this post was submitted on 22 Nov 2025
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Its a new estate??? Might be worth getting the soil tested for contaminants. Ballarat and surrounds is full of ex mines and ex industrial sites. Soil might just be dead and/or compacted too - so innoculating with worms will help a lot to aerate and heal the soil. Lawn needs a good topsoil to sprout evenly, so might take a bit of time to get going. You doing the right thing with compost/mulch on the beds though.
This area was farmland, cattle grazing primarily. So there shouldn't be anything too drastic (other than some knarly weeds). There was already grass growing there, I've just added some sandy loam on top to even things up a bit and sprinkled grass seeds on. It probably just needs a bit more time, and having turned back to rainy weather should help. The grass that was there is going great, it's just the bare patches where I raised the soil level and removed some weeds that I need the seeds to sprout in. Apparently it should be somewhere between 5 and 12 days for the first varieties to sprout, its about 9 days so far so it's probably just a bit slower than I would like.
Sounds like you've done all the right things. We've had some chilly days, which might affect the soil temperature so the upper end of the time period sounds about right. Tonight's nice warm rain should help a lot.
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