Best turf for Southern Highlands

If you live in The Southern Highlands and you’re looking to purchase turf, you’ll be pleased to know that all of the varieties we offer are suitable for the cool climate of The Southern Highlands.

When deciding on which variety will be the best turf for the Southern Highlands, it’s important to understand that each variety has different strengths and weaknesses.

The right variety for your Southern Highlands home will not necessarily be the one that is the best equipped to handle the cold temperatures of the Southern Highlands.

How to find the best turf variety for Southern Highlands:

To find the right one you should consider which variety is most suited to your personal needs and preferences. This will be more important to the health of your lawn than the ability to withstand sub-zero temperatures.

To determine this, you first need to ask yourself the following questions:

• How much traffic and wear will the area I want to turf receive?
• Does the area have a lot of shade or is it mainly in the sun?
• Do you have a pet that will be using the lawn?
• What will the lawn be used for?
• How much time and energy do I want to put into lawn care?

 

Use our online turf variety comparison tool

Once you’ve answered the questions above, head over to our turf variety comparison tool
where you can apply filters to find the turf variety best suited for your yards environment.

Using our tool the varieties can be filtered by:

• Shade tolerance
• Wear tolerance
• Low maintenance
• Drought tolerance
• Heat tolerance
• Weed resistance
• Pest resilience
• Low fertilisation 
• Best performance
  

Best turf varieties for a cool climate

If you did any research on turf for cold climates, you may have come across the term “cool season” and “warm season” when referring to grasses. So what’s the difference?

Warm season grasses: Best turf for the Southern Highlands

Here at Cobbitty, we only sell warm season grasses as we believe they will provide the best results for all of our customers, even those looking for turf in the Southern Highlands.  

Warm season grasses require less watering, have the ability to withstand more wear and Warm Season Grasses can self-repair quicker than cool season grasses. This is because cool season grasses don’t have runners, which means if they die off in places, they need to be replanted in the damaged areas . Warm season grasses will normally grow back over a damaged area.

Our warm season grasses include varieties such as Sir Grange, Sir Walter DNA Certified Buffalo, Tiftuf and Eureka Kikuyu. All of our warm season turf varieties grow well in the Southern Highlands, provided that you choose one well suited to your conditions. 

When it comes to the best turf for sub-zero temperatures, we typically recommend TifTuf and Sir Grange, however, as mentioned above, the ability to withstand the cold shouldn’t be your main point of consideration when choosing a variety. 

For example: If you have a backyard that has a lot of shade we would recommend Sir Walter DNA Certified Buffalo over Tiftuf, even though Tiftuf performs better in the cold. This is because the overall performance of Sir Walter DNA Certified Buffalo would be superior in this situation. 

While warm season grasses do brown off over winter, this can be easily fixed with a simple application of colour guard prior to the first frost. 

Warm season grasses for the Southern Highlands:

• Require less watering in summer to keep them green so they are environmentally/drought friendly
• Put out runners and self-repair during growing season
• Can tolerate wear, (each variety has different strengths) 
• They can be kept green throughout winter with an application of colour guard PLUS

 

Cool season grasses:

Cool season grasses can stay green all year round, however they require a lot of watering in summer to keep them green. As a country that is regularly in drought, most people will need a variety that is more drought tolerant than any of the cool season grasses allow for.

When growing, cool season grasses don’t put out runners or self repair. As a result they typically can’t withstand a lot of traffic or wear and any damage that does occur has to be repaired by re-turfing. Because cool season grasses are slow growers, any damage that does occur can take a long time to repair.

Cool season grasses for the Southern Highlands:

• Are not drought tolerant, so they are not environmentally friendly
• Grow differently, unlike warm season grasses they don’t put out runners.
• Grow much slower than warm season grasses
• If they get damaged they don’t recover, you have to re-turf them to repair the damage
• They don’t wear as well as warm season grasses

So, the general advice when looking for turf in the Southern Highlands is that while warm season grasses will go brown in winter, they don’t require the large amounts of water that cool season grasses would need to survive in summer. Warm season grasses will self-repair in growing season making them the environmentally friendly choice.

Lawn Care Tips for The Southern Highlands:

Once you’ve chosen a variety that’s suitable for your situation, keep your lawn green and healthy using the following tips:

Fight off frost

Frost damage is one of the most commonly seen issues in turf in the Southern Highlands in the cooler months. Caused by the grass leaf becoming colder than the surrounding air on cold clear nights, frost causes the leaf blades to lose their colour.

Although frost will send your lawn brown, the damage will rarely kill the turf as it almost always recovers with the return of warm weather. While your turf will recover from frost without any intervention, you can minimse the damage done during a frost by staying off the affected area and irrigating the frost off the grass blades.

Read our full article on how to care for your lawn during the frosty season

Keep your lawn green with Colourguard

To prevent your lawn from browning due to frost damage and dormancy, we recommend using a natural turf colourant such as ColourGuard prior to the seasons first frost. ColourGuard is both a robust blend of vital micro nutrients with an organically derived pigment and fertiliser that will improve both the appearance and health of your lawn.

To find out more about colourGuard, read our article or purchase it through our lawn store.

Know how to mow correctly

Mowing may seem simple enough but there’s a bit of science behind mowing your lawn to ensure proper growth, thickness, drought tolerance and health are maintained.Brush up on your mowing skills by reading our complete guide to mowing. Get in the habit of following a lawn care schedule

Get in the habit of following a lawn care schedule

Buy turf for the Southern Highlands

Are you ready to buy the best turf for the Southern Highlands? All of our varieties are backed by a 10 year warranty. 

With every turf purchase, no matter how big or small, you will be issued with a Lawn Solutions Australia Certificate of Warranty. This certificate is your guarantee that you are receiving genuine Certified Turf.

As a member of the Lawn Solutions Australia house of brands, your purchase of turf will also be covered by our nationwide warranty.

Need help choosing the best variety for your situation? Get in touch with one of our friendly team members today!

Call: 02 46510000

Or 

Fill out our contact form to have one of our team members get back to you to answer any questions you may have.