The Pond Professor's Book

• Buy for $21.00
• More info

Water Gardening

• Mini articles
• Articles list
• Gazette articles

Get a beautiful green lawn with Focus Grande Lawn Seed

"Focusing On Gardens"

Back from holiday in USA for 3 weeks  ... down to business again. This newsletter bit longer than normal.

The Focus Garden Products On-Line Store Is Now Open click here

1. "Water Gardens Gazette" .... Name Change and Gardening In General

2. Lawn seed and making the right choice

3. Removing a common pond pump hassle

4. Why you should not not use gravel on bottom of a pond

5. Free Offers and Admin section

1. Name change and more about gardening in general

There are 3 ideal components within any good and modern garden ...

The Lawn as a centre-piece and relaxation area

The Plants including shrubs and trees for colour, wind and sun protection, height and width perspectives

The Water Feature for movement, sound and wildlife attractions

Remember what Peter J May says .... "To have the sight and sound of water near them in a garden has been an almost instinctive urge to people of all cultures in all ages. Now as then, the beauty of reflection, the relaxing sound of moving water and the life that it attracts make the water garden as desirable to many people as a lawn or patio." 

These components should work in harmony and each face their own challenges. Consequently these are the subjects that will be covered in future and not just the single aspect of water gardening and pond keeping. For this reason I have changed the name from "Water Gardens Gazette" to "Focusing On Gardens"

If you have any suggestions on what else you would like to see covered do please email me at suggestions "Focusing On Gardens" ... just click and complete

2. Lawn seed and making the right choice that will create a year round green carpet to compliment your water feature

In South Africa the grass of choice for very many years was kikuyu although it suffered from many disadvantages ...

Very greedy feeder and fast grower causing lots of mowing to be done

Not evergreen and went dormant and yellow in Winter

Created thick thatch (that springy feeling when you walked on it)

Extremely invasive to parts of garden where grass should not grow

Did not grow in shade or under trees

Pale yellowish green colour

Could not be planted from seed

Not too long ago a species of grass started to find its way into our country and this type of grass was generically referred to as Tall Fescues. These grass varieties and there are well over 100 distinguish themselves by the following ...

They are evergreen so stay nice and green in our winter months

They are able to grow in full sun and of course for us this is critical

Some are able to be grown in heavy shade as well as full sun and under large trees because they have deep root systems

The appearance and colour was far better than kikuyu

Easily grown from seed making it possible for anybody to easily get a beautiful lawn at low cost

There was one disadvantage of all the tall fescues though .... none could repair damaged patches and such areas had to be re-seeded

During the period 2000 to 2003 Focus started to promote a range of tall fescues to the trade by importing the seed from Australia (via USA) until we discovered a brand new development in Tall Fescue grass seed cultivation. In 2002 the very first and unique Tall fescue called Grande was released in the USA to the market ... this was a vastly superior Tall Fescue grass to others and had a property that no other Tall fescue grass had ... it could repair itself by rhyzomous spreading.

This grass seed was called Grande (pronounced Granday).

I immediately discontinued the Australian inferior seed and packaged Grande under my own Focus brand name. Here's relevant information on the product just as you can read it on the box in which it is sold

Focus Grande the original Turf-Type Tall Fescue with Beneficial Rhyzomes

Focus Grande brings South African marketed turf type tall fescues to a new level.

Tall fescues are well known as excellent low maintenance turf grasses that perform extremely well in dense shade and sunny areas. They are evergreen and need far less water than Kikuyu type grasses.

To date the main problem with high quality tall fescue shade grasses sold in South Africa and all over the world including those previously sold by our own company, Focus Garden Products, has been a very slow ability (if any) to repair bare spots. Just like Focus Grande these products have shown excellent shade and sun tolerance however in the real garden environment where children play and dogs run the lack of self repairing ability was a significant disadvantage for any discerning consumer.

A luscious dark evergreen Focus Grande lawn seed is your perfect choice for all gardens with heavy shade, full sun or a combination of both and is suitable for planting in all parts of South Africa.

Focus Grande is endophyte-enhanced giving it natural resistance to many surface feeding insects such as army worms and aphids. This means less use of pesticides.

Grande first discovered in 1994 and was granted its Plant Variety Protection Certificate (PVP) in April 2000 verifying the varietys distinctness from other tall fescue varieties. A major reason was its unique ability to produce rhizomes and therefore become self-repairing. Focus Grande has been shown to produce rhizomes on up to 67% of the plants grown from seed within 12 weeks after planting. Focus Grande was the worlds first commercially available tall fescue seed with this major advantage.

IMPORTANT: 3 STEPS TO A BEAUTIFUL GREEN LAWN

1. Prepare the ground by making the soil as fine as possible

2. Add the Focus water retention granules and Phostrogen Slow Release fertilizer blend (inside the box of Grande when you buy it) to the soil, rake in to top 2 to 3 cm of soil and only then 3. Spread the seed evenly and follow the recommended spread rate .. more seed is not always better. By following the instructions you will be adding about 16,000 seeds per sq metre of new ground. The idea is to ensure good contact between soil and seed.

HOW TO PREPARE THE GROUND

1. Rake the soil to create evenly sized soil particles (the finer the better)

2. Evenly spread the water retention granules contained in the separate bag inside the box

3. Rake this blend into top 2 to 3 cm of soil and level the soil again

4. Create shallow furrows by using a rake gently in one direction only

5. Broadcast the seed evenly the simplest way is to take this box or a similar one and puncture the sides with holes big enough to allow the seed to come out when the box is shaken. There is no need to use any kind of mechanical spreading device.

6. When finished rake the seed gently into the top soil by raking in the opposite direction to previously in order to get good seed coverage with soil.

7. Whilst the water retention gel will assist moisture retention during germination do not allow the soil to dry out .. keep it moist in the upper surface at all times during the germination period.

Future Maintenance

All tall fescue lawns prefer to have a leaf height greater than 5 cm (2 inches) and even higher in stress situations like drought. Remember this when you mow your lawn. Do not set the blades too low and especially for the first few cuts while the lawn is becoming well established.

Fertilise regularly using soluble fertilizers like Phostrogen Lawn Food do it the easy way with a hose end feeder. Just add the Phostrogen lawn food to the Handy Feeder attach to a hose pipe and spray.

Caution: do not ingest the white polyacrylamide granules

Grande is the worlds first tall fescue to develop self repair properties through rhizome development

Use Focus Grande and

Be successful

Save Money

Save Time

Save Water

Save Effort

No bare patches . Because it spreads beautifully to cover naturally. A product of the 21st century

Tony Roocroft, the owner of Focus Garden Products, reports that of all the new products the company has introduced over the last 10 years Grande is the most exciting. Grande is the very first tall fescue lawn seed that will succeed in dense shade, full sun and in play areas where the need to cover bare patches without reseeding is important.

Add the benefits of this high purity seed to those of the highly acclaimed Phostrogen brand of fertilizer and the well tested polyacrylamide water rention aid and the product is truly one of the 21st Century as well as being one that will make you the envy of the neighbourhood says Tony

Grows well in the shade of High walls, Large and tall trees,Even in the shadow of Table Mountain

Buy Phostrogen Lawm Food here

3. Removing a common pond pump hassle

Most pond pumps have a drawback ... and that is the sponge on the suction side that needs cleaning frequently to make sure the pump flow rate is maintained. This sponge is installed into most pumps to protect the impellor from damage that could be caused if a stone or twig got sucked into the pump. Since the impellor is rotating at high speed any contact with the impellor could seriously damage the rotating device. This is the basic reason why impellors are rarely guaranteed by any pump manufacturer.

The sponge serves no other useful purpose (with exception that it does create a small area for beneficial bacteria to grow on). Sorry I tell a lie .... when you use a pump to give a sprinkling type fountain in a pond the sponge also reduces the incidence of the fountain nozzles blocking up due to small particle getting trapped in the fountain nozzles.

Well now I have very good news for South African pond owners .... for almost 12 months in my own garden I have been testing a brand new range of pumps from my Italian manufacturer that do not need a sponge at all. In the total test period I have only cleaned out the new pump once. This gave me the confidence to introduce the range to the market and the first batch of pumps is about to arrive. Below is a picture of what the design looks like along with more information on performance. We call the series "Easy Jet" Pond Pumps to reflect the absence of hassles experienced with most other pumps (including those I sell at present which have sponges installed).

This range of pumps has been made possible by major improvements in impellor design using modern materials of construction that can handle "collisions" with small size solids without increasing power consumption and without breaking ... called vortex impellors. In summary the new pumps are ...

Far more robust and guarantee has been increased form 2 to 3 years

Design is extremely user friendly and modern in appearance and function

Pump has swivel outlet this outlet can be rotated through 90 degrees so that flow can come out of side if necessary instead of the top as is conventional

Head and Volume flow performance is superb

Power consumption is minor

Flows up to 5,000 litres per hour are made possible (my range at present only goes up to 4000 lph)

One model comes equipped with an underwater spotlight built in as an optional extra

To see full details and on-line prices for these pumps click here

You will be able to buy these pumps at great prices on-line next week ... click here  when first batch arrives from Italy. Ring Brenda or Pauline if you would like to reserve one on 011-454-0105

4. Why you should not not use gravel on bottom of a pond

In any pond at any time there are a range of bacteria present. These bacteria are consuming waste products to survive. Some need oxygen to survive ... called aerobic bacteria and others do not. The latter are called anaerobic bacteria. In our pond we want lots of aerobic and preferably very few anaerobic ones since the latter tend to be involved with infections and unpleasant smelly situations.

If you have ever walked through the mud in a natural pond you will have noticed a sulphurous type smell and this would have been the result of anaerobic bacteria living in the mud (no oxygen there) and they metabolise using sulphur compounds amongst others.

It makes sense therefore to create garden ponds to avoid or at least limit the possibility of creating stagnant areas where these anaerobic bacteria can live and multiply.

Now consider a pond which has got gravel on bottom (like you would see in an aquarium) and ask yourself what happens to any food or fish excretions that settle down into the bottom of the pond ... yes of course they work their way down through the gravel where they build up in the absence of oxygen since no fresh water containing oxygen can reach these dead spots. These regions become breeding grounds for anaerobic bacteria. All sorts of problems can occur as a result.

In the early days of pond keeping gravel bottoms were popular because there was not a full understanding of what happens in ponds and the "technology" was based upon aquarium knowledge. The point about aquariums is that it is easy to vacuum the gravel using a minitiature vacuum pump ... in a pond this cannot be done.

In koi ponds great trouble is taken to ensure nothing stays on bottom of ponds through the use of bottom drains to minimise anaerobic bacteria possibilities. Removal of debris this way is for appearance reasons of course too. Because of the need to avoid anaerobic bacteria in pond water is a reason why sand filters are very bad for any type of pond ... dead anaerobic spots are inevitable in a sand filter.

If you already have gravel on your pond bottom then do yourself a favour and get rid of it before you create problems. The best time to do this now before water temperatures increase.  ( Southern hemisphere of course)

Information on Alfagrog ... use Alfagrog to improve the biological performance of ANY garden pond filter. Just replace plastic balls or tubes or whatever else might be in your filter with a small amount of Alfagrog.

Without getting too technical this means that 1 litre of Alfagrog can hold the same amount of bacteria as 200 litres of plastic tubes. In other words a box using plastic tubes needs to be 200 times bigger in volume than one containing Alfagrog to get the same biological performance.

Alfagrog looks a bit like cinders, it is lightweight, comes in different sizes and you can literally blow through it because it is so porous.

"The Complete Pond Solver" by Tony Roocroft

2004 Edition. Essential reading for anybody who wants or has a garden pond. Get 12 Excel pond calculators free as well as "Water Lilies and Pond Aquatics" ebook also free

Learn More

NEW REPRINTED AND IMPROVED VERSION "The Perfect Pond Recipe Book" Unique DIY Book and Manual by Peter J May ... I am pleased to provide this space for Peter who has helped myself and my readers so much over the years. I fully endorse this book. I first got it around 1995.

Do take a closer look at Peter's book and information Click here and go to Perfect Pond Recipe Book Page

5. Free Offers and Admin section

"Introduction To Pond Keeping"  ... Free? ... Get the most out of your pond this Spring and Summer ... download the free 25 page booklet "Introduction To Pond Keeping"

Bona fide web masters and web site owners who have a genuine interest in helping people succeed in pond keeping are welcome to publish articles from these Gazettes subject to one simple condition. Please include in the opening to the article the following link. All you need do is copy these 2 lines of code and paste into your HTML

"http://www.practical-water-gardens.com/"

All you need to know about water gardens, ponds, pumps, bio filters and UV lights

This code will show as follows on your web page .... All you need to know about water gardens, ponds, pumps, bio filters and UV lights

Please help others

Your friends can subscribe too. Send them a copy of this Gazette and ask them to  click here

unsubscribe by sending this e mail click here

Take a look at becoming a Dial Direct affiliate ... it takes a minute or so to apply. Or at the very least save yourself some money on your insurance policy by clicking here, learn a lot more then go and fill in the form ...

(c) copyright 2003 - 2004 Tony Roocroft, All rights reserved.

New Focus Garden Products On-Line store for range of gardening products & really useful information

Download FREE copy of Introduction to Pond Keeping  This is pdf file, 25 pages Right click above save to your hard drive Contact us 011-454-0105  email ... meshord@global.co.za  Download pdf report about Nexus and The Answer by William Kelly ... important for serious koi keepers and those with large fish ponds. Right click and select Save Target As ... Take a look at becoming a Dial Direct affiliate ... it takes a minute or so to apply. Or at the very least save yourself some money on your insurance policy by clicking here, learn a lot more then go and fill in the form ...