nathe, Author at Lawn Solutions Australia - Page 11 of 11

Author: nathe

Lawn Solutions Australia on Better Homes and Gardens

Posted on by nathe

Did you see us on Better Homes and Gardens? Jason Hodges presented a special feature story on turf farming and Lawn Solutions Australia.

The segment included:

  • A brief history of turf farming
  • How turf is cut and delivered 
  • Sir Walter DNA and Lawn Solutions Australia history
  • AusGAP Certification and the importance of choosing quality turf 
  • LSA’s Turfgrass research

Jason had a great time sharing his passion for lawn, Sir Walter in particular. Gavin Rogers from Lawn Solutions Australia, showed Jason our turf breeding and research facility, highlighting the emergence of new turf products for the Australian climate, including Sir Grange and TifTuf.

“The turf industry has gone from selling grass to selling lawns”, said Rogers. It sure has, and we love hearing from the many people across Australia who love their lawns just as much as Jason and everyone here at Lawn Solutions Australia.

Jason explains the difference between the turf varieties available and that his favourite is Sir Walter because it’s the best all-rounder. The DNA Certification of Sir Walter was highlighted and the importance of receiving what you pay for with the amount of substitution that occurs within the market. The DNA certification program ensures consumers are getting the real thing.

Gavin discussed with Jason the benefits of new turf varieties, Sir Grange and TifTuf. Sir Grange is a very popular grass in the world market today and TifTuf is also a very exciting variety recently introduced to the Australian market.

The turf industry has come a long way over the years, Jason says how his grandfather used to go out on the weekend with a spade and cut little pieces of turf for spending money. Shortly after, was the invention of push behind machinery and the eventual progression to the big automated harvesters that are used today.

Jason asked Gavin what we could look forward to in the future of turf in Australia – “Lawn Solutions Australia’s breeding and research program is focusing on finding varieties that are lower maintenance. Everyone wants a great lawn, but nobody wants to put the hard work into it, so we’re focusing very strongly on very low fertilising and watering requirements.” says Rogers.

Gavin’s three biggest tips to have a beautiful lawn –

  • Make sure you have the right lawn for your environment and lifestyle and the rest is pretty easy.
  • Do not overwater your lawn. Lawns only really need to be watered once a month and most of the time this should be covered by rainfall.
  • Lawns, like people, enjoy being fed. Feed your lawn around Easter, Spring time long weekend and end of February after a long hot summer.

Jason and the team came out to one of our turf farms for the shoot, here’s some behind the scenes shots from the day.

 

LSA LSA

Shhh… here’s how to disguise a maths lesson at home for the kids

Posted on by nathe

(Plus, colouring-in download as a reward below!)

The kids are at home which provides a great opportunity to use your home environment to assist with their learning. Learning area measurement by sitting in a classroom can be quite difficult, particularly if your child is more of a visual learner. Measuring shapes can be easier to comprehend when demonstrated in a physical space, your lawn for example. If you have a square, rectangle, circular or completely abstract shaped lawn, you can use maths to help work out the area. Knowing the size of your lawn will help with ordering turf if required or working out how much product is required to fulfill a particular application rate. Both very helpful skills to have. Plus, your kids don’t even have to know they are learning!

Calculating Area – Steps for your kids

  1. Get a piece of paper and sketch out the areas.
  2. Break up the areas into basic shapes such as squares, rectangles and circles. See our full list below.
  3. Measure each area and write down your measurements.
  4. Calculate how many square metres are in each area and add the totals together.

You can use our online turf area calculator below or see further down how to calculate these manually using some easy formula.

Online turf area calculator

Once you have measured each part of your lawn, our online turf area calculator will calculate the areas for you and total them together.

Calculating the area of different shaped areas manually

Once they have measured each part of your lawn, they can calculate the area of each shape manually using these easy formulae, not much beyond the simple arithmetic and geometry that they learn at school.

Although most of the necessary calculations are generally straightforward, read on to see how to calculate even the most difficult of shapes.

Square

How to lay turf - measuring squares of lawn

Measure one side of the square, then multiply it by itself (area = s x s)

Example – If the width of the square is 4 metres: 4m x 4m = 16m2

Rectangle or oblong

How to lay turf - measuring rectangle lawns

Measure the height and width of the square, then multiply them together (area = w x h)

Example – If the height is 4 metres and the width is 6 metres: 4m x 6m = 24m2

Triangle

How to lay turf - measuring triangle lawns

Measure the height and base, then multiply the height by half of the base (area = ½b x h)

Example – If the height is 9 metres and the base is 10 metres: 9m x 5m = 45m2

Parallelogram

How to lay turf - measuring parallelograms

Measure the height and base, then multiply together (area = b x h)

Example – If the height is 5 metres and the base is 8 metres: 5m x 8m = 40m2

Trapezoid

How to lay turf - measuring trapezoids

Measure the height and the top and bottom edges. Add the top and bottom edges together (b1 + b2). Divide this figure by 2. Multiple by the height. (area = ½ (b1 + b2) x h)

Example – If the top edge (b1) is 5 metres and the bottom edge (b2) is 9 metres, and height is 6 metres: 5m + 9m = 14m. 14 ÷ 2 = 7.   7 x 6 = 42m2

Circle

How to lay turf - measuring circles of lawn

d = diameter, r = radius Measure the diameter of the circle, then divide this by two to calculate the radius. Multiply the radius by itself, then multiply the total by 3.14. (area = r x r x 3.14) Example – If the diameter is 12 metres, the radius will be 6 metres; multiply 6 metres by 6 metres, then multiply the total by 3.14: 6 x 6 = 36. 36 x 3.14 = 113.04m2

Ellipse or oval

How to lay turf - measuring oval lawns

Measure the width and height of the oval, then divide each measurement by two to calculate r1 and r2 (area =r1 x r2 x 3.14). Example – If r1 is 3 metres and r2 is 5 metres: 3m x 5m = 15m. 15m x 3.14 = 47.1m2

 

Now that the kids have worked out the size of your garden, they can visualise how they would like their garden to look with this fun Colouring in downloadable pdf! Share your kids completed colouring in efforts in the comments on our Facebook page!

Printable Colouring in Pdf.