I have about 4000 sf of pearl grass in my garden. They usually grow well under semi-shade, but leaves are longer and bigger for those area with minimal sun. They require a LOT of water to keep them from having 'burned' look. You need extensive daily watering during the dry season. Weeding is needed once a week once the garden is fully covered.

I never tried philipine grass. I was recommended pearl grass by the nursery. Cost me something like RM5 for 1x3 ft 11 years ago. Probably cheaper now.

Not very green as in not very environmentally friendly as lawn needs a lot of water. Better to plant trees and shrubs.. less maintenace

One way of reducing cost is chop/split the grass patch into smaller patches, and plant each smaller patch 3 inches from one another, and let them grow, spread and cover the garden. With that, you need only 500 sf of grass. But becareful of weeds. One way of preventing weeds, is to put 3-4 layer of old newspaper on top of your soil, get a small truck load of 'yellow soil (those without the weed seeds)' and cover the newspaper and plant your new grass on top. You will have less weeding to do in future.

Grass Rm2psf = u need maybe 1000 for 500sf
Upah tanam = free, do it yourself, that's the fun of having garden.
Soil= make sure it's weed seed-free soil, the yellow one deep down.
Baja= no need baja, i never used baja. Be environmentally friendly, collect your overnight urine in a potty, mix 1 part urine per 100 part water and just pour on the grass before you water the grass. Afterall grass being leafy needs all the nitrogen from your urine.
Racun rampai= do it about 2-3 weeks before planting otherwise your grass will die.
Sprinklers= much needed tool
Drain cover and sewerage cover = 1 stainless steel sewerage cover around RM1000. Be innovative, just a piece of granite slab as cover, reinforce the bottom with cement + wire mesh. Cheaper but Probably need expert help with this.
Pokok paga= Much needed
Batu Sungai= Can get from Kampung. Cheaper but ILLEGAL!

By the way, if you are a pilot, 3300 for a garden is nothing..

This post has been edited by newbie99: Apr 24 2010, 07:36 PM

You probably need to replace the plastic drain cover very often, unless you get the uPVC type. Your grandparents probably use the same method to fertilize their vegetables..

You will definitely need to spend a LOT of time and effort to keep them apart. Not advisable, unless you have a barrier.

I would dig away or get rid of all old grass and weeds, level the land, put about 3-4 layers of old newspaper on top of the soil to prevent weeds from growing.
Fill the land on top of the newspaper with 2 inches of red soil (make sure it came from deep underground or seed free), then plant your japanese grass.

Make sure u cover with newspaper and top it with seedless red soil, otherwise u will be in for a hardtime weeding your garden for the next 6 months.

i just used red soil because a lot of topsoil comes with seeds from the weeds, and they are likely to germinate when u water your lawn. Just make sure you fertilise your lawn well. Red soil is very cheap.

Once the weeds take root, the only effective way is manually remove them..

Use a fine old screw driver.

any photo?

You should trim it short, to around 2 inch. This will inevitably exposed the brown areas which are the stems. The brown parts will provide new leaves when they are exposed to sun.. The brown patches will get smaller during subsequent trimming. Frequent monthly trimming at 3-3.5 inch will produce nice compact lawn.

Try Zoysia Japonica. You can plant yourself. Just make sure the ground is flat, free of stone, other debris and weeds before you cover them with the grass.

Use a screw driver to dig around the weed to remove it. They usually spread through the roots and are interconnected. Dig and trace the roots to all surrounding weeds to remove all.

No noticeable damage and there's already a network of roots down there. I have been doing that for more than 30 years.. and i find it's one of the most effective way to remove weeds from my lawn.

Most Zoysia grass need full sun to grow compact. Given the same sun, Japaness are more compact and shorter than Philippine but they are slower grower. Frangipani is a nice tree, not much leave dropping, at the same time give u nice flowers, neat and nice trunk/branch set. They dont grow very tall. If you want to limit the size/height, try using cement ring or plant them in big pots.

This post has been edited by newbie99: Feb 6 2015, 08:57 AM

Actually, Zoysia can tolerate salt well, and they are suitable for coastal area.

I used to have 3000 sf of pearl grass. They thrived under full sun, but needed lots of water, mostly twice a day to do well under full sun. The roots are very shallow, and they dry up real fast! Even hen pecking can cause uprooting of the grass. The only advantage is they tolerate shade better than zoysia.

This post has been edited by newbie99: Jun 29 2015, 11:30 AM