Lawn Care

[lightstar]

With all the rain we've been having my garden has taken a hammering. I've now got big patches of mud, combined with a large patch of green slime... Really, it's like the lawn has turned into goo... Gross.

I don't know if the grass will come good once the weather changes, or if I should attempt to put some grass seed down.

Can you even buy grass seed here in thailand?

I've seen lots of turf, but no seed...then again, it's not something I've specifically looked for.

should I put fertilizer, or am I going to have to lay some new grass?

Any thoughts on what I can do to turn my lawn around? Or will it come good on it's own?

Cheers.

[oldgeezer]

You can readily buy sod at about 20 baht per square meter. Thats a guess based upon my purchases about 2 years ago.

[Pib]

Unless most of the grass has died off, it should recover. But sod is so cheap (it goes for about 25 baht per square meter here in Bangkok) I would just use sod if replanting--instant grass!!! Now, I've only really seen two kinds of grasses/sods sold. One is the kinda of grass which looks like hair sticking straight up and the other kind is more of a sideways & up growing wide blade type of grass. The former may look better to some but it don't handle wet weather too well and usually grows kind of thin; the later can handle wet and dry weather a lot better....but even it can't handle super/always wet ground.

Is your lawn getting so wet in some areas due to roof runoff or just straight down rain. A portion of my lawn use to get so wet during the rainy season due to the gutter outlet feeding into that area that the grass would almost die off during each rainy season...just got too wet even (durn near mud) for the sideways/up growing grass I mentioned. I solved that problem but extending the gutter outlet to my drainage/gray water drain running around the fence perimeter. Actually I put the extended outlet underground by about 6 inches by using cheap 3 inch PVC pipe to keep from tripping over the pipe. Now, no more really, really wet area during the rainy season and that area is probably my best looking grass year round.

[JohnLeech]

Now, I've only really seen two kinds of grasses/sods sold. One is the kinda of grass which looks like hair sticking straight up and the other kind is more of a sideways & up growing wide blade type of grass.

The former is called Bermuda grass (or "normal" grass!), the latter Malaysia grass.

[lightstar]

Roof run off and stright down rain!(And then resulting standing water... for a few hours, till it drains away).

The main problem area is actually under the shade of a big tree too which is in shadow all day. If I lay down turf will this be a problem or can grass cope well with shade? I'd hate to lay it and then find that it turns to mud too...

(Sorry, I know nothing about lawns!)

I might just pave it. Bit bleugh, but better than mud!

[Pib]

Too much roof run off and shade from a tree can make life hard for grass. And if the slant of the land causes water pooling there, you are going to have problems every rainy season until you can get decent drainage and/or some direct sunlight to that area. If the tree has really low hanging limbs you might want to cut them off which might allow more direct sunlight in the morning and afternoon when the sun is low in the sky.

Now, I don't have gutters all the way around my house but I do have gutters in that one place I mentioned in my post above...and that feeds into my gray water line around the house. About 80% of my house has no gutters and one side has shade from a mango tree. The Malaysia grass does just fine under my "gutterless" areas, but the area directly under the mango tree (which is also next to a 8 ft wall) gets very little direct sunlight during the day, it does have good drainage...it just don't get much direct sunlight. The size of the area I'm talking about is about the footprint of a Thai taxi. This shade from the mango tree/wall just didn't give the grass enough sunlight and the grass grew very thin during the dry season...and during the rainy season it durn near died off. So, I landscaped that area with bricks & pebbles.

Your problem sounds like a combination of inadequate drainage and direct sunlight, with drainage possibly being the bigger problem of the two especially if it pools in that area. I see plenty of big, shady trees with grass growing pretty good under them, but there is good drainage under the tree...the ground slopes away from the tree trunk, etc., and normally during the day they get at least a couple hours of "direct" sunlight.

[Pib]

Now, I've only really seen two kinds of grasses/sods sold. One is the kinda of grass which looks like hair sticking straight up and the other kind is more of a sideways & up growing wide blade type of grass.

The former is called Bermuda grass (or "normal" grass!), the latter Malaysia grass.

But this is Thailand!? I wonder if these farang grasses are doing their 90 day address reporting.

Seriously, thanks for the info. With so many different varieties grasses and the grass names (usually being advertised in Thai), I didn't know what the English names were. Seems these two types of grasses are the major sellers in Thailand, with the Malaysia grass far outselling the Bermuda grass. I can definitely say that about 90% plus of the houses in my moobaan here in Bangkok have the Malaysia grass versus Bermuda grass. And during the rainy season those folks with Bermuda grass are more prone to have weak looking, a little muddy lawns. The Malaysia grass with it's wide blade, sideways (and upwards) growth, being a fairly good shady & wet area grass while also during just fine in bright sunlight seems to be much better suited for the Thailand environment, IMHO. I guess that is why they sell so much of it in Thailand. Cheers.