Archives for June 2015

This is my kids. In the mud. In the rain. In the mud. Oh what a fun weekend my kids had.

My kids tell me that they have to play in the mud because they are deprived of not having snow. They have to have mud fights instead of snow fights. I think they are really lucky we live on a farm and have so much mud round at the moment to play in the mud like this. Well the kids are lucky.  My bathroom, which used to be white and now is a muddy browny colour (even after I cleaned it, twice), is not so lucky. And I tell you, getting mud out of long hair is really really hard.

So don’t let your school holidays end up like mine. Get some green Coastal Turf grass on your muddy patches, so your kids can have fun outside on the some sun we do get some, and not end up like my kids.

Have a lovely school holidays

Chat soon

Sare

This month I have been chatting to a lot of people in the Macadamia industry about erosion control, and Sweet Smother. I can heard eye brows raise. (Yes, I can. I’m a mother. We know these things)How can a lawn grass help with Macadamias?

Well Sweet Smother not only just makes an amazing lawn for very shady areas, it is also great at using its roots strength to stop erosion between large trees, like Macadamia’s to make sure that the soil stays near the roots of the Tree. Making us those delicious buttery nuts. I don’t know about you, but I have a small love affair with Macadamias. Especially the chocolate covered ones, oh and the raw ones, and yes the chilli spiced ones, and the Roasted ones. Lets face it, they are all delicious. So I do love being able to help Macadamia farmers keep their trees happy and healthy with the help of our Sweet Smother.

Sweet Smother loves 2 hours of direct sunlight a day, but in winter it can grow with filtered sunlight only. So its great for under large trees. When my kids were very little, we had Sweet Smother around our sandpit which was located under a very large ghost gum trees. What I really loved about the sweet Smother, was its ability to grow with the low lights getting in, mostly filtered sunlight and have a place for the kids little feet to walk over. Not even the sand castles being built on the sides of the Sweet Smother stopped it from growing. It may be slow growing, but it is a tough little plant.

Coastal Turf is friends with an amazing company called Bio Science Australia (http://www.bioscienceaustralia.com/environmental-benefits-of-turf.html) who specialise in the Environmental Benefits of turf, especially when it comes to erosion control. So much soil is washed away from Job sites, sloping yards, and pathways. With a small investment of money and time, putting some green couch down to hold onto the soil is a very wise investment. Benefits include not only the peace of mind of seeing the green around, but the turf will hold the soil around your site, stop any fines that could be associated with wash away, and keep the nutrients in the soil where you can use them, rather than someone else.

And with all this rain around in the chill of winter, digging out your mud is not all that enjoyable. Its much more satisfying seeing green go down, and knowing that that is where the soil is going to stay.

So whether you are looking for a bit of sweet smother to stop the erosion on Macadamia Farms, or some humble Wintergreen to stop your soil slipping away, Coastal Turf has the Right Grass for you

Chat soon

Sare

Being Hump day and being rainy wet cold day, this Wednesday is really making me look forward to the weekend. On Wednesday I always believe that the weekend will be bright and sunny, and be warm. In my head I always think of the weekends as only being in Summer. Yes I am a bit delusional. In two ways really – Summer is months away, and this weekend is not really going to be a dry one. But thats ok. Because I will continue to dream of the warm Summer months coming while I stand my daughters 8am Hockey match in Murwillumbah; wet and cold. But happy knowing that at least the farm is getting a lovely dose of water to get the Organic Fertiliser we spread yesterday and today right down into the roots of the turf. This means next week I will have a beautiful green glow across the farm. And that is defiantly something to get excited about.

The rain, like it is now, in its drizzly state makes a perfect time to spread fettles across your lawn. Be it new or old. The rain dissolves either the pellets of fertiliser (like the amazing Dino Fert) or which ever type of fertiliser you choose to use and allows the soil to suck up the beautiful nutrients and make it available straight away for the roots to absorb. Like us, or definitely me, our lawns love to eat in winter. To get all warm and fulfilled with a big feed always makes me feel better. And our lawns do to. So encourage your lawn’s root growth with a fantastic winter meal of food and water to fatten them up for an exciting Spring growth. 

So go stand in the rain in your gum boots and big yellow jacket, especially if you are 5, and throw out some fertiliser on your lawn. Embrace the rain and all the wonders that it will bring to your lawn, and throw out the fertiliser and get your lawn to absorb the smell as well as the nutrients now. And you can also splash in some puddles and bring back your childhood memories of fun. Also get the neighbours talking about why your lawn is so much nicer than theirs. Because its a Coastal Turf lawn, and thats why your celebrating your brilliance.

Chat soon

Sare

PS would love to see photos of lawn celebrations! I will put some on of my Farm celebrations in the rain in the next couple of days!

Each year we host Kingscliff High agricultural students for work experience for a week of showing kids exactly how a farm works. Most of them get a big surprise whe. They learn that it’s not all playing on tractors and spreading dirt. Being a wet week we have spent a lot of time indoors, leading the more practical applications of the whole Agri business. Turf farms are luck enough to be one of the few horticulture that produce the product and deliver the product to our end user. So that means it’s not all dirt and grass, but a lot of talking and customer interaction as well.

I’m not sure I converted these two to the Agricultural lifestyle, but each year I will keep trying. At least they both ride motor cross……
Chat soon

Sare

I don’t know about any of you this weekend past, but I was very thankful we had grass right up to the house. My wonderful children, bless their little cotton socks, love to play outside, especially this weekend on the trampoline. They are the new Trampoline Champions they tell me; I am very proud how now that they can go other knees and back on their feet. But I’m not so sure how close to the World Championships we are yet. But during this championship run to world domination of the trampoline world, Hollie and Marcus had to walk in and out of the house about 100 times yesterday. And because you can’t wear shoes on a trampoline, it becomes impossible in a childs life to put shoes on between the house and the trampoline. And don’t even think for a seconds to suggest such a silly idea. My 9 year old thinks that most of my suggestions about shoes are ridiculous but the possibility of putting shoes on between the house and trampoline was down right INSANE. The eye rolling and comments like “you just don’t understand” really hit home how much I didn’t know about Trampoline Championships.

But I do know that I am glad that I have tiles and super soft Empire Zoysia around and under our trampoline. Due to the Zoysia’s fantastic life cycle of sleeping over winter, the lawn near the Trampoline Championships didn’t need to be mowed, so no grass clippings were walked into the house. And I love the dense thick way the Empire Zoysia grows meaning that no nasty winter weeds can grow in our Championship arena and little feet (well they really do have quite big feet for kids. I guess that helps with their jumping skills) are safe from bindi’s and other mean spike weeds. I am thankful for the lovely thick grass that my husband had the forethought to put under the trampoline arena for World Championship Trampoline Event. And that my kids don’t know how to do flips on the trampoline yet. Otherwise this post may have been about how I spent the weekend at the hospital because my kids broke their bodies. 🙂

Chat Soon

Sare

Tax and Turf are not two words you usually associate together, but in June these two words together can save you money. Our Couch could be the Pot of Gold at the end of the rainbow for you!

Now is the time to do all those little improvement to your rentals to ensure you get back what you have invested. Fixing your lawn could be the best way to get the some beauty and benefits into your life.

In the rain I get a lot of time to think in my tractor, unfortunately not an awesome closed in tractor, but the all open to the elements tractor that I call Betty (she is big and red and very reliable). As we were driving along today in the rain, a beautiful rainbow struck against the clouds and landed on the Blue Couch paddock. I of course tried to get to the end of the rainbow to find the pot of gold, but then I realised that the Blue couch is the real Gold. The Blue couch is still one of the best looking lawns with easy care on the coast. It really does make me smile when I see it, and even more with a rainbow

Chat soon

Sare

(remember rain is great for new turf, and Mud is great for the skin!)

Coming up to a normal weekend, I am wistfully remembering our long weekend. And how nice would it be to have a “Long ” weekend each weekend. I might actually get something done around our house. I’m not sure how many of you are partners of “tradesmen”. They are those wonderful people who go to other peoples houses and fix and create masterpieces for them, and then come home so exhausted that they can’t do the same at home. Some of my close friends have tradesmen Partners.Wives of builders are still waiting for a wall to be finished. A husband of a painter is waiting for his office to be painted. And a close friend whose husband is an electrician has a light switch that doesn’t turn on anything…yet! It really does make me happy that my husband isn’t a Doctor. I could very well be sick all the time!

But over a long weekend, the whole story can change. On Saturday Tony the Turfman created a beautiful Palmetto lawn for a family in Casuarina. And then on Sunday my wonderful Landscaper husband, Tony the Turfman, created our Out Door Shower that he was going to create now for 3 years. And it is amazing! The water comes out onto the beautiful paved non slip area, with great gusto, and then drains down onto our grassed area. Giving our grass a wonderful summer water after we have been at the beach, well it will do. True not really the time of year to test it out, but the kids gave it a go anyway.

Now coming up to a “Normal” length weekend I am faced with the reality of knowing that no new exciting projects that we have been dreaming and designing for years will be made. This week Turfman has been out busily creating lawns and irrigation systems, Water features and Play spaces for other peoples families to play and enjoy. So I will enjoy my shower, in the summer. And then hopefully in the summer, I can get my Pizza Oven created so we can all sit around the oven and get warm next winter. Slightly comforted in the knowledge that he will be doing all the exciting projects at someone else’s home. Making soft places for little feet to play.

Chat soon

Sare

Today Dad and I delivered some gorgeous Wintergreen to the Ray Pascoe Park in Tweed Heads to the Tweed Shire Council’s new park. Wow she looks like a beauty. I can’t wait for the park to open and my kids and I will be there! Picnic in the park are always so much more enjoyable on super soft and fluffy green grass. This may be my long weekend plan…

Again I was the little truck following the big truck to drop off the Gorgeous Green to the park. I always feel like a baby elephant following the mummy elephant to water. Except my little truck doesn’t hold the big tracks tail. We just putter along after the bug truck. So maybe I should start thinking of us as the bouncy little pup following the Big dog. I am yet to see my truck to any type of jumping what so ever. (Maybe the occasional bunny hop down the road when I was much younger and learning how to drive…)

Its Keith’s dream to one day be in the big truck, instead of with me in the little truck. Sorry Keith not today.

So If you see two Coastal Turf Trucks following each other down the road, with a lady probably singing loudly to her big fat yellow Dog who will be looking out the window (I think he tries to pretend he is not with me when I sing. I really don’t think I am that bad though) give me a wave, or when we stop come and ask me about the turf.

Chat to you all soon

Sare

(and Keith the Delivering Dog)