# Forum Home Renovation Landscaping, Gardening & Outdoors  Bunnings grass seeds any good?

## BLKWDW

Can anyone tell me if any of the grass seeds that bunnings sell are any good? After the excavation work in the backyard its left most of the grass in the yard dead and the ground is compacted that hard that no new grass can come through either. Havnt got heaps to spend so looking at cheaper options to buying turf rolls. It gets very hot during summer, very cold/icy during winter and has dogs and kids on it everyday also. 
What will also be the best way to break it up. Just simply get a shovel and or pick/hoe and go to town on the ground of use another method. I will be getting some nitro humus from work the throw on it as well so will mix it in when i do it.

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## chalkyt

Your climate is probably a bit like ours (and Canberra). Canturf (Canberra based) have good grass mixes that are very successful where we are at the foothills of the Snowy Mountains and sell them through most hardware stores around here. I have used their "Rough &Tumble", "Drylands" and "Sub-Alpine" mixes which are based on Fescue and Bluegrass. Just check to see if the mix you choose has clover... it establishes quickly but once you have it, you have it and it attracts bees (no good for kids in bare feet). Clover is a matter of personal choice, some like it and some hate it. 
If you go with a Bunnings mix, do some research about what seeds are included. My experience is that any "running" grasses like couch etc are a pain and they often brown off once the frosts hit. 
The soil needs to be broken up to at least 100mm. Pick/hoe is O.K. if you have a small area and/or plenty of time. otherwise a rotary hoe smashes it up quickly but does cost to hire unless you can borrow one. Topsoil and fertiliser gets things going quickly. With regular watering in the early days you should have the start of a lawn in about six weeks. I have found that once established, the Canturf seeds just go and go, especially with a bit of oversowing every now and then and apart from the first couple of months end up looking just as good as turf for a poofteenth of the cost.  
The blends I have used don't really make a 'lawn' but are more like a park grass. i.e. look O.K., low maintenance, and can take quite a beating from kids, chooks, people etc. Now is a pretty good time to get started as the weather is warming up and we should get some spring rains. Good luck!

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## Uncle Bob

It ok and it works here in Canberra. 
After using it here for  a year, you can't tell where I sowed it as its blended in (or the rest of my [S]lawn[/S] weeds have overgrown it  :Smilie:  )

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## BLKWDW

I was going to use this Lawn Seed Munns 2.5kg Emerald Kikuyu Ek2.5 I/N 2960314 | Bunnings Warehouse. The local turf supplier only has this brand of grass or the fescue grass. So does our local rural store.  
The emrald brand of kikuyu doesnt seem to be as invasive as the normal kikuyu

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## JB1

I should have taken a photo, coincidentally I had my front lawn area rotatory hoe'd this morning. 
Prob around 80sqm. I was looking to hire a large machine or small machine. I eventually found someone on Gumtree who did it in an hour with a dingo for $100! Cheaper than hiring large machine!  No way I was going to or could do it by hand as I have clay soil that is very compacted by excavators etc. 
Spent the rest of the day picking rocks off and putting 4 cu metres sandy loom on, will need another cu metre tomorrow before sowing some the seed. 
Also using Munns emerald Kikuyu. It should much better than the every invasive standard Kikuyu. I have standard Kikuyu in the nature strip, hard to keep under control and turns yellowish also. I'm going to throw some new  seed on it there too, no harm. 
How many sqm does the bunnings one cover? 
The seeds i have does 25sqm in each 50grams packet! But obviously I have to buy separate lawn starter fertiliser to mix the seed with.

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## chalkyt

I used (standard) Kikuyu in a past life and from memory a little seed goes a long way (especially if there is some wind about!) so I am a little "gun shy" when it comes to Kikyu. I notice that the blurb says that the Emerald is less invasive... how less is less? Certainly being a running grass Kikuyu is "self maintaining". The only way I eventually "controlled" it in a suburban setting (Sydney) was to co-plant with Buffalo which seems to become a bit more dominant eventually. 
For that reason I have stuck with seed in recent times, but we are basically using paddock grass for largeish areas around the house although it does make quite a good lawn and doesn't need much maintenance. "Drylands" seems to be a common name for this type of mix sold by a number of suppliers (some selling on-line). I understand that the idea of the mixes is to have both heat/drought and frost tolerant varieties so that they complement each other at different times of the year. Your local Rural Supplier should have a good idea of what grasses work in your area. 
We go from -10 degrees in winter to 30+ degrees and weeks (months?) of low or no rainfall in summer. Just when you think it has died, along comes a bit of rain and it all pops up again.

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