🌱Instant lawn calculator

Instant lawn is delivered cut and stacked, and it does not wait. Order too little and you are back on the phone hoping the supplier has more of the same grass cut on the same day. Order sensibly and you lay a seamless lawn in an afternoon. This calculator works out the area you need, adds a little for offcuts, and sizes the lawn dressing to top it off.

How the instant lawn calculator works

Instant lawn, whether kikuyu, LM, Berea or buffalo, is sold by the square metre as rolls or slabs. So the core sum is simply your lawn area plus a wastage allowance for the offcuts you trim around beds and curves. The calculator also estimates lawn dressing to top-dress the new lawn at about 10 mm, which it gives you in cubic metres and in bags.

Why you should order a little extra

A lawn is rarely a perfect rectangle. Every bed, path and curve means a cut, and every cut leaves an offcut you cannot always reuse. Five percent covers most gardens. There is also value in a small surplus for patching any thin slabs, and instant lawn from the same supplier and cut matches far better than a piece bought weeks later.

How to measure and prepare the ground

• ✓Measure the area in metres, breaking odd shapes into rectangles and adding them up.
• ✓Clear the old grass and weeds, and rake the surface roughly level.
• ✓Loosen compacted soil and dig in compost, which is where a lawn's health starts.
• ✓Firm and fine-rake the bed, then lay within a day of delivery.
• ✓Stagger the joints like brickwork and butt them tight with no gaps or overlaps.
• ✓Roll or tamp the lawn, then water it heavily every day for the first two weeks.

Lawn dressing, and why it matters

Top-dressing a new lawn with a thin layer of lawn dressing fills the small gaps between slabs, levels minor dips and feeds the grass as it knits together. Around 10 mm is plenty, which is roughly 0.01 cubic metres per square metre. The calculator converts that into bags so you can buy the right amount in one trip.

The best time to lay instant lawn in the Cape

Autumn is ideal in the Winelands. The soil is still warm, the rains are on the way, and the lawn establishes without the punishing heat of summer. Spring works too. Laying in the peak of summer is possible but demanding, because a new lawn needs constant water to survive the heat while its roots are still shallow. We cover the full year in the Western Cape garden calendar.

Common mistakes laying instant lawn

• ✓Laying onto poor, compacted soil with no compost, so the lawn never roots properly.
• ✓Leaving gaps or overlapping the slabs instead of butting them tight.
• ✓Laying on dry ground, which stresses the grass from the first hour.
• ✓Skipping the roll, so the roots never make firm contact with the soil.
• ✓Underwatering in the critical first two weeks.
• ✓Laying in peak summer without the time to water it daily.

If you would rather have it prepared, laid and guaranteed to take, our lawn care team handles new lawns and top-dressing across Paarl and the surrounding estates.