Lawn: What to Consider

What type of lawn should I choose?

The type of lawn you choose will be determined by at least a couple of factors.

Be clear about what your lawn will be used for, how often it will be used and what your level of commitment will be to its upkeep because lawns can be high maintenance requiring an ongoing programme of weeding, mowing and fertilising to keep looking good. A young family need to consider that the heavy foot traffic of children continuously playing outside will require a hardier product such as a perennial rye, kikuyu or couch grass. This is a different situation for someone wanting a manicured and more delicate lawn who will be better off with one of the ornamental grasses or a fescue.

These are only a few of the different options available. Typically, lawns require a good amount of full sunlight and without it some lawns will struggle. So, although spring and autumn are perfect grass growing seasons for the American ornamentals, the couch grasses and kikuyu are best used between mid-November to mid-March, but much will also depend on where in New Zealand your property is because of variances in climate.

What are my options?

Establishing a lawn can be done by spreading seed manually with a seed spreader at a minimal cost however, this method can cause the lawn to have sparse patches and another spreading of seeds may be required later on. Lawn by hydro seeding starts out as a combination of water, grass seed, fertiliser and protective mulch mixed together and sprayed onto prepared soil.

Although a cheaper option to a ready lawn, the same amount of ground preparation is required. The third option of a ready lawn is appealing for those who want an instant quality product rather than waiting for one to germinate from seed.

Employing the services of a good landscape specialist is invaluable because they not only know which type of ready lawn is best for your situation but can also prepare your site for the roll-out, do the laying and aftercare maintenance. The advantages of using a specialist are evident from the outset.

What sort of preparation is involved?

Most ready lawn suppliers provide pricing by ‘on-site quoting’ due to the uniqueness of each property, however, there are a couple that have pricing listed on their websites.

In this case, you will need to know the square meterage (multiply the length by the width) of your lawn space in order to calculate the cost of the ready lawn which is mostly sold by the square metre.

Taking into account, the house, out buildings, decking, gardens and pathways, the average urban property can take up to an estimated 90 square metres of lawn. Preparation of the site will depend on its existing state but at the very least perennial weeds will need spraying and then left to take affect for about three weeks, levelling the site as well as factoring in a good quality topsoil of 100mm – 150mm.

A large part of your cost can be in the site’s preparation and a challenging terrain may require machinery to perform the earthworks. However, it is important that this stage of the project is done correctly to ensure the ground levels are correct, including the topsoil so that the finished product will not be left with patches and ground depressions.

Although you can purchase ready lawn and lay it yourself, investing in the services of a landscape specialist is definitely worth it. They understand and can source a high-quality product (not all ready lawns are created equal) while ensuring it is correct for your situation.

And because there are landscape specialists who do the earthworks involved in ground preparation on the projects they are involved with, they can take it from the planning stage right through to its completion saving you the time and energy involved in dealing with different contractors.

Get in touch with Zones to discuss your landscaping project

If you would like to discuss grass options and ideas for your outdoor landscaping project, please use the enquiry form on this page to provide us with your contact details. We will get in touch with you at a time that suits you to discuss your landscaping design and build. If you would like to provide us with more information about your project, we have a more comprehensive enquiry form on our "Get in touch" page too.