Lawn grass

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Inakappe
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Lawn grass

Post by Inakappe »

Hey guys,
Has anyone had any experience putting down (lawn) grass here in Japan.
Am interested but have never seen any seed floating around at the home centre and am just wondering how easy it is to do yourself.
The area I'm looking at is about 5m x 10m.
Also does anyone have a recommended grass type?

One last thing, for anyone who has a lawn, how easy/difficult is it to maintain? I have a lawnmower but am just wondering if the infamous weeds over here will take over and I'll be spending copious amounts of time weeding...

Any information appreciated!

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gonbechan
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Re: Lawn grass

Post by gonbechan »

depends on what you want, but there are lawn seeds available on Amazon
Your enemy is going to be your soil and drainage. But other than that, it is not that hard. Make sure you prep your soil well, add sand if the drainage is bad. Watch lots of how to prepare youtubes etc.

Go for a fescue or a bluegrass (Canada Green is also not bad) or a mix of all of those. Don't just buy the generic 'Western Lawn seed'

However, if you have dogs, then a small lawn like that is going to just turn into one large yellowspot so I would recommend going straight to clover only. Lol

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Zasso Nouka
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Re: Lawn grass

Post by Zasso Nouka »

We have two lawns, the one over by the cafe is an all Japanese variety bought as turfs from a local home centre, it copes well with the summer but goes brown in the winter. The lawn in front of our house was grown from seed and includes a variety of species including Kentucky Bluegrass and Fescue varieties. The bluegrass seems to handle whatever the climate throws at it but not sure if any of the Fescue survived or not.

So long as you keep mowing it weeds aren't really much of a problem, they get cut down before they can set seed so don't make it through from year to year.

As @gonbechan says pay attention to soil preparation at the beginning and that will pay off later on.

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Re: Lawn grass

Post by Ibaraki llama »

Just reiterating the above posts - soil prep is important, especially drainage. I’ve got a pretty big lawn by Japanese standards, about 400m2. I used two varieties of seed: perennial ryegrass and Kentucky bluegrass. The ryegrass grows fast and well but I’ve found it’s more susceptible to fungal disease than than the late germinating bluegrass. But I’d still recommend you mix some ryegrass in (around 10%).

I’ve mainly followed advice from YouTube lawn channels. Though they’re mostly American I’ve found the advice applies pretty much the same to Japan. It is a bit of work though - I do spot weeding and mow often - every 2-3 days whenever the grass is dry, as with all this rain it grows very quickly, but as zasso says, this helps kill weeds too.

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Eric in Japan
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Re: Lawn grass

Post by Eric in Japan »

I take a more natural approach to my lawn- I just keep it mowed fairly high, and grasses tend to outcompete most of the weeds. It looks (mostly) flat and green, better from afar but acceptable to me up close. It will never be a luxurious pad of dense, green, grass though. I'm ok with that. And the clover and dandelion are for the bees.

Not sure what home centers you might have near you, but Cainz home in our area has ryegrass seed in a 1kg bag, if that is something you are looking for.
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Re: Lawn grass

Post by Inakappe »

Thanks for the advice and suggestions all.
I will look up more on the internet regarding how it's done.
Regarding the soil, is there any kind that you recommend? And is it best just to pick up at a home centre or are there other alternatives to buying bulk?
Half of the area I have now is covered in weeds but the soil is pretty good but the other half is small stones which I'll have to get rid of and then fill in with soil. Any idea on how deep this soil should be?
Cheers again!

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gonbechan
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Re: Lawn grass

Post by gonbechan »

I think there is no generic how to for soil. It is more about prepping what you have.
Is there high clay content? Does it drain well? Are there spots that don't drain well.
There are some excellent youtube videos on how to prep various situations.
Have a dig around. I am betting they will help you far more than any one of us could.

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Zasso Nouka
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Re: Lawn grass

Post by Zasso Nouka »

This is just some general guidance, as Gonbechan says there is no single solution. You are looking to achieve something that drains easily so it doesn't get waterlogged but isn't so fast draining that it dries out easily. So are there any spots where water sits for a long time after rain or is it always dry and dusty.

Stones by themselves aren't bad if they are small and not too numerous but you don't want them near the surface where a lawn mower can flick them up into you when cutting the grass. If you feel there are too many sieve the soil down to about 15cm.

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KumamotoHunter
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Lawn grass

Post by KumamotoHunter »

gonbechan wrote:
Thu Jul 09, 2020 4:13 pm
depends on what you want, but there are lawn seeds available on Amazon
Your enemy is going to be your soil and drainage. But other than that, it is not that hard. Make sure you prep your soil well, add sand if the drainage is bad. Watch lots of how to prepare youtubes etc.

Go for a fescue or a bluegrass (Canada Green is also not bad) or a mix of all of those. Don't just buy the generic 'Western Lawn seed'

However, if you have dogs, then a small lawn like that is going to just turn into one large yellowspot so I would recommend going straight to clover only. Lol
Where do you buy clover, and what's it called in Japanese?

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gonbechan
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Lawn grass

Post by gonbechan »

You could buy on Amazon or rakuten. Just search for クローバーお徳用種子
That will usually get you white clover. The pink one is prettier and is called アカクローバー

Or you could go to a park and pick the seeds yourself.. which is what I originally did.

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