Our Australian native’s plants are greatly desired overseas, and it is any wonder, they are tough, reliable plants that work and look wonderful in many garden styles. In the past Australian native plants have often been thought of as untidy, but with breeders producing new cultivars, there is now tidier, even tougher Australian Native plants suitable for every garden.
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Posted in Anigozanthos, Australian Native Grasses, Australian Native Plants, Australian Native Trees, Bottle Brush, Callistemon, Carpobrotus, Dianella, Dianella caerulea, drought tolerant, Flowering Native plants, frost tolerant plants, Landscaping, Landscaping Plants, Lomandra Longifolia, Native Grasses, Native Ground Covers, Native Hedging Plants, Native Instant Lawn, Native Shrubs, Native Shrubs and Ground Covers, Ozbreed
Tagged Australian native plant, best native plants, native plants, native plants in gardens
Get The Green Edge With Nara Native Turf
It’s hard to believe that the girl shown here kicking her soccer ball in the backyard is playing on a locally developed Australian turf grass. This lush, green lawn is Nara™, a form of Zoysia macrantha. It was bred in Australia to cope with local conditions.
As well as coping with the hot dry summers, Nara™ is a lawn grass for garden owners who don’t have time to lavish on lawn care. Given a minimum amount of fertiliser, Nara™ survives and remains green without needing constant mowing. With a more frequent fertiliser regime and regular water, it becomes greener and lusher.
Nara™ has resistance to most lawn diseases and its strong, dense growth helps keep it weed free. If it does develop a problem, products used to treat pests, diseases and weeds in couch can be used safely on Nara™.
Nara is one of a couple of Zoysia turf grasses finding favour in Australia. Another variety is Empire, a form of the closely related Zoysia japonica.
Versatile lawn
According to Todd Layt from Ozbreed who bred Nara™, it responds well to different levels of care. “Nara™ really is versatile,” says Todd. “It grows in most areas in half shade or full sun, with drought or wet conditions and can be mowed short or long. ” “Indeed we find it requires less frequent mowing than most of the traditional lawn varieties, particularly through summer,” he adds.
Fertiliser regime
The key to managing the variety lies in how much…read more
YALBA™ Imperata is a tough compact native grass with longer lasting feathery plumes
What can you say about this but wow. Not only is this Australian native grass gorgeous, but it’s as tough as nails. If you trim YALBA™ Imperata back at the right time, your landscape can have beautiful fluffy plumes for 4 to 5 months. The best time to trim is early March. Trimmed then, Yalba can be the real star of your landscape all winter. YALBA™ with the botanical name Imperata cylindrical ‘ICL200’, is best planted as a monoculture, as it spreads and will dominate anything else planted with it.
All this makes it brilliant at suppressing weeds, making large areas easy to look after. It usually gets up to 60cm high, which is much shorter than the common form, and grows, in just about any soil type including very poor soils. YALBA™ Imperata is super drought and frost tolerant, and Imperata cylindrical itself occurs in every state of Australia.
It’s foliage takes on a reddish tone in winter, which contrast brilliantly with the feathery plumes. It’s great on road sides, where it should be slashed once per year, in median strips, on slopes for erosion control, or for any large mass planted area for home or commercial landscapes. Maintenance of YALBA™ Imperata is really low and easy, provided you follow the care sheet.
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Nara, a variety of Zoysia macrantha is the first and only general purpose native instant lawn in Australia, and this beautiful lawn I am sitting on is Nara.
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Native plants are so popular in Australian gardening because they are so drought tough, easy to care for, and are just so well adapted. Well Nara is a great addition for all those who prefer natives. But that’s not the only reason you would buy Nara native turf. Nara has so many benefits its easy to see why so many people are now going native.
In drought studies, Zoysia macrantha was found to be more drought tolerant than Buffalo and Couch turf. Nara native turf also tolerates wet and humid conditions very well. Research proves it is far more salt tolerant than Couch, Kikuyu, Buffalo, and even all other types of Zoysia. It’s winter colour is better than exotic Zoysia types, and best of all Nara recovers well from wear damage, as it grows more quickly than all other Zoysia types. It is a low thatch variety of Zoysia meaning you can easily maintain it with any mower, and it will not get spongy on you, but best of all it needs far less mowing. Nara has moderate shade tolerance, coping with up to 40% shade.
The real appeal form Nara is in its beauty. When people first see it they can not believe it is a native lawn. People often say this looks so much better than other lawns.
Probably because it has a nice fine texture, and is such a pretty green colour. Carol from NSW said “The turf blends in to the surrounds very well. Being on acres, we didn’t want an artificial looking ‘turf’ as many of them are, rather something which blended in to the surrounding native grasses. Nara does the job very well.” Marlis form Queensland said “It has taken up so well. Very very hardy. Looks as green as everything. Very happy with its performance.” Marlies Bower, QLD
Nara Native turf has now been used on many large projects, and is proving easy to use. As with all Zoysia types it just cannot be planted in Winter in colder regions. In Queensland it seems warm enough to install all year round.
Now that Nara has proven itself to be a very reliable lawn, what are you waiting for? Go native.
Posted in Australian Native Grasses, Nara Native Turf, Native Grasses, Native Instant Lawn, Zoysia Nara
Tagged Australian native grass, Australian Native instant lawn, Australian Native instant lawn turf, Australian Native lawn turf, drought tolerant native turf, instant lawn turf, Nara Native Turf, native grass, Native Instant Lawn, Native instant lawn turf, native lawn for around native gardens, Native turf for general amenity areas, Native turf for homes, Native turf for lawns, Native turf for parks, Native turf for roadside, Ozbreed, Ozbreed Green Life, Ozbreed Turf, salt tolerant native turf, Turf with the highest salt tolerance, Watch this video
Choosing the right turf for your situation depends on a number of factors including, shade, desired maintenance, wear, salt, aesthetics, frost, available water, where you live and cost. Whether its soft leaf Buffalo grass, Kikuyu Turf, Couch lawn, or Zoysia, the right lawn can be matched to your conditions, whether you live in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, or anywhere else in Australia.
Here are a few quick guidelines to follow so you get an idea as to what might be the right turf for your situation.
For Shade:
If you have an area that has up to 40% shade then a Zoysia turf type will be suitable.
If you have an area that has up to 60% – 70% shade then a soft leaf Buffalo type will manage this nicely.
For Lowest Maintenance:
If you don’t have time to mow and edge, the slower growing, lower maintenance varieties of Soft Leaf Buffalos would suit.
Palmetto Soft Leaf Buffalo is the lowest maintenance popular Buffalo in Australia.
For even lower maintenance, one turf type well worth checking out is Empire Zoysia. Empire needs a third of the mowing of Kikuyu, half that of Couch and 30% less than Buffalo
For avoiding Pesticides:
If you really want to avoid using any pesticides while maintaining your lawn then all Zoysia types are highly resistant to lawn grub, particularly Army Worm and Web Worm.
For High Traffic:
If you have dogs or hard playing kids, (or both) then as well as wear tolerance, you need to factor in whether it will be in full sun or shade.
If your area is in full sun, look into Kikuyu turf and particularly Kenda Kikuyu as it has 4 times more underground growth than regular Kikuyu.
If your area is in both shade and sun, a buffalo type will be good. Sapphire Buffalo is the number one Buffalo in shade for wear. Not as wear tolerant as Kenda in sun, but it is lower maintenance and works in shade.
For Near Salt water:
If you live near the ocean or have a salt water pool, these are the best varieties.
In full sun to light shade, Nara Zoysia is far more salt tolerant than Couch, Kikuyu and Buffalo.
In shade and sun Sapphire Buffalo and Palmetto Buffalo will work well as long as the salt water is no higher than the average for pool salt water, these Buffalos are more salt tolerant than other Buffalos.
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Posted in Australian Native Grasses, Buffalo Turf, Choosing Turf, Lawn Care, Native Grasses, Turf, Zoysia Empire, Zoysia Nara
Tagged Adelaide, Army Worm, Australia, Brisbane, Buffalo in shade, Choosing the Right Turf, Couch, Couch lawn, Empire Zoysia, Kikuyu, Kikuyu Turf, Melbourne, Nara Zoysia, Palmetto Buffalo, Palmetto Soft Leaf Buffalo, resistant to lawn grub, salt tolerant Buffalos, salt tolerant turf, Sapphire Buffalo, soft leaf Buffalo, soft leaf Buffalo grass, Soft Leaf Buffalos, Sydney, the right lawn, the right turf, Web Worm, Zoysia, Zoysia turf
Add some flair to your design with YALBA™
Imperata cylindrica ‘ICL200’ PBR
YALBA™ is extremely tough and an incredibly beautiful Australian native ornamental grass.
Who’d have thought a grass could look so glamorous? Yalba’s fluffy plumes really are an eye catching feature for any landscape and can show for up to five months at a time (usually from April to August). Don’t be fooled though, this plant is much tougher than its fluffiness lets on.
Yalba is a dense, fast spreading grass and is much more compact than common Imperata grasses, with longer lasting and more prolific flowers. Another great feature is its reddish foliage in autumn and winter, with green foliage in the warmer months.
With its ability to out-compete weeds, Yalba is perfect for roadsides, median strips and large landscape areas, has excellent drought and frost tolerance, and tolerates poor soils.
Yalba is so competitive in an area that it out-competes Couch, Kikuyu, and most other weeds. You only need to mow it once each year or two after it is established and that’s it!
If any plant could ever be called bullet proof, I’d say Yalba is it. It’s also perfect for slopes and for erosion control as it strengthens the soil 5.45 times compared to bare soil.
With roadsides becoming difficult to maintain, a plant like this that can be mown any time of the year is just what the doctor ordered. Slash yearly, or every second year, and that’s it! …read more
Posted in Australian Native Grasses, Australian Native Plants, Native Grasses, Plants
Tagged Australian native ornamental grass, drought tolerant grass, fast spreading grass, fluffy plumes, for erosion control, for slopes, frost tolerant grass, Imperata cylindrica ‘ICL200’ PBR, Imperata grasses, large landscape areas, median strips, out-compete weeds, out-competes Couch, out-competes Kikuyu, reddish foliage, roadsides, strengthens the soil, YALBA
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