What Is The Best Quality Turf?

What do we mean by Best Quality Turf?

Talking to customers, everybody’s idea of best quality turf is slightly different. It’s all about how well the turf meets their expectations.

What makes Best Quality Turf?

Speaking from 20 years of experience, when it comes to buying turf, quality could mean any or all of the following criteria…..

Plush, velvety textured sward
Nice even colour with no patches or splodges
Something that can be mown really short like a bowls green or a golf green?
Dark green colour
Healthy grass
Really tough and hard wearing
Strong rolls that are easy to lay
Reaches a defined standard such as TGA standard
Easy to maintain
Or simply – “not too expensive and much nicer than what’s in the garden at the moment”

It’s all a matter of perspective.

mowing for best quality turf — Turfonline’s fields are nurtured to ensure that we produce best quality turf. Amongst other things that means frequent mowing on a huge scale

At Turfonline we think that “best quality turf” is turf that meets as many of the criteria above as it possibly can.

Defining and Ensuring Turf Quality

All the turf on our farms is grown from specially blended seed stock. It’s then carefully matured and cultivated on strong, healthy soils. Every couple of weeks, it’s tested to see how it complies with the TGA standard for turf.

TGA Standard

The TGA standard for turf looks at roll strength, turf health, thickness of sward, purity of sward (no weeds), handling properties and freshness. It’s something we take very seriously and work hard to attain.

Grading the turf available from Turfonline

Each of our turf grades are slightly different in quality – hence the difference in their prices.

Remember the list at the top of the page that talks about different aspects of turf quality?

There are 10 items on it.

Velvety texture
Even Colour
Tolerates close mowing
Dark green in colour
Healthy grass
Hardwearing
Easy to handle
TGA standard
Easy maintenance
Low cost and looks OK

If we were to score each of the Turfonline turf grades by that list, here’s what the score would be:

Jubilee Turf:

Best all rounder. Hardwearing and makes a great family lawn. 9/10

Garden Lawn Turf:

Great price, hardwearing but doesn’t always reach TGA standard. 6/10 but still good value

Royal Greens Turf:

Fine sward, strong and beautiful but costly to buy and tricky to maintain so 7/10

Shadesman Turf:

Specialist turf for lower light levels. Super strong and hardwearing but quite costly hence 7/10

family friendly turf — What do you want your turf to do for you? If it’s family friendly you’re after, look for something that’s hardwearing and easy to manage

Do those scores reflect quality?

To be honest, I don’t think they do. At least not for everyone. But then I see quality turf as being one that’s fit for purpose. These scores take into account cost too.

Take Royal Greens for example. It’s beautiful. Really beautiful. It’s a strong turf, weed-free, healthy and just perfect if you’re making a bowling green. If I were to knock 2 of the criteria off my “quality shopping list” Royal Greens would get 7/7

Likewise Garden Lawn Turf. If I just had 2 items on my quality shopping list (not too expensive and easy to maintain) it would get full marks. Actually it would probably exceed expectations.

Make your own quality shopping list

The turf comparison table on the home page of www.turfonline.co.uk will help you to make your own turf quality shopping list – and see how each of the turf grades scores on it.

Need Help?

If you need any help deciding which turf is the best quality for you, why not phone our friendly staff for a chat?

The office is open from 7am – 5pm on weekdays and there’s always somebody who’s happy to help.

Suppliers Articles