an attempt at bringing back organic life to the soil. Didn't take in the backyard but worked well out the front.

I treated for bindi and broadleaf weeds about a month ago, and today I absolutely scalped the crap outta this lawn. Instead of dethatching, since the soil is so cooked I used an Ozito cultivator to start breaking apart the soil. Removing. Thatch and excess runners. I'll be growing a generic hardy mix that has Kikuyu and zoysia in it, so I'm going to leave some in there, if they are dead it's fine they will rot down. It has basically been growing back runners and some rhizomes but failing to keep going due to the harsh environment and lack of life, leading to continuous thatch buildup from runners that start up when it rains then go dormant.

Additives and life

Going to add standard lime in, will have to calculate the right amount to try to gently bring it close to 6 over a 1 year period. It's a rehab, not a quick fix.

Will also be cultivating in plenty of manure, manure compost, coir, soil wetta, blood and bone etc.

I'll probably add some mushroom compost as well for it's alkalinity, and because it usually results in some pretty healthy microbes and fungis growing in the soil. I'll add about half an inch of top dressing over this, spread the hardy grass seed mix and cover that with some more top dressing just to make sure it's got some protection from birds and moisture contact

Going to top all with a thin layer of sugarcane mulch, yeah it's not commonly seen in the burbs but the soil needs it, and the doves here are so dumb they even eat the seed covered with additives.

Wish me luck! Once again it's a long term project, not a quick fix.

Bonus pic: second daughter is due in a couple of days. I planted a Murcott mandarin the day of my first daughter's birth. Now 2.5 years old and it produces great fruit. She helped me pick her sister's plant for next to it, will be a nice Tangerine.

I have about 300sqm of buffalo grass, however both my front and back lawns are very compacted and uneven

I struggle with manual work because of a back injury, so I am looking for either a cordless or corded tool

Long story short I am trying to really remove the top inch of soil so that I can easily just use a lawn leveling rake to move the loose soil around