Planting Philippine Grass

When the renovation was completed, The Garden was a load of mess... Stones, wood, steel and just loads of renovation rubbish of miscellaneous stuffs.


A total of 6-7 trucks were needed to clear it.  Indonesians were employed to clear the rubbish.


The plan was to plant some grass.


So, I went to Sg. Buloh to shop around for grass and Philippine Grass was an obvious choice due to its hardiness, ample supply and beauty.  Japanese Grass could have been a choice except that it would cost 3 times more.  Cow Grass was cheaper but not as nice as Philippline Grass. 


A truckload of 10 tan fine sand was purchased from the local hardware store and it was laid on The Garden.   It took a Bangladeshi, an Indonesian and myself to get the job done - 1.5 days.  Not bad.  Hard work, though.

The "Empty Canvass" after cleared of rubbish and weeds

Philippine Grass laid out 1 x 2 sq ft - Price range from 

RM1.30 to RM2.50 per pc, depending on where you purchase

Grass is best when it has roots coming out but its rare.  They usually sells them

off early

 Grass nicely laid.. In total about  700 pcs of 1 x 2 sq ft was planted.

If you would like to plant your own grass rather than getting the landscapers, this are just a few tips from my own experience...

1. Clear your land of grass. A few ways to get rid of them.  (a) Overturn the ground  (b) weedkiller  (c) lay plastics/newspapers/cardboard boxes on the grass till it dies.  Could be weeks.  So plan ahead.
2. When ready, purchase fine sand from the local hardware shop.  A 10 tan truckload cost between RM420 to RM500.  Preferably buy a little at a time.  Especially if you have a small garden.  They also sell by, "per scoop".  That sounds deceiving but its quite a large amount.  Get the advice of your local hardware store, maybe they can help on the amount.
3. Lay the sand and let it stand for a few days.  If not, you gotta manually press it down  (like me.)  Landscapers has the equipments to do that.  I had to roll my empty gas tank and occasionally jump on a large piece of 16 x 16cm tile. Watering it also helps the sand to 'go down'. Some creativity using unconventional ways were required.  That job was largely mine, while the Bangladeshi and Indonesian laid the grass.
4. Peel the grass from the plastic, lay it and knock it down with something... like a piece of wood or something flat.
5. After laying it, make sure you water it sufficiently - almost like flooding it.  Reason being that it still has no roots, so, watering 3 times a day is necessary for the 1st few weeks and preferably a month.
6. Before laying the grass, put some fertilizer on  top of the sand.  Fertilize the grass every 3 days to 1 week with Urea (white color).  This will keep the grass vibrant green rather than yellowish green.
7. Lastly but not least, pull the weeds.

One of the disadvantage of having lawn rather than tiles is clearing weeds.  It takes loads of hardwork.  Every other day, I squad down and pull weeds.  Its exercise but then again... I do have better things to do.


But.


I have a brilliant plan.  From now onwards, if  The Boy and The Teenage Son misbehaves, their punishment would not be, "Go to your room", but instead, its gonna be, "Go and pull weeds for 30 mins / 2 hours!"


Am I clever or am I clever?