Published June 25, 2010

There’s nothing like stretching out on a soft, green patch of lawn on a sunny weekend afternoon.

The perfect lawn would be green all year round on less water, grow in sunny and shady spots, frost hardy, soft to lie on and won’t invade garden beds...

The patch of kikuyu in my backyard kind of fits the bill for some of the year, providing there is enough rain in spring/summer. But a few baking hot weeks in summer quickly transforms it to a brown crispy mat of dead leaves; similarly in winter, turning yellow after those first few frosts. I have a few mature Eucalypt trees on my side fence, the leaves/bark of which the kikuyu doesn’t particularly like, and as for invading garden beds...

Microlaena (“Weeping Grass”) is a native perennial grass that naturally grows in south eastern NSW, Victoria and Tasmania (also found in other states/territories), and is readily found around the Mudgee district. Select landscapers and native seed suppliers in Australia are now selling Microlaena seed for lawns.

Microlaena needs minimal water to stay green all year round, and naturally grows underneath Eucalypts, so shade is not a problem. It does have rhizomes (like kikuyu) but these are very short and slower growing, so you won’t get the invasion of garden beds. It’s a much softer grass than kikuyu and more drought tolerant than many of the conventional lawn species. Microlaena is very tolerant of acid soils.

There’s quite a bit of info online, just google “microlaena lawn” and see what comes up.

Active Watershed Landcare member, Christine McRae, has germinated a tray of Microlaena seeds to demonstrate at the upcoming Mudgee Small Farm Field Days. She will be discussing this grass and others in her talk on “Novel uses for native grasses” at 11.00am and 1.00pm on both days. We’ll have some info on suppliers of seed so you can source some ready for spring.

As preparation and establishment methods for Microlaena are similar to that of any lawn from seed – so you’ll also want to catch up with Richard Plummer from NSW Industry & Investment at 2.00pm on both days to see his talk on “Turf: Laying the groundwork for successful establishment”.