Grass for a full sun situation

[bigston]

Have some quite large areas that will be grassed..
from "your experiences "
which kind of grass is going to survive in a full sun situation
im not looking for a picture postcard looking lawn, but something that does the job and looks presentable as best can..
Thanks.

[PeteC]

We need to start with dirt first as no matter what type grass you use it will cook without good topsoil, or mediocre topsoil if you water it everyday, and to my knowledge water in HH becomes scarce at times.

I would put in at least 6" of good dirt, or 2-3 if you can find sod with at least 2-3 inches of dirt attached, which I've never found here. Sod here tends to be very thin with not much dirt attached at all, just wet grass roots when you unroll it. Subsequently if there is just junk fill dirt put in by the developer under it, it never really grows well at all and you'll spend most of your life trying to get it to grow.

Get and prepare the soil well and any type grass will do well, golf course thick type or the Thai favourite centipede grass. I've got both and the golf course type is in one small area of full sun and it's lush with very little watering. Good, deep top soil under it which holds the water.

The centipede type is on bad, terrible dirt and the only reason it's growing at all is because 15 years of mulched grass clippings have filtered down and improved the soil. Even with that it's a chore and takes a lot of water to keep it green and prevent bare spots developing.

[bigston]

Thanks Pete, the area has / is being prepared well , so that base is covered,
the golf course grass, one would expect it to flourish in full sun as there are acres of it around Hua Hin
do you know what variety it is
i think its called manila grass, or nor noi grass, from what dr google offers

[PeteC]

No, sorry. I'm not up to speed on the official/scientific names. I've just gone to the shops over the years and gotten what was available at the time. If you're Googling and what they show and name in their photos looks the same, it probably is one or both of the names you referenced. You could stop in to a course or two and ask at the office to ask the grounds keeper. The girls who run the desks can usually speak very good English, and could translate for you.

[handdrummer]

The gardener laid sod on our dirt patch and in less than a year, it was again a dirt patch. Soil and preparation are critical, if not, you can water day and night and still have nothing to show for it.

[PET]

We have built 3 houses over the last 15 years and all with large garden areas of between 0.75rai and 1.5 rai.
We have cleared the land and laid the top soil to about 5cm. We spray that soil with a Monsanto weed killer . Then we lay the whole area with turf, again about 5cm's high. We use a water well to water the garden, little use in the wet seasons but after a 5 day dry period we water for 10mins with the sprinkler, and in the dry season the sprinkler is on for 10mins every two days either early evening or morning .
That's it really we have never lost the grass but whenever weeds appear they are dug out from their .
So regardless of the size perhaps it is the amount of watering required

[HHTel]

I've obviously been very lucky. The ground was primed with around 50 or so trucks of top soil. Sods were laid on a very large lawn and 17 years later it's still good. My only complaint is that it grows too bloody fast!!

[bigston]

Thank all for your comments.