How to Clean Fake Grass From Dog Urine
Key takeaway: Rinse the spot with water straight after your dog goes, since dried urine crystallises into uric acid crystals that plain water can no longer dissolve. For an existing … Read more
Alan Brown
Dog Urine & Pet Damage: An Australian Guide
Key takeaway: Dog urine kills grass through concentrated nitrogen, not acidity, so the fastest real fix is dilution: soak the spot with about three times the volume of urine within … Read more
How to Identify Winter Grass (Poa annua): An Australian Guide
Key takeaway: Winter grass (Poa annua) grows in light yellow-green clumps with no runners at all, a soft, boat-shaped leaf tip like the prow of a canoe, and pyramid-shaped seed … Read more
Oxalis vs Clover: How to Tell Them Apart
Key takeaway: Oxalis has heart-shaped leaflets with a light crease down the centre and small five-petalled yellow flowers, while clover has rounder leaflets, often with a pale chevron marking, and … Read more
Soil & pH: An Australian Guide
Key takeaway: Most Australian lawn grasses want a soil pH between 5.5 and 7, slightly acidic to neutral, though buffalo tolerates more alkaline soil, up to around pH 8, better … Read more
Fine Fescue vs Tall Fescue: Which Should You Choose?
Key takeaway: Choose fine fescue for a shaded, low-traffic cool-season lawn that gets minimal wear, since it’s the most shade-tolerant and lowest-maintenance cool-season grass available. Choose tall fescue for a … Read more
Clover With Yellow Flowers: What It Actually Is
Key takeaway: True clover has white or pink flowers. A trifoliate weed with yellow flowers is almost always one of three different plants: black medic, hop clover, or creeping oxalis. … Read more
Artificial Grass: An Australian Guide
The honest guide to artificial grass in Australia: real pros and cons, realistic lifespan, the maintenance it still needs, and the heat and environmental trade-offs marketing leaves out. Read more
How to Fix Hydrophobic Soil in Your Lawn
Key takeaway: Hydrophobic, or water-repellent, soil happens when waxy organic compounds coat soil particles and stop water soaking in evenly, most commonly on sandy soils. Test it by pouring a … Read more
Watering: An Australian Guide
Key takeaway: Test before you water, don’t water on a fixed schedule. Push a screwdriver into the lawn: if it slides in easily to 100 to 150mm, the soil underneath … Read more
Brown Patches in Lawn: What’s Actually Causing It
Key takeaway: The shape of a brown patch and how fast it spreads tell you more than the colour does. A small, sharply circular dead ring is almost always dog … Read more
When to Apply Insecticide to Lawn
Key takeaway: Lawn grubs are the one pest with a genuine preventative window: apply a chlorantraniliprole-based granule from around September, before overwintering beetles emerge and lay eggs, for season-long protection. … Read more
Lawn Grubs and Armyworm: How to Spot Them Before They Take the Lawn
How to identify lawn grubs, armyworm and fall armyworm early, tell them apart from drought, disease and dog urine, and confirm before you treat anything. Read more
How to Get Rid of Lawn Beetle in Australian Lawns
Key takeaway: Treating adult lawn beetles is a different job to treating the grubs they produce. Cut outdoor lighting at night through summer and autumn to stop drawing flying adults … Read more
How Long After Laying Turf Can You Walk on It?
Key takeaway: Stay off new turf completely for the first 24 to 48 hours, since the soil underneath is soft and saturated and a footprint left now can take weeks … Read more
Laying Turf: An Australian Guide
Key takeaway: Lay turf within 24 hours of delivery, in a staggered brickwork pattern with tight joins, then water it immediately and deeply. Water twice a day for the first … Read more
How to Prepare Your Lawn for Winter (Australian Guide)
Key takeaway: For the warm-season lawns (buffalo, couch, kikuyu) that cover most of Australia, the single biggest mistake is feeding a high-nitrogen “winteriser” once the lawn is heading into dormancy; … Read more