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How do they maintain very short grass like at Legoland? Is there a variation of grass that only grows this short?

I've tried maintaining a portion of grass myself in my garden that is part of a rockery. The grass grows very quickly. A lawnmower or strimmer isn't an option because of the size of my patch of grass (>1m^2) and it takes a long time to cut with ordinary scissors.

J. Musser
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Ambo100
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  • In cities around the world small patches of grass are cut with a machete (San Jose CR, and Guayaquil EC are two I have lived in where its common practice). This would be way more effective than scissors. Not sure how neat it would look. – wax eagle Jun 09 '11 at 18:03
  • @wax eagle, I'd imagine it would be rather difficult to cut grass with a machete considering how difficult to get to some of the grass is. – Ambo100 Jun 09 '11 at 18:06

3 Answers3

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Many golf courses use Bent Grass for their putting greens. It can be maintained as short as 1/2" inch high, but you'll have to cut it every 3-4 days. It can be mowed to a very short length without damage.

As far as cutting tools go, you could try something like the Skil Isio Shrub and Grass Shear. I've got one and it works great for maintaining small shrubs. It even works on my holly bushes as long as I trim them regularly.

enter image description here
(source: images-amazon.com)

I've never used the grass shear attachment since I've got a 1/2 acre lawn, but if it works as well as the shrub attachment, I'd give it a try. (Note: I picked this up on sale for $30. Not sure if I'd pay the $70-100 it's going for online.)

If you don't want to spend the money for a power tool, there's always manual grass shears for around $15, but I don't know how much faster they'd be than regular scissors.

Glorfindel
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Doresoom
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5

On putting greens and highly maintained public parks such as Lego land they use very specific varieties of grass, namely Bermuda and bent grasses, which can be kept very short and maintain a good appearance. They also devote a large amount of effort to keep weeds out of such lawns. A weed in this case would be any other plant at all, no other grasses. Of course there are grass seeds all over and they are watering and maintaining these turfs so the advantageous grass seeds are a constant problem. Full time work is the solution to your problem! But starting with the right turf and keeping it free of weeds is the place to start. I noticed while searching that on high traffic putting greens and some areas at Lego land they use an artificial turf that is quite real in appearance. Maybe that is what you saw.

Tim Quinn
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White clover only gets to 2 inches or less with foot traffic and in the wild(no mowing or foot traffic) they only get to 6 inches. http://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/weeds/plants/white_clover.htm

user1815
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