Lawns of the Future

Phillip Ford from Northern Metropolitan Institute of TAFE, spoke to us about Lawns of the Future.

Phillips’ specialty is turf management and he has been training students from gold clubs around Victoria for the past 25 years. 

Phillip mentioned that domestic turf has suffered through the drought, but grassed areas have many benefits, including:

•   Soil erosion and dust control, trapping pathogens that cause disease
•   Water purification and cleaning polluted water
•   Soil amelioration, improving degraded soil
•   ‘Sink’ for effluent water
•   Slows peak runoff flow, prevents flooding.

In a domestic setting, lawns have a number of benefits, including:

•   Aesthetic value
•   Economic value of residence
•   Recreational value
•   Health benefits – physical and mental
•   Glare and noise reduction
•   Urban wildlife habitat
•   Temperature reduction – up to 9 degrees on a summer day

 Lawns also have the benefit of reducing the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect.  Phillip mentioned that many of the varieties of turf grown in Melbourne are not really suited to our conditions and suffer from moisture stress and heat stress – including bent, ryegrass, fescues and bluegrasses.

Much better suited to Melbourne conditions were varieties such as couch grass (his particular favourite being Santa Ana), Kikuyu, buffalo grass (particularly Sir Walter), zoysia and paspalum. These are C4 plants, and grow well on low water.  Once established, they can survive with no water and are easy to maintain. Phillip mention to kill couch grass in garden beds, the best product to us is ‘Fusilade’.

Phillip’s talk was extremely interesting and informative and Jane thanked him on behalf of the members for sharing his knowledge and expertise with us.