You cannot kill all the wild grass with weed killer only once. The seeds will grow and take over whatever new grass you grow.

After applying the weed killer and remove all the dead grass, loosening the soil, on the 2nd week, you should encourage the seeds to grow showering it with lot of water everyday for a month. Then kill the young wild grass or whatever trying to grow with weed killer again.

The next thing to do is cover the ground with a thin layer of sands, the sands will level the ground nicely without hardwork. When it rains, the rain water will wash the sands to low areas, you will see that areas that have no sands that are exposed you can then re-level the spots that were uneven easily.

Patient is the key to success. Try to kill as much of the wild "hidden seeds" by getting them to grow out of the seed/hide, in the long run you have less work pulling the young wild grass one by one.

Japanese grass is the best. Short, compact, need no triming. RM11 a piece 2' x 1'. The real Japanese grass.

I planted my garden 3 times.

1st got a contractor to do. The grass grow so tall you have to trim every month.

2nd, went to sg buloh. Introduced me this expensive Jap grass. Paid RM200. went back pull half of the existing "dont know what grass" and cut and spread the Jap grass and planted. 2 long months later was happy it grow well and not grow tall. Went to sg buloh again, the owner not there, the worker sold me RM6 per piece. Happily planted on the other half. After 1yr, the other half wasn't Jap grass and it grow tall and overgrown the Jap grass.

3rd. Dig the grass from the far end which was not contaiminated with the other grass. Clear the other end tall grass and planted this Jap grass and now it has grown half way thru the length of the house.

So becareful what you want to buy and what you get. Jap grass is not so cheap as you posted in the forum. It could be some other speice. I wnet to sg buloh the same place I bought. he dont sell that spices any more, too expensive no one buy and grow too slow no suppliers as suppliers cannot make money out of this grass unless customer willing to pay RM20 a piece.

RM5 a piece is no japanese grass.

We dont really know until we planted them for a few months.

There are few things I know about Jap grass:

1. The leaves are fine
2. It grow rather very slowly
3. It is more compact
4. It does not grow tall and need no trimming unless near edge of building/walls/some other taller plants.
5. It need no full sun, one third will do, full sun better.
6. It need water, if the soil is dry for days they disappeared.
7. They are lousy competitor, other grass outgrow them.

If you really want the real and true Jap grass, you got to buy from few places regardless of price, one each and place on your garden all receiving same sunlight and water and let them grows for 2 months and see whcih is real. The ones that grow tall and out grown are fake.

The grass you bought usually very short it is because they receive full sunlight you can't tell the different.

Hope this help

River sand, the yellow color one use for plastering that have no stones. You can also use the white color one, use for reinforced concrete, which is residue of rocks and stones but it has to be sieved out the bigger pieces of stones. River sand is better as it contain mud.

For 1500sqft, one ton lorry will do. One ton lorry is the smallest lorry you find on the road, a little bigger than van, filling up to its side wooden panels and not overflow these side and back panels. It should fill up some 1 to 4 inches leveling the ground. The idea here is to level the ground that is to achieve at least 1 inch (high areas) and 4 inches to lower areas. It is easy to shift sand and you can never shift earth unless you use heavy machinery which in turn compacting the earth as it roll over and make the surface uneven even more for small areas like our houses compounds. If your ground is very level you use less sand and very uneven you use more. So, try to level the area that is too obviously uneven before sand. Not to worry trying to achieve perfection, it will self level as you walk on and rain, heavy rain. The best practice is to have a little slope so that water flow to where you want them to flow, ie to the drainholes/drain. You can use leveling spirit attached it to a one meter ruler making larger area leveling.

For big volume you buy directly from shop that specialized in selling sand, cement, stones and wood. If you cannot find one in your area, you can order from hardware shop and pay a little more.

There is no need to fertilise grass. What grass need most is water. Too much of fertilizer kill them and turned brown. What more the grass is newly planted that need watering everyday. What is the use of fertilizer when you have to water your newly planted grass everyday washing away the fertilizer? Got what I mean. See, your newly plnated grass need watering everyday and need fertiliser but you can have only one because water washes away fertiliser. Dont waste your money on fertilizer even when after the grass take root.

When you have a layer of sand, the grass spread faster as it is loss easy for it to reach new territory and the root will grow deep into the sand till it reached that earth. Because sand allow water to flow you will have less stagnant water/pool of water here and there. Too long stagnant water/flooding kills grass by destroying their leave that making it rot. Sand will also allows water to be lifted up for the grass as in capillary action, dont worry that the grass not getting water due to a layer of sand.

You can spread with anything when it is dry. Easy is to use a piece of plank to spread some 600mm to 1meter long. Use spirit level tie/stick to this plank to level. Just be sure when you pour, pour evenly make sure it is not too thick/ too much on one area.

Since you already have a level ground there is no need to add sand, moreover it is slope to drain. The new added sand will self-level when it rain heavy and your existing slope will disappear.

It is not advisable to add sand when you have planted the grass. You are supposed to add before planting so that it provides faster grow and improve underground water flow, avoid flooding and stagnant water that submerged the grass and kill it. With sand you do not need underground piping for draining unless you want to build high ground like a golf putting ground that have to use soil to hold the ground and not sands.

When you have grass grown you can never spread the sand evenly. You cannot see where you have spread and where is lacking and you cannot take it out under grass if you have spread too much on one place.

If you still want to have a layer of sand you should remove all the grass piece by piece if they have not taken root and leave it on some other places like your car porch that received some sunlight with old newspaper underneath as thick as possible and water twice a day lightly, care not to loose the soil and too water wash away the soil. You must not put one on top of the other, the one at the bottom will die. Alternatively, do one part at a time like one third. Diving it into 3 parts. Take part 1 out put it on a place like your car porch, sand and level part 1, take out part 2 grass and put/plant it on part 1 area, then take part 3 grass to part 2 area and finally plant the part 1 fr the porch to part 3 area. With the car porch occupied, I do not know where you are going to keep your sand unloading from lorry??? Alternatively, buy half lorry load at a time put it outside house compound, talk to immediate neighbour if you can use their compound outside their house for few days. make sure you have a layer of plastic sheet underneath otherwise you will leave a lot of sand on your neighbor compound. with plastic sheet you lose little of the sand.

This post has been edited by stevie8: Jan 19 2012, 04:57 PM

Hi Joyride,

from the pix the gaps between the grass couild be due to the different type of soil underneath. This is very common due to uneven ground. The original ground when it is uneven the planter usually put a layer of sand. So there will be some area has thiner or no sand and some with thicker layer of sand. the areas where there are more sand the grass grow faster and the harder ground grows slower and less dense and gaps appear. This is of course I rule out fungus. It does not look like it is fungus from the pix.

Over time the gaps will be covered. What you got to do is water often but not flooding the grass. No need to water many times a day. Once will do on hot sunny days and do not water when it rains. Rain water is best as it encourage grow, tape water is the alternative. Water only in the evening as morning there will be mist air falling on the grass and seeps into the soil.

Some type of grass will not do well with fertiliser and the fertiliser has to be diluted. Too much fertiliser on one spot will kill the grass and the grass turn yellow. After fertiliser sprinkle with water, not too much to wash away the fertiliser. If you put fettiliser and didnt sprinkle with water it could harm the grass as it is too concentrated.

So please go and check and confirm if the gap areas soil is different from the dense grass areas soil so that further steps can be taken and diagnos properly.

Great idea!

Sorry I have no experience in liquid fertilizer. Ozak may be able to advise.

To check the surface soil, the best method is to dig out the grass and take some two inches of the soil and compare but that will kill the grass.

One other easy way is to feel it with screw driver pushing it or punch it. Better way is use a cylinder like things like a copper pipe or hollow stainless steel pipe pushing into the soil, bend it a little take it out and see the soil if it has more sand.

One other thing, the uneven grow could be due to different species/type of grass you have. You could have more than 1 species of grass planted.

To find it out is dig a square 2x2' from a well growth site and anothtr fr a not well grown site and exchange and wait for a month to see how it grows, if it grow as it was then the species are two. Or put this two pieces together grow it on a same location/site. If after a month or so the two still remain different then there are two different species.

Fake grass is for area that the grass cannot grow for example under a big tree where the tree root suck up all the water and nutrients the grass cannot compete beside it is shaded not enough sunlight for grass to grow. It is also for area where the grass cannot grow like hard and surface and little sunlight and also for small areas.

From the pics you got large area the cost is going to kill you and you also have plenty of sun. Given that most would not want to use fake grass. For fake is fake.

You already have the answer as to why it grows at different rate. But there is a lot of work to level or slope the ground and you might have to replace all the grass. Fertilising the lawn will not solve the problem. As an anology, if you plant something cannot grow well on hard ground or certain type of soil, no matter what fertiliser you put it dont help much. When we cannot grow apple here it will not. Even you make the condition better you get unusual small apples.

The right way to do it to dig up some 1 foot of top soil replace with 1 foot of good soil, it can be the cheap and plentiful yellow earth we have here, level it or slope it then another foot of river sands. Start planting. By the way if you do not have flooding one certain areas there is no need to slope the ground. Say during heavy rain when there are flood spots is normal. after drain the spots should subside within hrs if it stays for more than half a day then it is a problem. The grass dies.

Just dont know how you can add sands grass area. the areas you add sands will be higher and might be washed to lower area raining from time to time. putting too much will cover the gras and the grass dies.

Further to this question, you can add sands to these areas. Adding and covering it with sands during heavy rain is the best quick fix. Working under heavy rain wont make us sick for normal healthy person but not during thunderstorm. The rain and water replacement with sands give you the visual add shifting the sands and leveling the ground easily. Start from the biggest deepest areas, fill it till you see water disappear from that spot but not overfill and move on to the next. If it must cover the grass underneath, dont bother just cover them and let them out grow the sands or let them die. The grass surrunding it will replace them easily as the grass can penentrate the sands easily and grow fast.

You can buy sands in bags. for this solution never buy in lorry load you dont need that much and problem keeping it. Cat will come around and shit.

A layer of sands is good for the grass to grow. There are few reasons:

1. It promotes the grow and quick spread of grass when the ground/soil is loose and soft. Wonder why farmers want to loose the soil with bull dragging the digging tools and nowsaday using machine? The hard ground cannot allow the root to grow and when the root is not deep so it the plant cannot grow. Do you notice that when there is rain the grass look greener and healthier? It is not only the water but also the soil when wet is softer allow root to grow. The root has to grow first before the top leave. Once the root is established you got a healty plant.

You also notice that when the grass spreading to rocks or hard ground the grass is much shorter, so it the root. Unless the rock is above ground level the grass grow taller at the rock/concrete edges.

2. Sands ensure there is no retention of water at the surface or at grass stem/leave. It ensure the water is spread out or drain to lower areas. Our garden grass are no water plant. Submerged in water they die.

3. Capillary action. When there are lot of water the water are force down with gravity, so no flooding. When there is little water the water is force up by capillary action against gravity for the grass. Anyway, the root of the grass penentrating the sands easily to reach the soil underneath.

4. The sands keeping the ground underneath moist and soft further promote the grow of grass root deep inside the soil at all time. Imagine an exposed ground/soil on hot day, the soil is hard.

Can you take a photo?

Is this is the one?

If this is the one, I am using it but it get pregnant if the gun is not closed with 40 to 60 psi. I am interested your 14 yr old type, can show a pic?

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Added on March 10, 2012, 3:47 pm6 inches to 1 foot and you will have a flat gravity leveled ground.

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Added on March 10, 2012, 5:04 pmNo way. It is just like asking how not to have mosquitos into your house. You can only minimize keep pulling when they are young.

You got to pull the weeds immedaitely when you see it. If it flowers and grow seeds there will be more to pull in time to come. It is in the seeds. They seeds are in the soil and uneliminated weeds roots. Then you will have seeds that are so light and tiny flown to your garden with the wind and birds and animals that eat seeds, plant, fruits and shit on your garden. The shit contains hell lots of seeds. And the seeds you bring along from the flowers pots you bought for your garden and even snail, millipede, worms comes along.

If you think pulling weeds is sick, imagine what the the farmers have to go thru, they got to kill the weeds in whatever ways so that thier plant/vege grow well. Hell lots of laboruos work and money trying to eliminate the weeds in farms and plantations.

This post has been edited by stevie8: Mar 10 2012, 05:04 PM

Thanks. A pic speaks a thousand words, whre to buy? tesco, giant?

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Added on March 10, 2012, 8:43 pmThere is one way I know. Kill all. Kill all with weed killer. Spray weed killer according to specification on a sunny day, make sure no rain afterword otherwise it will be washed away waste effort. Pull all the grass after after all the grass look dead. Leave the bare land for a month, there will be new grass and weed that the weed killer couldnot kill. There are the seeds. Kill all the young weed again, dont let it flowers. Plant grass. This time make sure you pull any freqently. You just cannot kill/eliminate all they are underneath the soil takes months or years to re-emerge. Living things are stubborn you know, they survive. Even you dig and steam them or cook them there still be some deep in the soil. So dont try something very difficult, use weedkiller.

This post has been edited by stevie8: Mar 10 2012, 08:43 PM

Can't figure out what it is. Look like the flowers/seeds of the grass.

Good if you like the grass. More grass will grow. Bad if you decided you dont want this type of grass and plant something else like vege then you got problem clearing out the young grass from time to time no end. There are thousands and millions of seeds.

600sf is not big. The small lory is 1 tonne. Sands are not expensive. Buy river sand. No delivery fee for 1 truck unless you buy from far away or quater lory load.

You cannot get even ground with 1 to 2 inches. When you have quiet a level ground and small area 3 to 4 inches is ok.

Density of grass reducing could be due to hard soil and no watering and use too much of fertiliser

Slimy buildup with fungus could be due to poor drainage, got nothing to do with bird poo.

Birds picking up worms means too much water retention with lots of worms on the surface.

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Added on June 7, 2012, 3:01 pmBuild a drainage system.

1. Level the groud.
2. Dig trenches drain somewhere at the middle one or 2 meters apart to the main drain, some 4-6 cm fall to the perforated pipe height
3. fill the drain with small stones one cm
4. Lay the perforated pipe and connect them altogether. So long as the pipe is level, no need to slope to existing main drain.
4. fill the drain and the pipe with small stone up to ground level
5. fill 1 foot of sand all over the flat ground
6. Plant your grass

Rain water will flow along the sands layer to the drain and through the stone and into the perforted pipe and flow to the main drain. I is not neccessary to drain the pipe completely empty. So long as the water are clear from the ground it is ok.

This post has been edited by stevie8: Jun 7 2012, 03:01 PM

Cow grass

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Added on June 17, 2012, 10:33 pmCow grass is cheap, easy to maintain, no fertiliser, hardy, dont grow very tall. Cow likes it.

This post has been edited by stevie8: Jun 17 2012, 10:33 PM