Archives for May 2011

No its not the A Britney Song re-done grass style…

I have broken my other foot! That means that I have now broken firstly my ankle on my left foot and now my foot bone on my right! Hurray for me. How uncoordinated can a girl get! All I did was walk down another step. I have decided that concrete and me are not friends, and that I should grass everything! At least it will be soft then to land on when I fall next time – Oh yes there will be a next time and NO I was NOT drunk.

I’m thinking sweet smother directly near the house, because it is super shade tolerant, and then some Palmetto buffalo around the more shadier of areas around the house and of course the wonderful Queensland Blue Couch for the outskirts – hardy and tough. That means that my yard will be super lush and spongy for the next time I walk down a step and fall. No broken anything else for me this year…hopefully anyway. I think I may need a lucky token of something. Maybe a rabbits foot, except my sister-in-law-to-be may be upset if I chop of the leg of her rabbit. I know; I’ll grow clover and hopefully get a four leaf one. No that’s no good Dad and the boys would kill me for introducing clover to their beautiful turf.

No I think I am just going to have to make my own luck and stay away from steps. So if you see a Lady in a blue turf shirt walking around on crutches please warn me about the steps that are coming up, and direct me to the closest soft spongy grass I can land on..

Thanks
Sare

Well our six weeks of having Lauren come in and push papers and answer your calls in the office are over. I for one will really miss her. It has been wonderful coming to work knowing Marcus, my youngest, was in her safe hands, and lovely knowing that while she was here, Coastal Turf was in safe hands. And so starts the Marcus come to work times again. He is not enjoying as much as he thought he would. Turns out Mummy really does work at work, not just play…Who knew. Oh well might get hot chips for lunch and say we had too because Marcus needed them…hehehehe

But I think we may have shifted her kids to the farm life as well. They loved to play on Marcus’ tractor.

So Turf is not just in the blood, but is contagious I guess. At least the riding cool tractors is.
Yours in Turf
Sare
Oh don’t forget to check out our FaceBook page now. Something Lauren set up before she left. Thanks Lauren!

Well in the continued experiment for the winter, “What grows Better in the Shade”, I have the updated pictures for this week.

As you’ll remember, Mum has this shady wet spot in her back yard that she really doesn’t look after. We put it down and walked away. Mum occasionally gets Tony (my husband) to mow it, but that is it. No professional turf farmer care. It has 2 medium size dogs that eat bones and run (well its kind of a run. Betty the Black dog is rather large and does have some difficulties running quickly) all over it. So it gets a work out. Not to mention grandkids playing their version of world cup soccer on it…

Palmetto on the right at back and Empire Zoysia on the left

So as you can see, we are now into the swing of it. May is nearly over and June will bring in the cold. I am enjoying watching these grasses. At this point the Palmetto seems to have that extra greenness that the Empire Zoysia lacks. And that what is all the Palmetto experts do tell me.. So lets wait and see. And I would like to point out I am not clever enough to mess with the photos. I can’t change colours etc for the life of me. I tried to make my daughters face sharper one and ended up giving her an extra head in the photo. So now photoshop for me. Completely natural me. And a bit useless with cameras…

Thanks
Sare

Well Coastal Turf is going REALLY Green! Today we are having our first environmental meeting with Ben Gibson from EPAR to discuss environmental procedures and records tht we now have to keep under Australian Law. Its really interesting and I am proud to say that 99% of what we are doing is in line with the law! We just aren’t keeping the records in the right way. So that is just down to me. I will do better at the paper work. Now that Ben has given us these awesome fill in paper work t will be great. I am so excited!

Last month w got our Solar panels in, and now we are getting the peice of paper from EPAR to say that we truely are GREENIES. How funny, I always knew Turf was Gren but now I have a piece of paper to prove it. I definetly recommend that you go to the EPAR website and check it out.

www.epar.com.au

Thanks Ben

Chat Soon

SARE

Brr, Winter is creeping its head around the corner isn’t it? Gone are the days of shorts and singlets and the days of long pants and cold hands are upon us. That is unless you area toddler and feel no cold…My toddler is still trying to get naked and play outside. And now has the worst snotty nose. If I was a mean mother I would say nananenanar I told you I was right, but I’m not so I will just wipe his nose with my really cold hands and say gross, where are your socks?

In winter we all get less sun in our yards and in fact in our days, so I think the true test of preformance of all grasses is how they cope in winter. Do they die off and go brown in winter? Do they go patchy when you still have active kids on them? Do they rest and still look green? Do they slow down conserve and not need as much mowing, but still look healthy?

At the moment I have put down two grasses in Mum and Dad’s back yard that were left over from a couple of different installation jobs we did. At Coastal Turf we always believe that when we are installing we take an extra 5% than measured to make sure we definitely have enough turf after cutting into corners and the rest (don’t want to give away all our trade secrets; But we do recommend that customers get an average of 35 more when cutting into corners and werid shapes). And that means that we usually end up taking some home. The back yard in winter is dark and wet at the moment (we have the septic tank coming out onto this spot)so it needed a thirsty grass there that would also thrive in the dark. So we decided to conduct a quick little experiment for the winter, so when I say on the phone that this really is the best grass for your lawn I have tested it.

We installed these grasses about 3 weeks ago so they are rooted into the ground. We decided to get Mum to look after them because she isn’t a turf Farmer, and will look after the grass like a customer who would have put it in and walked away. And this is how they look now…

Empire Zoysia on the left and Palmetto Buffalo on the right

Now also bear in mind that they were off cuts. But lets see how the winter takes us. I hope this gives you an educated opinion.

Thanks Sare

Well my beautiful daughter has just turned 5! Its a big number for a little girl. It means to her that she is now old enough to do the dishwasher herself, maybe pick her own towel up, and of course pour her own milk, and now answer the phone for Coastal Turf ( said sorry you have to be at least 12 to do that, but don’t be surprised if one day you ring and she answers). To me it means that my little pink child is now a person.

It also means that I have been in the Coastal turf office now for 4 and a half years. I came back in with Hollie on the floor playing when she was 6 months old. Holl took her first steps across the office. She is definitely the least shy of my 3, weather that is because she is a girl or because her whole life she has been with adults. I think she was 8 months old when she went for her first turf delivery, and 4 when she was able to sit on the tractor with Poppa while they cut turf. Don’t get me wrong, Holl is very VERY girly, but when she needs to she can muck it out at the Turf Farm. I think she was giving out Turf advice at school the other day. I guess having a Turf Farmer for a Grandfather, a Mother who works in the Turf Office and sometimes on the farm, and a Turfman as a father really makes you know your grass. As long as all she ever knows is the green in the ground and walk on it Grass, She’ll be fine

Thanks Chat soon
Sare