Nullarbor Couch Grass

Also known as Santa Ana Couch, Nullarbor Couch is a warm season couch grass that is made for dry, tough conditions. Thriving on sun and heat, Nullarbor Couch is bred for the Aussie backyard, preferring 6-7 hours of direct sunlight per day. It has been widely researched, evaluated and trialled for the past 40+ years across school grounds, sporting fields and home lawns across Australia, with impressive results.

With excellent drought and high wear tolerance, Nullarbor Couch boasts an attractive fine leaf blade and dense growth, making it a soft yet durable grass that can tolerate considerable traffic from kids, pets and sportspeople. If you want a lawn for high play areas, recreational grounds or to accommodate active kids and pets then Nullarbor Couch will deliver.

An aggressive grower via its above-ground runners, Nullarbor Couch can become invasive if not tended to with frequent mowing and edging around garden beds. While regular mowing will not prevent or halt invasiveness, you can apply a selective herbicide, such as RoundUp or Glyphosate, to minimise or eradicate this issue.

Nullarbor Couch can be mown very short (as low as 10mm) making it ideal for homeowners wanting a manicured lawn or for commercial use on golf courses and bowling greens. 

Luscious mid-green in colour, Nullarbor Couch can lose some of its vibrancy in winter but does have a short dormancy period. It will green up quickly once spring arrives, especially with regular fertilising.

Certified Australian Version of Santa Ana Couch Turf

Originally bred in the United States, this Californian hybrid variety of couch is marketed in Australia as Nullarbor Couch. Regardless of the name, this extremely hard-wearing, very dense turf with soft leaf texture and superior appearance when mown low remains an excellent all-round lawn choice.

All of our turf varieties come with a 10-year warranty for assurance you are buying quality turf grown to the strictest standards.

Nullarbor Couch is an instant turf variety, available in slab cut form. This makes the cost of installing far more economical. The price will depend on the variety selected, the size of the area needed to be covered and the soil preparation requirements.

At Coolabah Turf, the cost of Nullarbor Couch grass before installation is between $11-$15 per square metre. 

Instant turf is one of the most affordable ground covers for any budget or high end landscape project. When you order your Nullarbor Couch from Coolabah Turf you know it’ll be cut fresh from our northern Victorian farms,  and delivered to you within 24 hours of harvest. 

For an exact price on how much it will cost to install Nullarbor Couch in your backyard, contact one of our friendly Coolabah instant turf professionals.

Watering is an important part of a lawn maintenance program. While all lawns need water to survive, some require more or less depending on whether they’re a warm or cool season grass. There are other factors that decide irrigation frequency, including your climate, soil type, soil depth and whether your lawn is newly installed or established.

New lawns will need to be watered more frequently while they’re still establishing. If you’ve just installed Nullarbor Couch in your yard, make sure you keep a close eye on the turf to ensure it doesn’t dry out and shrink before its roots get a chance to take hold in their new environment.  Once your lawn is established, we recommend you irrigate more deeply, but less frequently to train roots to grow deeper and improve drought tolerance and nutrient uptake.

Nullarbor Couch has excellent drought tolerance. For this reason, you won’t need to water it as often as other lawn varieties. Once established, you can maintain Nullarbor Couch with deep, infrequent watering. Early morning is the best time to water Nullarbor Couch as this will give the roots a chance to absorb all that water before it can evaporate. Watering may need to be increased during prolonged dry spells.  Keep an eye on it, and if it appears dry or wilted give it a good soak. Otherwise, Nullarbor Couch will often thrive on rainfall alone.

Check out our Seasonal Guide to Watering Instant Turf for great tips on watering your lawn year-round.

Mowing your instant turf frequently gives your lawn the best chance to stay green and healthy year-round. Some turf varieties will need more mowing than others, depending on their growth habit. Nullarbor Couch is an aggressive grower, known to become invasive if left untamed. While mowing will not prevent or halt invasiveness, an application of a selective herbicide, such as Roundup or Glyphosate, will do the trick.

We recommend mowing Nullarbor Couch weekly to fortnightly during the warmer months. In the winter months, mowing can be decreased to every two weeks – though you may not need to mow at all until spring. 

Nullarbor Couch can be mown very short (as little as 10mm). For overall maintenance, mowing at a height of 15-30mm will keep it happy. During the cooler months, raise your mowing height and clear any leaves to give your couch the best chance to absorb sunlight and nutrients.

Prior to mowing, make sure your mower blades are sharp to prevent leaf tear. A cylinder mower will give you the best results when mowing Nullarbor Couch.

Nullarbor Couch will give you vigorous growth when fertilised regularly. Generally speaking, you should fertilise Nullarbor Couch 2-3 times a year. More applications may be required depending on your soil type, wear and tear and expectations for how you want it to perform.

Your basic guide to fertilising couch grass is as follows:

• Before installation
  We recommend first using a starter fertiliser, such as LSA’s Lawn Launcher, prior to installing your Nullarbor Couch. This will help to prep your base and kickstart your turf growth. From there, follow up with a good all-rounder fertiliser 5-6 weeks after installation.

• Summer & Spring
  Fertilise your Nullarbor Couch in early spring with LSA’s Premium Lawn Food..  An application of fertiliser may be required over summer in high traffic areas.

• Autumn & Winter
  Fertilise in mid to late September to green up after winter. Provided your lawn remains healthy and has adequate irrigation, you’ll likely only need a second application of fertiliser in February to carry growth into the cooler months. We recommend using LSA’s Premium Lawn Food.

Irrigate your lawn immediately after fertiliser to prevent leaf burn. Another word of caution: avoid pre-emergent herbicide fertilisers like Oxafert for Nullarbor grass. You should only use Pendi Pro on a couch lawn for a preventative herbicide/fertiliser product.

You can find a great range of lawn fertiliser and products in our online shop.

Choosing a pet-friendly lawn will make life easy all around and will mean that even if your best friend makes a mess, your lawn will continue to soldier on! Luckily, couch grass – particularly Nullarbor Couch – is loved by dogs and pets! Once established, Nullarbor Couch can tolerate active pets (and kids!) and maintain its bounce and vibrancy year round. Unless your dog is digging holes, your Nullarbor Couch will self-repair quickly if subjected to wear and tear, and urine burns.

Even though Nullarbor Couch is wear-tolerant and can handle stress caused by pets, like all lawns, it still needs some TLC! Protecting your lawn from pets will keep it as healthy as possible. A tip to make your Nullarbor Couch more pet friendly is to train your dog to use one corner of the lawn for its business. This will prevent your entire lawn from being inundated with faeces or patches caused by urine burn. For digging dogs, you might want to install a small sandpit where you can bury toys and treats. These healthy pet habits will further protect your lawn and ensure it stays lush and vigorous!

If your dog has caused substantial damage to your Nullarbor Couch, simply replace the bare area with a couple of pieces of turf. We provide instant turf in slab cut form for easy replacement.

One of the best features of Nullarbor Couch is its rapid, dense growth. But this can also be a drawback. While its growth habit means Nullarbor Couch is quick to repair if damaged, it also means it’s quick to spread! When left untamed, Nullarbor Couch will produce runners that will invade garden beds and encroach upon the garden. 

Couch grass is a naturally invasive turf variety. It has a creeping root system and horizontal growth habit. For this reason, you’ll need to regularly maintain it to prevent spreading. To stop your Nullarbor Couch from taking over, we recommend regularly maintaining it with a whipper snipper or applying a Roundup or Glyphosate product to stop it spreading into garden beds, sandpits or between pavers Mow your Nullarbor Couch lawn with a cylinder mower. The best part about Nullarbor Couch is it can be mown very short – down to 10mm. This will promote healthy plant density to help it self-repair more effectively.  If runners have already taken over your garden beds, you can pull them out by hand or use a spade to sever it off.

If you’re planning on installing Nullarbor Couch on your property, it’s best practice to avoid doing so near garden beds. Otherwise, be prepared to put a little bit more work into your lawn.

Couch grass for most months of the year boasts an impressive  mid-green hue, and looks fantastic in residential properties. Nullarbor Couch is a warm season grass so it will go through a period of dormancy during winter. It’s during this time that your couch grass may discolour to varying degrees. This may vary from year to year, depending on what Mother Nature dishes out from one season to the next and also depends on how well the lawn is managed. A healthy lawn going into winter will be better equipped to cope with the onslaught of seasonal cold snaps and it will also bounce back quicker on the other side once warmer spring temperatures return.  The good news is you can keep your lawn looking green all winter long with applications of fertiliser and a product such as ColourGuard. It’s like a quick makeover for your backyard! 

ColourGuard is available from Coolabah Turf’s online shop. It can be used on all lawn  varieties, including Nullarbor Couch.  Simply attach the bottle to your hose if you have chosen to use the RTU formula or mix the concentrate with water in a pressure sprayer and apply to your lawn as directed.