New turf in Perth: how to get through the first six weeks

This is the one people find out about too late.

Perth's two day a week sprinkler roster is nowhere near enough water for turf that hasn't rooted in. There is an exemption for newly laid lawn, and the timing of your application matters. You need to apply on the day the lawn goes in to get the full exemption period, which runs up to 42 days from planting between 1 October and 31 March, and up to 35 days between 1 April and 30 September. Apply late and you're only covered from that point on.

You can apply through the Water Corporation. Do it the same day, not the weekend after. Inspections do happen, and watering a new lawn outside the roster without an exemption is a fine you didn't need to pay.

Fresh turf has roots that stop at the bottom of the roll. It cannot reach moisture in the soil below, so the only water it gets is what you give it, and a hot Perth day will pull the moisture out of a roll in hours.

For the first stretch, the turf wants water several times a day rather than one long soak, because the aim is keeping the roll and the soil directly under it constantly damp. Water Corporation publishes a schedule with the exemption, and it's worth following rather than guessing. Broadly it starts at three light waterings a day and steps down as the lawn establishes.

Two things to watch for:

• Lift a corner on day three or four. The soil underneath should be dark and damp. If it's dry, your water isn't getting through the roll, which is common on hot days and sandy ground.
• Gaps between rolls are the first to go. Edges dry out faster than the middle. If you see the seams browning off and shrinking apart, you're behind on water.

No kids, no dogs, no wheelbarrows, no furniture. Foot traffic on unrooted turf pushes the rolls apart, creates hollows that never quite level out, and compacts sand that the new roots are trying to grow into.

Two weeks minimum. Three is better. It feels like a long time to look at a lawn you can't use, and it's the cheapest insurance in the whole job.

Around the two week mark, grab a handful of grass and pull gently upwards. If the roll lifts, it hasn't rooted and it needs more time and more water. If the leaf tears and the turf stays put, roots have gone into the soil and you're ready to mow.

First cut rules:

• Let it get a bit long first. Longer leaf means the plant is putting energy into roots as well as top growth.
• Set the mower high and take only the top off. Scalping a new lawn removes the growing points and pulls the rolls up.
• Sharp blades. Blunt blades will tear rolls straight out of the ground before they're anchored.
• Catch the clippings on the first couple of cuts.

Then take the height down gradually over the following mows rather than all at once.

Once it's rooted, the job changes. Instead of keeping the surface damp, you want to push moisture deeper so the roots chase it down. Fewer waterings, each one longer. This is what builds the deep root system that carries a lawn through a Perth summer.

By the end of the exemption you want the lawn on, or close to, the normal two day a week roster, watering deeply on each of those days. If you jump straight from three waterings a day to the roster with no transition, the lawn gets a shock, because its roots are still living in the top few centimetres.

There's more on how to make two days a week actually work in our Perth watering days guide.

Hold off on fertiliser until the turf has rooted in. Feeding grass that can't take anything up does nothing except sit on the surface.

Once it's away, Perth sand runs through nutrients quickly, so a new lawn benefits from a steady program more than one big hit. That's how our lawn fertilising and lawn aftercare programs are set up.

Here's the Perth specific one. If the sand your turf was laid on had gone hydrophobic before the rolls went down, water can run off it rather than soaking in, and you'll get patches that never seem to wet up no matter how often the retic runs.

If you're seeing water beading, or dry spots that stay dry while everything around them thrives, read why Perth sand repels water. A wetting agent early in the life of a new lawn is a small job that saves patches.

Apply for the exemption on day one. Water heavily and often for two weeks, keep everyone off it, do the tug test before the first mow, cut high with sharp blades, then stretch the waterings out and go deeper. Feed once it's anchored.

If you'd rather not gamble a pallet of turf on getting all that right, we lay it and we look after it afterwards. Have a look at lawn laying and turf installation, or tell us about the job through the quote form and we'll reply within one business day.