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Praarda Graz, Styria
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Orders and questions: hello@praarda.com

Meadow turf

Meadow Turf

A 30 mm mat of soil, roots and around 25 species, grown on our field for 14 months before it is cut.

Meadow turf cut through and drawn three times life size: grass, clover, a daisy rosette and ribwort on top, the 30 mm mat of soil threaded with fine roots, and the roots that go on down once it is laid 30 mm Leaf Roots after laying Three times life size
Fig. 1 A cut edge of the mat, three times life size.

What Is in It

  • Fine grasses
  • Pea family
  • Daisy family
  • Sages and thymes
  • Scabiouses

About a third of it is fine grasses, there to hold the mat together, and the rest is flowers from the same twelve species the field was first sown with in 2015, plus what has come in since. It is heavier than lawn turf, at about 28 kg per m², because we cut it thicker and leave the soil on.

Prices

  • Collected from the fieldMinimum 20 m². Cut Monday to Thursday.€19.50per m²
  • Delivered and laid by usWithin 80 km of Graz. Ground preparation is extra.€34.00per m²
  • Ground preparationLifting the old lawn and raking a seedbed, depending on what is there now.€6-9per m²
  • Delivery onlyOne pallet run of up to 60 m² within 80 km.€70per run

A 30 percent deposit is taken on turf orders over 100 m² and on any laying job. The balance is due within 14 days of the work being finished.

A pallet stacked three rolls high and four across with meadow turf, seen from the end, with its width and height marked 1.2 m 1 m Up to 60 m² one pallet run
Fig. 2 One pallet run, seen from the end.

Ordering and Lead Times

The minimum order is 20 m², and it is 10 working days from your confirmation to cutting. We cut Monday to Thursday only, so turf is never left on a pallet over a weekend, and it has to be down within 24 hours of cutting.

You collect it from the field or we deliver it. It never goes by courier and it never leaves Austria. Here is when the field is closed.

Three steps of a laying job: the old lawn lifted, the soil raked to a seedbed, and the rolls laid with their joints staggered Lift Rake Lay Joints staggered like brickwork
Fig. 3 Lift, rake, lay.

Laying

Within 80 km of Graz we lay it for you. We lift the old lawn, or smother it for a few weeks first if you would rather keep the soil undisturbed, then rake a fine seedbed, unroll the turf with the joints staggered like brickwork, press it down and water it in.

We will not lay on frozen, waterlogged or unprepared ground, even when asked twice. Turf laid on any of them dies at the joints first, and you would be paying for it again in spring.

The First Year

Do not feed it. Water it every evening for the first six weeks if it does not rain, and then stop, because a meadow that is watered all summer turns into a lawn with ideas. It will look scruffy in its first August, brown at the tips and leaning over, and that is the seed setting, not the turf dying. The grasses come first and most of the flowers wait for the second year, so the first summer is mostly green with daisies and trefoil in it. Cut it once, at the end of August, with a strimmer or a scythe, leave the cuttings lying for two days so the seed drops, then rake every bit of it off, because the cuttings feed the grass and the grass is what you are keeping in check. The yellow rattle in it helps with that too, living off the grass roots and thinning them a little more each year. And the neighbour who complained about the mess in year one is usually the one asking for a bag of seed by year three.

or start from seed instead

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