Ooooh Summer in S.E. QLD.
So our recent grass deliveries have some quality issues, Firstly, late November - deluge on the local turf farms. The grass delivery early December was lower quality than usual. THEN......
Our region was hit with hard hot weather.
This weeks delivery quality - aesthetically ordinary. Here's what happened.
The combination of excess water in the turf on the farms, and then hot hot baking conditions (magnifying glass and steam scenario) has essentially burnt acres of turf. And the turf farms are unloading it as quick as they can.
The result is an accelerated browning of the grass. The colour is essentially aesthetic. It will still function for its intended purpose and the colouring will not impact performance.
We do understand aesthetics are important.
We are considering switching temporarily to a more aesthetic, hardier grass that handles heat better for the interim, however there will be some trade-offs.
A thicker, but sparser root system of the hardier grass means those roots will not hold on to the soil as effectively, and releases clumps of soil easily. This will impact ease of grass change outs. Soil absorption of urine will be impacted. This will mean increased urine onto the surface of your tray. and a messier change out.
We prefer a finer grass, with a finer root system, as the root system holds on to soil very effectively. This finer grass is unfortunately prone to heat stress, however the functionality as a dog grass toilet is not greatly impacted.
A quick mention to fake grass, which is plastic, always green, is not fit for purpose, but does meet aesthetics for the human eye is what makes it so marketable.
Living grass is a natural product subject to conditions of inclement weather; variations in aesthetic quality will occur, and as a supplier direct to consumer, we need to consider functionality and aesthetics.
Granted this grass does not look great to the human eye, however it will still function as intended, and your dog will still use it as normal.
Moving forward, we will update on our decision for the summer period.