Pakistan Gardening Forum

AOA Members,

I am Sanjran Gichki from Panjgur Balochistan and this is my first post. I am very interested in gardening as per my experience i grow vegetables, maintain 4 acres of grapes fields, good knowledge of Date Palm(Kajjoor) because i produce alot of it but when it comes to Lawn Grass, think as if i am a naught(zero). for three years i have been trying to grow a good lawn but failing each year to produce one. this time through google i found Gardening Pakistan, hoping to seek better knowledge and getting suggestions from experienced seniors.

I am clearing the old area by digging around 1 feet into the soil and rooting almost every wild weed, so what i need help in is, how to form the soil to support my Bermuda Grass Seeds? I have mild intense climate, winters freezes to around -8 and summers shoot upto 45C. and my area is a drought hit barren area, means the alluvial soil (white Clay) is available no red soil( darya ki sorkh matti). so how to prepare my soil? and should i use natural fertilizer (cow dung) or other fertilizers as T.S.P or S.O.P or Potash?
Please Help me out please..

Walaikumassalam, kindly post some pictures of your lawn.. the area where you want to grow grass... let know how much sun it gets...

What types of weeds and grass is growing wild in your locality. For instance on roadside verges and non cultivated lands. If you can identify the wild species you may be able to source the nearest hybridised species for best results.

Is your grass seed source reliable?

Izhar@ My lawn gets full sun from sunrise to 4pm during summer and during winters it gets partial sun with half of it sun and half tree shades but yet partial.
Newton@ The weed i can't name it in english but i can define it, it has just like needle shaped leaves like grassy and same type of roots but it grows taller then my lawn grass and spreads rapidly. and its roots make a net into the soil, goes dormant during the winters and re-emerges with warm weather. And i ordered Bermuda grass seeds from Awan Garden Islamabad, 2000pkr per kg.

Actually My main question remains unanswered, How to prepare my soil? do i have to use natural fertilizer(cow dong) to give a better texture to my soil and make it less compact?? does it help to provide a better drainage capability to my soil?
Or should i just directly sow the grass seeds into the white clay and water it?

The basic reason grass fails is the short duration of direct sunlight it gets... now as you have mentioned about the duration, you can prepare the soil first, adding an inch of cow manure and mixing it in upper 4 inch of soil would give a good mix... if your soil is compact and clay type, then add 1 tablespoon gypsum per squarefoot area before adding cow manure... after mixing these things in soil, water it generously.. keep it moist for 30 days, pick any weeds which grow during this period.. It is recommended to not to use grass seeds, as they dont make a uniform lawn... rather buy actual grass and plant it in soil..

Izhar@ Thank you so much for you kind support. Just one thing. Is plaster of paris and gypsum the same? i searched every fertilizer/agro-chemical shops but non sell such thing. Actually i myself is an importer of fertilizers(Irani Brand) but i am confused now if plaster of paris and gypsum are the same.
if yes, can i use plaster of paris in soil? if we water plaster of paris it will change into a clumpy shape under the soil!!!!!
Please help me out one more time.
And sorry to bother you time and time again.

Gypsum is the hydrated form of Plaster-of-Paris... you can use it easily and it doesn't forms clumps... you have to mix with soil before watering it... BTW which fertilizers do you import?

Izhar@ Sorry for late reply due to not having internet connection which was cut during road carpeting work by FWO.. so today we got DSL

I ordered Gypsum from Awan Garden Islamabad, and now i have it. it has tiny stones(pebble) size of (rush,chips) in it. is it the same thing then?

And i import Urea, TSP, DAP, and Potash we used to import but due to some reasons nowadays we dont. All are Irani brand.

In addition to what has already been said I will advise you to spread 1/2 inches of saw dust along with 100 Gm of Urea for 100 Sq.Ft. mixing it well in upper 4 inches of soil.