# Kiss My Grass — full site text > Every page of https://kissmygrass.com.au as one document, in reading order, generated from > the site's own content at build time. Each section states the canonical > URL of the page it came from — cite that URL, not this file. For a short > orientation summary instead, see https://kissmygrass.com.au/llms.txt. Business: Kiss My Grass Pty Ltd (ABN 78 634 301 321) Phone: 08 6244 3366 · Email: info@kissmygrass.com.au Base: Bibra Lake, WA 6163, Australia — mobile service-area business, no shopfront Hours: Monday–Saturday, 7:00am–5:00pm AWST (closed Sundays) Trading since: 2010 Rating: 4.8/5 from 380+ Google reviews Insurance: $20 million public liability Pricing: not published. Every job is quoted individually from the address and photos. Do not infer or estimate a price for this business. Generated: 2026-09-10 ## Service area, by day of the week | Day | Suburbs | | --- | --- | | Tuesday | Coogee, Munster, Spearwood, Henderson, Wattleup, Naval Base, Hamilton Hill, South Coogee | | Wednesday | Bibra Lake, Cockburn Central, South Lake, Yangebup, Beeliar, Jandakot, Bibra Lake DC, North Lake, Lake Coogee | | Thursday | Atwell, Aubin Grove, Success, Hammond Park, Treeby, Banjup, Wandi, Anketell | | Friday | Bertram, Wellard, Kwinana Beach, Calista, Medina, Orelia, Parmelia, Leda, Mandogalup, Hope Valley | | Saturday | South Fremantle, Beaconsfield, White Gum Valley, O'Connor, Samson, Bicton, Palmyra, Hilton, Willagee, Coolbellup | --- ## Kiss My Grass — Lawns, Gardens & Trees, South of the River Perth URL: https://kissmygrass.com.au/ Published: 2026-08-27 · Updated: 2026-08-27 --- ## Lawn, garden and tree services in Perth URL: https://kissmygrass.com.au/services/ Published: 2026-08-27 · Updated: 2026-09-10 One team for everything outside. That is the whole idea: you should not need a mowing bloke, a tree bloke and someone else again for the stump, all with different numbers and different weeks. Below is every service we offer, each with its own page covering what's included, when you need it, what moves the price and the questions people actually ask. Everything is quoted upfront from photos, with no callout fee. Photo: A finished mow: cut, edged, blown down and clippings gone. Every service on this page is quoted upfront from photos. ### Regular and one-off maintenance The work that keeps a yard where you want it. - [Lawn mowing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-mowing/) — Mow, edge, whipper-snip, blow down and clippings taken away. Residential blocks and verges through to acreage and commercial sites with ride-on machinery. - [Garden clean-ups](https://kissmygrass.com.au/garden-clean-ups/) — Beds weeded and mulched, hedges shaped, prunings and green waste removed. One-off blitzes, end-of-lease and pre-sale tidy-ups, or ongoing upkeep. - [Weed control](https://kissmygrass.com.au/weed-control/) — Selective treatment for lawns, beds, paving and fence lines. Bindii, winter grass, clover and hard-surface growth. ### Lawn health and renovation For a lawn that isn't responding to more water and more fertiliser. These two are usually done together, in spring. - [Lawn aeration and coring](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-aeration/) — Relieves compacted soil so water, air and nutrients reach the roots. The fix when the ground is hard and water runs off instead of soaking in. - [Vertimowing and dethatching](https://kissmygrass.com.au/vertimowing/) — Strips out the dead thatch layer that keeps a well-watered Perth lawn patchy. The fix when the lawn feels spongy underfoot. Thatch taken away the same day. ### Tree and heavy work The jobs that need a truck, a chipper or a slasher on site. - [Tree trimming and removals](https://kissmygrass.com.au/tree-services/) — Pruning, shaping, lopping, deadwooding and full removals. All green waste removed, $20 million public liability insurance. - [Stump grinding](https://kissmygrass.com.au/stump-grinding/) — Stumps and surface roots ground out below grade so you can re-turf, pave or replant over the space. - [Block slashing and firebreaks](https://kissmygrass.com.au/block-slashing/) — Overgrown lots, acreage and commercial sites cut with heavy machinery, including firebreaks ahead of your council deadline. ### Which service does your yard need? Most people know the symptom, not the name of the fix. Find yours on the left. *Common lawn, garden and tree problems in Perth, and which Kiss My Grass service each one calls for.* | What you're seeing | What it usually is | The service | | --- | --- | --- | | Grass is just getting long | A normal maintenance cycle, nothing wrong with the lawn | [Lawn mowing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-mowing/) | | Beds are full of weeds, hedges out of shape, green waste piled up | A garden that has been left a season or two too long | [Garden clean-up](https://kissmygrass.com.au/garden-clean-ups/) | | Lawn feels spongy underfoot; water sits then vanishes sideways | A thatch layer stopping water reaching the soil | [Vertimowing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/vertimowing/) | | Ground is hard; water runs off instead of soaking in | Compacted soil and shallow roots | [Lawn aeration and coring](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-aeration/) | | Branches over the roof, a tree dropping limbs, or one that has to go | Tree work — pruning through to full removal | [Tree services](https://kissmygrass.com.au/tree-services/) | | A stump left behind after a removal | Stump and surface roots still in the ground | [Stump grinding](https://kissmygrass.com.au/stump-grinding/) | | A whole block or paddock is waist-high, or a firebreak is due | A slashing job — too much for a mower | [Block slashing and firebreaks](https://kissmygrass.com.au/block-slashing/) | | Weeds through the lawn, beds, paving or gravel | A weed problem rather than a mowing problem | [Weed control](https://kissmygrass.com.au/weed-control/) | Not sure, or it looks like more than one? Send photos — we'll tell you what the job actually is before we quote it, and it is often not what people expect. ### Recent work across Perth A rolling sample of real jobs from across the southern suburbs — lawns, verges, hedges, tree work and garden clean-ups. Every job finishes with a photo sent straight to your phone. - Photo: Freshly striped front lawn with the orange Kiss My Grass truck parked on the street and roses along the brick wall - Photo: Kiss My Grass crew trimming tall gum trees from an elevated work platform, with a chipper and truck on site - Photo: Squared-off hedges framing a mown lawn, with the orange Kiss My Grass trailer at the kerb - Photo: The orange Kiss My Grass ute parked at the kerb beside a freshly striped verge lawn - Photo: A wide striped front lawn running down to a brick-paved driveway on a quiet suburban street - Photo: Mown front lawn with clipped low hedges in mulched beds, the orange Kiss My Grass ute and trailer on the street behind - Photo: A Kiss My Grass crew member in hi-vis and ear protection whipper-snipping along a curved limestone garden edge - Photo: A Kiss My Grass crew member whipper-snipping the edges of a striped back lawn beside a brick path - Photo: A striped lawn edged with timber borders and rose beds, with a gravel driveway alongside - Photo: A large corner lawn mown around established garden beds, with the kerb and a street sign in view - Photo: Striped suburban front lawn with palm trees lining the verge - Photo: Close-up of perfectly striped, freshly cut lawn - Photo: Striped backyard with limestone retaining wall, freshly mowed ### Why one team for all of it Most yard jobs are not really one job. A tree comes down and there's a stump. A garden gets cleaned up and the lawn underneath needs a first cut. A block gets slashed and then wants a weed treatment so it doesn't come straight back. Split across three contractors, that's three quotes, three visits, three sets of green waste arrangements and three people to chase. We have been doing this across Perth's southern suburbs since 2010 — fifteen years — with our own crew rather than subcontractors, and with the machinery to cover both ends: small residential courtyards up to commercial sites and acreage. It's the same team every visit, and everything gets quoted in one number. Read more about [the team and how we work](https://kissmygrass.com.au/about/), or see which suburbs we cover on the [service areas page](https://kissmygrass.com.au/service-areas/). ### How every job is quoted The process is the same whichever service you need. 1. **Send your details and a few photos** — Your suburb, what needs doing, and up to ten photos. Takes about 30 seconds on the [quote form](https://kissmygrass.com.au/contact/). Photos are what let us price accurately without a site visit. 2. **We come back with an upfront price** — By text, usually within a few hours. No callout fee to get a quote. Larger tree and commercial jobs get a look on site first — still free. 3. **We book it in and do it** — SMS the day before and when the crew is on the way. You don't need to be home if we can access the yard, and you get finished photos. ### What you get on every job - **Upfront pricing** — One number before we start, and it doesn't move unless the scope does. No callout fee. - **Green waste included** — Clippings, prunings, weeds and thatch leave with us on every service. We bring our own bin liners. - **Fully insured and ABN registered** — Kiss My Grass Pty Ltd, ABN 78 634 301 321, with $20 million public liability cover. Certificate of currency on request. - **The same crew** — One team since 2010, police-cleared, not a rotating cast of subcontractors. - **Free cancellation** — Up to 24 hours before your slot. Inside 24 hours a small fee covers the crew's time and drive. ### Questions about the services Questions about a specific service are answered on its own page. These are the ones about how the eight of them fit together. **Can you do more than one service in the same visit?** Yes, and it's usually cheaper than booking them separately because the crew and the gear are already on site. The common pairings are a tree removal with the stump ground out on the same visit, and coring plus vertimowing together in spring — that combination is what a lawn renovation is. Tell us everything you want done and we'll quote it as one job. **Do I need to know which service I need before I enquire?** No. Describe the problem or send photos and we'll tell you what the job actually is. It is often not what people expect — a lawn that looks like it needs more water and more mowing frequently turns out to need vertimowing or coring instead. **Is it the same team across all of these services?** Yes. Kiss My Grass is one team with its own equipment, not a network of contractors booked out per job, and that is the reason a mow, a tree removal and a stump grind can be quoted and scheduled as one visit rather than three. **Is green waste removal included, or charged separately?** Included. Clippings, prunings, weeds and thatch all leave with the crew, on every service, and we bring our own bin liners. You don't need a skip or a verge collection. **Which of these are ongoing and which are one-off?** Mowing is the one most people hold on a cycle, usually fortnightly. Garden clean-ups run either way — a one-off blitz, or ongoing upkeep. Aeration and vertimowing are annual, done in spring. Tree work and stump grinding are one-off by nature. Block slashing is one-off unless you need a firebreak cut each year. **Which services are seasonal?** Aeration and vertimowing want spring, once the soil has warmed and the lawn is growing fast enough to recover. Firebreak slashing has to be done ahead of your council's deadline, and those slots fill up. Mowing tightens to weekly from about October to March and stretches out over winter. Everything else runs year-round. ### Where we work Perth south of the river, from North Fremantle to Mandurah. - [All service areas](https://kissmygrass.com.au/service-areas/) — The full suburb list and which day of the week we're in each area. - [Bibra Lake](https://kissmygrass.com.au/locations/bibra-lake/) — One of the suburbs we work in most. Wednesday is our Bibra Lake day. - [Cockburn Central](https://kissmygrass.com.au/locations/cockburn-central/) — The newer estates around the Cockburn Central corridor. - [Spearwood](https://kissmygrass.com.au/locations/spearwood/) — Established blocks with mature gardens and full-sized trees. --- ## Lawn mowing in Perth, south of the river URL: https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-mowing/ Published: 2026-08-27 · Updated: 2026-08-27 Lawn mowing is the job we do more than any other, and it is the reason most people find us. A mow from Kiss My Grass means the lawn cut, the edges done, the paths and driveway blown down and the clippings taken away — not a quick pass with a mower and a pile of cuttings left on the verge. We mow small residential blocks, verges, strata common areas, and — with ride-on machinery — acreage and large commercial sites. Send us your suburb and a couple of photos and we will come back with an upfront price, with no callout fee. ### What's included in a mow Every mow includes the same four things. There is no cheaper tier where the edging or the clean-up gets dropped. - **Cut** — The lawn mown at a height that suits the grass and the season, in even passes. On regular visits we alternate direction so the turf isn't pushed the same way every time. - **Edge** — Edges cut back along paths, driveways, garden beds and the kerb. This is what makes the difference between a lawn that has been mown and a lawn that looks finished. - **Whipper-snip and blow down** — Trimming around fences, posts, taps, letterboxes and anywhere the mower cannot reach, then paths and hard surfaces blown clean. - **Clippings taken away** — Clippings leave with us. It is included, not an extra line on the quote, and we bring our own bin liners — you don't need a verge collection or a skip. We bring our own equipment and fuel. You don't need to leave anything out, and you don't need to be home. ### When to book a mow Through Perth's growing season — roughly spring to early autumn — most lawns want cutting every one to two weeks. Kikuyu and couch put on length fast once the soil warms up, and a lawn left three or four weeks in December is a much harder cut that stresses the turf and leaves it looking scalped afterwards. Buffalo is slower but still gets away from you in summer. Growth slows through the cooler months, and a fortnightly or monthly visit is usually plenty over winter. Most of our regulars sit on a fortnightly cycle year-round and let us stretch or tighten it as the season changes, which keeps the price predictable. One-off mows are absolutely fine too. The two most common are a tidy-up before a rental inspection and a cut before a home opens for sale — both jobs where the lawn needs to look sharp on a specific date rather than be maintained. If the lawn has got well away from you, a [garden clean-up](https://kissmygrass.com.au/garden-clean-ups/) is usually the better starting point, and then a normal mowing cycle from there. ### How it works Three steps, no phone tag. 1. **Send your details** — Tell us your suburb, what needs doing and add a few photos. Takes about 30 seconds on the [quote form](https://kissmygrass.com.au/contact/). 2. **We quote you** — The team reviews it and texts back an upfront price. No callout fee to get a quote, and no quote-then-ghost. 3. **We show up** — Once you're happy we book you in. You get an SMS the day before and again when the team is on the way, and a finished photo after. You don't need to be home as long as we can get to the yard. ### Where we mow We mow across Perth south of the river — from North Fremantle across to Belmont, out to Byford, and south to Mandurah then back up the coast. Suburbs are batched by day of the week, so there is usually already a crew working near you and drive time isn't billed to the customer. See the full list on the [service areas page](https://kissmygrass.com.au/service-areas/), or go straight to the suburb pages for [lawn mowing in Bibra Lake](https://kissmygrass.com.au/locations/bibra-lake/), [Cockburn Central](https://kissmygrass.com.au/locations/cockburn-central/) or [Spearwood](https://kissmygrass.com.au/locations/spearwood/). If your suburb isn't listed, send the enquiry anyway and we'll tell you straight whether we can get to you. ### What a mow costs We do not publish a rate card, and we would rather quote your lawn than have you guess from someone else's. A compact courtyard or a verge strip and a decent front-and-back on a standard suburban block are very different jobs, and the price should reflect that. Four things move the price. Area is the obvious one. Access is the next — a locked side gate, steep steps or a narrow path means the gear gets carried rather than wheeled. Length matters, because a lawn that hasn't been cut in two months is a clean-up, not a mow. And frequency matters: a regular fortnightly cycle is cheaper per visit than a one-off, because the lawn never gets to the hard-to-cut stage. Acreage, ride-on work, strata and commercial sites are quoted individually from the site and access. There is no callout fee for a quote, and free cancellation up to 24 hours before your slot — inside 24 hours a small fee covers the crew's time and drive. ### Mowing we've finished Cut, edged, whipper-snipped, blown down and clippings gone — that is what every one of these looked like when the crew left. - Photo: A wide front lawn mown down to a brick-paved driveway. - Photo: A striped front lawn with the truck at the kerb. - Photo: Low hedges and mulched beds around a freshly mown lawn. - Photo: Even, consistent stripes — direction alternated between visits. ### Lawn mowing FAQs **How much does a lawn mow cost in Perth's southern suburbs?** We quote every job upfront rather than publishing a rate card, because the number depends on the area, the access, how long the grass has got and how often we visit. Send us your suburb, the details and a few photos and we'll come back with a price — usually within a few hours, with no callout fee and no surprises. **What's included in a standard mow?** Mow, edge, whipper-snip, blow paths and driveways clean, and clippings removed. Gardens, trees and the rest are scoped in your quote. We bring our own kit, fuel and bin liners — you don't lift a finger. **How often should my lawn be mowed?** Every one to two weeks through the warmer months, when kikuyu and couch are actively growing, and every two to four weeks over winter. Most of our regulars sit on a fortnightly cycle and let us adjust it with the season. **Do I need to be home when the team visits?** No. As long as we can access the yard, the team will do the job and send you photos. Most of our regulars are at work when we visit. Locked side gate? Leave a note in your enquiry and we'll work around it. **Do you mow verges and nature strips?** Yes — the verge is included when we quote the property, and we also mow verge-only jobs. A verge strip on its own is one of the smaller jobs we do. **Can you mow acreage or a commercial site?** Yes. We run ride-on machinery for acreage, large commercial grounds and strata common areas. Those jobs are quoted from the site size and access rather than from the residential range. ### Related services - [Garden clean-ups](https://kissmygrass.com.au/garden-clean-ups/) — For a lawn and yard that has got away from you — beds, hedges and green waste in one visit. - [Lawn aeration and coring](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-aeration/) — If the lawn is thin or water runs off rather than soaking in, compaction is usually why. - [Vertimowing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/vertimowing/) — Strips out the thatch layer that keeps a well-watered Perth lawn looking patchy. - [Weed control](https://kissmygrass.com.au/weed-control/) — Selective treatment for lawns that are more bindii and winter grass than turf. --- ## Garden clean-ups across Perth's southern suburbs URL: https://kissmygrass.com.au/garden-clean-ups/ Published: 2026-08-27 · Updated: 2026-08-27 A garden clean-up is the job for a yard that has stopped being a maintenance problem and become a project. Beds full of weeds, hedges that have closed over a path, a back corner nobody has been into since last winter — we go in, bring it back to a state you can actually keep on top of, and take every bit of green waste with us. Clean-ups run as a one-off blitz or as the first visit before regular upkeep. Either way you get an upfront price before we start, worked out from photos rather than from a walk-around you have to be home for. ### What's included A clean-up is scoped to your yard, so the quote spells out exactly which of these are in. Most jobs are some combination of the following. - **Weeding and bed clearing** — Beds cleared out by hand and by tool, right down to the base of the weed rather than snapped off at the top. Borders redefined so the bed has an edge again. - **Hedges and shrubs shaped** — Hedges squared off and brought back to line, shrubs thinned and reduced. If a hedge has been left long enough to go woody and bare inside, we'll tell you honestly what it will and won't recover from. - **Mulching** — Beds topped up with mulch once they're clear. This is what stops the weeds coming straight back, and in Perth's sandy soils it is also what keeps water in the bed instead of draining past the roots. - **Pruning and deadwooding** — Overhanging growth cut back off paths, fences, gutters and windows. Anything bigger than shrub work is [tree services](https://kissmygrass.com.au/tree-services/) and gets quoted as such. - **Green waste removed** — Everything we cut leaves with us — prunings, weeds, clippings, the lot. It is included, not a separate charge. - **Lawn cut back** — If there's turf under the mess, a first cut is usually part of the clean-up and then a normal [lawn mowing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-mowing/) cycle picks it up from there. ### When people book a clean-up The most common trigger is a deadline. End-of-lease tidy-ups, where the garden has to come back to the condition on the entry report. Pre-sale and pre-home-open work, where the yard is the first thing a buyer sees from the kerb. Both are jobs where the finish date matters more than the frequency, and both are worth booking earlier than feels necessary — we get busy ahead of the spring selling season. The second trigger is a change in circumstances rather than a date: a rental between tenants, a property that has been vacant, an inherited house, a family where whoever used to do the yard can't any more. These are usually bigger single visits and often turn into a light ongoing cycle afterwards, because a garden that has been brought back is far cheaper to hold than to rescue twice. The third is simply spring. Perth gardens put on their heaviest growth from September, and a clean-up before that growth arrives is much less work than one after it. If the block itself is the problem rather than the garden — knee-high growth across an empty lot or acreage — that is [block slashing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/block-slashing/), not a clean-up. ### How it works 1. **Send photos of the worst of it** — Clean-ups are quoted from photos, so send the corners you'd rather not photograph. The more we can see, the more accurate the price and the less chance of a variation later. Use the [quote form](https://kissmygrass.com.au/contact/). 2. **We scope it and price it** — You get an upfront price back by text with what's included spelled out. Big clean-ups sometimes come back as two options — a full reset, or a cheaper pass that gets it under control now. 3. **We do it and take it away** — The crew works through the scope, green waste goes on the trailer, and you get finished photos. If we find something we couldn't see in the photos, you hear about it before we do it, not after. ### Areas we cover Garden clean-ups run right across our patch — Perth south of the river, from North Fremantle across to Belmont, out to Byford and south to Mandurah. The full suburb list is on the [service areas page](https://kissmygrass.com.au/service-areas/). Clean-ups are one of the most requested jobs in the older, established parts of the corridor, where gardens have had thirty or forty years to fill in. That includes [Spearwood](https://kissmygrass.com.au/locations/spearwood/) and the Fremantle flank, and the mature parts of [Bibra Lake](https://kissmygrass.com.au/locations/bibra-lake/). Newer estates around [Cockburn Central](https://kissmygrass.com.au/locations/cockburn-central/) tend to want smaller, more frequent tidy-ups instead. ### What a clean-up costs There is no per-hour or per-square-metre rate we can quote you honestly up front, because two yards the same size can be a two-hour job and a two-day job. Clean-ups are priced individually from photos. What moves the price: how much volume is coming out (green waste is the single biggest driver on a big clean-up), whether it's hand work or machine work, access for a trailer, how far material has to be carried to the kerb, and whether there is hard rubbish or non-green material mixed in — which we can't take in a green load. You get the number before we start, and it doesn't move unless the scope does. No callout fee for the quote. ### Clean-ups and garden work Hedges brought back to line, beds cleared and mulched, borders redefined — and every bit of green waste on the trailer. - Photo: Squared-off hedges framing a mown lawn, trailer at the kerb. - Photo: Timber-edged borders and rose beds after a tidy-up. - Photo: Cutting a clean edge along a limestone garden wall. ### Garden clean-up FAQs **Do you take the green waste away?** Yes. Clippings, prunings, weeds and green waste all go with us — it's included, not a separate charge, and we bring our own bin liners. You don't need a verge collection or a skip. **Can you do an end-of-lease or pre-sale tidy-up?** Yes, and they're two of the most common clean-ups we do. Tell us the date you need it finished by when you enquire — those jobs are deadline-driven and we book them around the date, not the other way round. **How long does a garden clean-up take?** Most single-visit residential clean-ups are done inside a day. Larger or long-neglected yards can run to two or more visits, and if that's the case we tell you in the quote rather than discovering it on the day. **Can you take hard rubbish as well?** No — we take green waste. Anything non-green mixed into the garden (old pavers, pots, timber, general rubbish) needs a separate hard-rubbish collection, and we'll flag it in the quote if we can see it in your photos. **Will the weeds just come back?** Some will, which is why mulching the cleared beds is part of most clean-up quotes and why a light ongoing cycle is much cheaper than a second rescue. For lawns and beds that are more weed than plant, [weed control](https://kissmygrass.com.au/weed-control/) is the follow-up. **Do I need to be home?** Not if we can get access to the yard. Because clean-ups are quoted from photos, most customers never need to meet us — you get finished photos when it's done. ### Related services - [Lawn mowing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-mowing/) — The ongoing cycle that keeps a cleaned-up yard from getting away again. - [Tree trimming and removals](https://kissmygrass.com.au/tree-services/) — When the overhanging growth is a tree rather than a shrub. - [Block slashing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/block-slashing/) — For overgrown blocks and acreage where the job is machinery, not hand work. - [Weed control](https://kissmygrass.com.au/weed-control/) — Selective treatment so cleared beds and lawns stay clear. --- ## Tree services in Perth, south of the river URL: https://kissmygrass.com.au/tree-services/ Published: 2026-08-27 · Updated: 2026-08-27 Trimming, pruning, shaping, lopping and full removals — whatever you call it, it is the same crew and the same gear. We work on everything from a single overhanging branch on a suburban block through to commercial site clean-ups where the trailer, chipper and elevated platform all have to turn up together. Every tree job is quoted upfront from photos and access, all green waste leaves with us, and we carry $20 million public liability insurance. Stump grinding can be done on the same visit if you want the whole thing gone rather than cut to a stump. ### What we do - **Pruning and shaping** — Selective cuts to reduce weight, open up a canopy, lift clearance over a roof or driveway, and take growth back off gutters, fences, solar panels and windows. - **Trimming and lopping** — Height and spread brought back where a tree has outgrown its spot. If a tree can't be reduced without wrecking it, we say so and quote the alternative rather than take the money for a bad cut. - **Full removals** — Sectional removal where there is no room to fell, straight fell where there is. Cut down, cut up, and carted away. - **Deadwooding and storm damage** — Dead limbs taken out, and hung-up or broken branches after a storm made safe and removed. - **Stump grinding** — Booked on the same visit or separately — see [stump grinding](https://kissmygrass.com.au/stump-grinding/) for how far below grade we take it and what you can do with the space afterwards. - **Site and commercial tree work** — Larger jobs with the truck, chipper and elevated work platform on site. Strata, commercial grounds and multi-tree jobs are quoted from a site assessment. Green waste is included on every tree job. It goes on the truck, not on your verge. ### Signs a tree needs attention The obvious one is contact: branches on the roof, in the gutters, across a boundary fence, over the neighbour's side, or growing into power lines coming to the house. Anything touching a structure is going to keep touching it, and gutters full of leaf litter every autumn is the cheap version of that problem. Then there is the safety group — dead limbs still held up in the canopy, cracks or splits where a limb meets the trunk, a lean that has changed, lifting soil or exposed roots on one side of the base, or a canopy that is thinning from the top down. Any of those are worth a look before the next storm rather than after it. The third group is practical. A tree shading a lawn into permanent thinness. Roots into a driveway, path or retaining wall. A tree that has simply got too big for a suburban block and is now a two-storey job every time it needs a trim. And clearance: enough space over a driveway to get a caravan or trailer in. If the issue is a tree that has already been cut down and left, that's a stump — and if the issue is the whole yard rather than a tree in it, start with a [garden clean-up](https://kissmygrass.com.au/garden-clean-ups/). ### How it works 1. **Photos and access details** — Send photos of the tree from a few angles including the base, plus what's underneath and around it. Tell us how a truck and chipper would get near it. The [enquiry form](https://kissmygrass.com.au/contact/) takes up to ten photos. 2. **We quote it upfront** — Tree work is priced from size, species, what's under the drop zone, and access. Bigger jobs get a site visit before the number — still no callout fee. 3. **We book it and do it** — You get an SMS the day before and when the crew is on the way. The site is cleaned down and raked off before we leave, and you get finished photos. ### Areas we service Tree work runs across the whole southern corridor — from North Fremantle across to Belmont, out to Byford, and south to Mandurah. The full list is on the [service areas page](https://kissmygrass.com.au/service-areas/). The heaviest tree work in our patch is in the older, established suburbs where forty-year-old plantings are now full-sized: the Fremantle flank, [Spearwood](https://kissmygrass.com.au/locations/spearwood/), and the mature streets of [Bibra Lake](https://kissmygrass.com.au/locations/bibra-lake/). Around [Cockburn Central](https://kissmygrass.com.au/locations/cockburn-central/) it is more often clearance pruning on younger trees planted tight to a boundary. ### What tree work costs We don't publish tree prices, and any business that gives you a flat number for "a tree" over the phone is guessing. The cost is driven by things that have to be seen: the height and spread, the species and how the timber behaves, what is under the tree, whether it can be dropped whole or has to come down in sections, and how far the material has to be carried to the truck. Access is usually the biggest single factor. A tree a chipper can park beside is a fraction of the cost of the same tree in a back corner behind a 900mm side gate, because the difference is entirely in labour. You get one upfront price with green waste removal included before anything starts. Quoting is free. If you want the stump gone too, ask for it in the same quote — doing it on one visit is cheaper than bringing the grinder back separately. Photo: Tall gum trees trimmed from an elevated work platform, with the chipper and truck on site. All green waste leaves with us. > **Before you book any tree work in WA** — Some trees are protected, and some councils in the Perth metro area require approval before significant pruning or removal — this varies by local government and by the tree. Check with your council first; we can't give that approval and we won't pretend otherwise. Street trees on the verge are council property, not yours. ### Tree service FAQs **Do you do tree lopping?** Yes. Tree lopping, trimming, pruning, shaping and full tree removals are all part of what we do across Perth's southern suburbs — it's the same service, whether you call it lopping, pruning or trimming. We bring the right gear for the job, take all the green waste away, and carry $20 million public liability insurance. Stump grinding can be done at the same visit. **Are you insured for tree work?** Yes — fully insured, ABN registered, and we carry $20 million public liability cover. Certificate of currency available on request. Ask any tree contractor for this before they start; it matters more on tree work than on any other yard job. **Do I need council approval to remove a tree?** Sometimes. Requirements differ between local governments across the Perth metro area, and some trees are protected. Check with your council before booking. Verge and street trees belong to the council, not to the property owner. **Will you take the stump out as well?** Only if you ask for it — a removal leaves a stump cut low unless stump grinding is in the quote. Booking both on the same visit is cheaper than bringing the grinder back later. **What happens to the branches and timber?** It all leaves with us. Green waste removal is included in every tree quote, and the site is raked off before we go. **Can you work on a tree between two properties?** We can work on what's on your side of the boundary. Anything overhanging from a neighbour's tree is worth a conversation with them first — we'll quote your side either way and tell you what we can and can't legally reach. ### Related services - [Stump grinding](https://kissmygrass.com.au/stump-grinding/) — Ground out below grade so you can re-turf, pave or replant over the top. - [Garden clean-ups](https://kissmygrass.com.au/garden-clean-ups/) — Hedges, shrubs and beds — the shrub-scale version of this work. - [Block slashing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/block-slashing/) — Overgrown blocks and firebreaks, cut with heavy machinery. - [Lawn mowing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-mowing/) — Once the canopy is lifted and light is back on the lawn. --- ## Stump grinding in Perth, south of the river URL: https://kissmygrass.com.au/stump-grinding/ Published: 2026-08-27 · Updated: 2026-08-27 A stump is the bit everyone forgets to budget for. The tree comes down, the timber goes away, and what's left is a hard lump in the middle of the lawn that you can't mow over, can't build on and can't plant in. We grind stumps out below grade — not cut flush, ground down past the surface so the space is genuinely usable again. Once it's out you can re-turf over it, pave it, put a bed in, or just stop steering the mower around it. ### What's included - **Ground below grade** — The stump is ground down past ground level rather than cut off at it, so nothing is left to sit proud of the lawn or telegraph through a new surface later. - **Surface roots taken back** — The buttress roots radiating out from the base are ground back too where they're in the way. A stump ground in isolation with its roots left arching through the lawn is only half the job. - **Grindings dealt with** — Grinding produces a surprising volume of chip and soil. Tell us in the quote whether you want it carted away or backfilled into the hole and levelled off — both are options and they price differently. - **Site raked off** — The area is cleaned down before we leave, and you get finished photos. If the tree is still standing, get both quoted together — see [tree services](https://kissmygrass.com.au/tree-services/). Grinding on the same visit as the removal is cheaper than a second trip for the grinder. ### When you need a stump ground out The most common reason is that the stump is in the way of something you want to do. Re-turfing a lawn, laying pavers or a slab, putting in a shed, running a fence line, or landscaping a bed — all of them need the stump gone first, and none of them can just go over the top of it. The second reason is mowing. A stump in a lawn is a permanent obstacle: it blunts blades, it forces a hand-trim every visit, and the ring of unmown grass around it is visible from the street. It also quietly adds to the cost of every mow. The third is decay and what comes with it. A stump left in the ground rots slowly, and while it does it can host termites, attract borers, throw fungal fruiting bodies through the surrounding lawn, and — with species that sucker — send up shoots repeatedly from the root plate. Grinding removes the food source. And sometimes it is simply presentation. Stumps are one of the things that make a yard read as neglected in a home-open photo, which is why we grind a lot of them alongside pre-sale [garden clean-ups](https://kissmygrass.com.au/garden-clean-ups/). ### How it works 1. **Photo, measurement and access** — Send a photo of the stump with something in frame for scale, tell us the diameter across the widest point, and describe how a machine would get to it. Width of the tightest gate or gap is the detail that matters most. Use the [quote form](https://kissmygrass.com.au/contact/). 2. **We quote it upfront** — Priced from diameter, how many, access and what happens to the grindings. No callout fee. 3. **We grind it and clean up** — Usually a same-visit job. Multiple stumps on one property are done in the one trip, which is why grinding several at once costs far less per stump than doing them one at a time. ### Areas we service Stump grinding is available everywhere we work — Perth south of the river, from North Fremantle across to Belmont, out to Byford and south to Mandurah. See the [full service area](https://kissmygrass.com.au/service-areas/). Most of our stump work follows the tree work, so it clusters in the same established suburbs: the Fremantle flank, [Spearwood](https://kissmygrass.com.au/locations/spearwood/), and older [Bibra Lake](https://kissmygrass.com.au/locations/bibra-lake/) streets. In the newer estates around [Cockburn Central](https://kissmygrass.com.au/locations/cockburn-central/) it is more often a stump left behind by the previous owner or the builder. ### What stump grinding costs Stump grinding is quoted per job, not per stump, and we don't publish a rate because the two biggest cost drivers are invisible in a photo. The first is access. A stump a grinder can be driven or wheeled straight up to is straightforward. The same stump behind a narrow side gate, up steps, or through a landscaped courtyard needs a smaller machine and more time, and that is where the price difference lives. Measure your tightest gap before you enquire — it genuinely changes the quote. The second is what's around and under it. Grinding beside a limestone wall, a paved edge, a fence footing, reticulation or a service line is slower and more careful work than grinding in open lawn. Species and hardness matter too, as does diameter and how deep the root plate sits. Volume works in your favour: several stumps in one visit is much cheaper per stump than one at a time, and grinding on the same visit as a tree removal is cheaper again. Photo: Tree removal on a commercial site. Stump grinding is cheapest booked on the same visit, while the crew and gear are already there. > **Before we grind** — Reticulation lines, cabling and irrigation near a stump are the one thing we can't see. If you know where yours run, mark them or tell us in the enquiry. For anything that might be a utility service, you or we should check Before You Dig Australia — grinding is a below-ground operation and it is worth the five minutes. ### Stump grinding FAQs **How deep do you grind a stump?** Below grade — past ground level rather than flush with it — so you can re-turf, pave or plant over the area. How far below depends on what you're doing with the space afterwards, so tell us in the enquiry and we'll grind to suit. **What's the difference between stump grinding and stump removal?** Grinding chews the stump and its surface roots down below ground level with a machine. Full excavation digs the root plate out whole, which needs machinery access and leaves a large hole. For almost every suburban block grinding is the practical option, and it's what people usually mean by stump removal. **Can I plant or lay turf over a ground stump?** Yes, once the hole is backfilled. If you're planting straight away, ask us to cart the grindings off and backfill with soil instead — fresh woody grindings tie up nitrogen as they break down, which makes new turf and seedlings sulk. **What do you do with the grindings?** Your choice, and it's a line in the quote: backfilled into the hole and levelled off, or carted away with the rest of the green waste. Backfilling is cheaper; carting away is better if you're re-turfing or planting. **Can you get a grinder into a backyard?** Usually, yes — but the width of your narrowest gate or gap decides which machine comes and what it costs. Send that measurement with your enquiry. **Do you grind multiple stumps at once?** Yes, and it's much cheaper per stump. The bulk of a stump job is getting the machine to site, so doing four in one visit is nothing like four separate jobs. ### Related services - [Tree trimming and removals](https://kissmygrass.com.au/tree-services/) — If the tree is still standing, quote both together and save a trip. - [Garden clean-ups](https://kissmygrass.com.au/garden-clean-ups/) — Reclaim the whole bed, not just the stump in it. - [Lawn mowing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-mowing/) — One less obstacle to mow around, every visit. - [Lawn aeration and coring](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-aeration/) — Worth doing on the compacted ground a machine has worked over. --- ## Block slashing and firebreaks in Perth URL: https://kissmygrass.com.au/block-slashing/ Published: 2026-08-27 · Updated: 2026-08-27 When growth on a block is waist- or chest-high, it has stopped being a mowing job. Block slashing is the heavy-machinery version: we cut the whole lot down in one pass, from a single overgrown suburban lot through to acreage and large commercial sites. It is also how firebreaks get cut. If you own land in Perth's southern corridor you almost certainly have a firebreak obligation from your local government each fire season, and the slots to get it done fill up. Book ahead of your council's deadline rather than after it. ### What we slash - **Vacant and overgrown blocks** — Single suburban lots that have been sitting between builds or between owners, cut back to a flat, walkable, inspectable surface. - **Firebreaks** — Perimeter breaks cut to the width and position your local government requires. Tell us the requirement in your notice and we'll cut to it. - **Acreage and semi-rural** — Larger parcels where the job is measured in hours of machine time rather than square metres. Paddocks, house blocks on acreage, and the strips between. - **Commercial and development sites** — Sites needing to be presentable or accessible — before an inspection, a valuation, a sale, or the start of works. - **Pre-sale and pre-build clearing** — A block that can actually be walked photographs and sells very differently to one you can't get into. Slashing cuts growth down. It is not a clean-up: rubbish, debris and dumped material need to come out before we can safely put a machine over a block. ### When you need slashing done The hard deadline is fire season. Local governments across the Perth metro area issue an annual firebreak and fuel-load notice, with a date by which breaks must be cut and maintained. The exact width, position and dates differ by council and by property size, so the notice you receive is the authority — not us. What we can tell you is that everyone gets the same notice at the same time, so the weeks before the deadline are the busiest of our year for this work. Book early and you get a choice of dates. Outside fire season, the trigger is usually a transaction or an inspection. A block going to market. A settlement approaching. A council or insurer letter about fuel load or an unsightly-land notice. A builder needing a site they can actually set out on. The third trigger is simply that it has got beyond a mower. If growth is above knee height across an open area, a slasher will do in one visit what a mower would struggle with all day, and the result is more even. Once the block is down, keeping it down is ordinary [lawn mowing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-mowing/) — and if the growth is really a garden gone feral rather than open ground, that's a [garden clean-up](https://kissmygrass.com.au/garden-clean-ups/). ### How it works 1. **Send the address, size and photos** — The street address, the approximate block size, photos showing the height of the growth, and how a machine and trailer would get on. If you have a firebreak notice, send the requirement with it. Use the [enquiry form](https://kissmygrass.com.au/contact/). 2. **We quote from size and access** — Slashing is quoted upfront from the block size, growth height and access — that's the whole calculation. Larger or blind sites get a look first. No callout fee. 3. **We cut it** — Most suburban blocks are a single visit. You get finished photos, which is what you need anyway if you're demonstrating compliance to a council or an insurer. ### Areas we cover Block slashing runs across the southern corridor and out to its semi-rural edges — the parts of our patch where there is most vacant and acreage land. The [service areas page](https://kissmygrass.com.au/service-areas/) has the full suburb list. In practice the heaviest slashing demand is on the outer and newer edges of our area rather than the established inner suburbs: the Atwell, Success, Treeby, Banjup and Wandi belt, and the south edge around Bertram, Wellard, Mandogalup and Hope Valley, where blocks are bigger and more of them are still vacant. Around [Cockburn Central](https://kissmygrass.com.au/locations/cockburn-central/) it's typically lots between builds. In tightly built-out suburbs like [Spearwood](https://kissmygrass.com.au/locations/spearwood/) and [Bibra Lake](https://kissmygrass.com.au/locations/bibra-lake/) there is less vacant land, so it's usually a single lot rather than a run of them. ### What slashing costs Slashing is one of the more predictable things we quote, because the inputs are simple: how big the area is, how high and how thick the growth is, and whether a machine can get on and move around freely. Height and density matter more than people expect. Knee-high grass is a fast single pass. Chest-high woody growth is slower, may need two passes, and is harder on the machine. Slope, soft sand and uneven ground all slow it down as well. The things that genuinely add cost are obstacles and hazards: star pickets, wire, dumped rubbish, concrete, tree stumps and star droppers hidden in long grass. A hidden stump can wreck a slasher, which is why we ask what's under there — and why a block with known debris may need a hand-clear first. Access is the last piece: a block with a wide open frontage prices better than one behind a locked gate on a narrow verge. > **Firebreaks are your legal obligation, not ours** — Firebreak width, position, timing and penalties are set by your local government and stated in the notice they send you each year. Requirements vary between councils and by property size. We cut to the specification you give us. Check your own notice — or your council's website — and get in touch well before the deadline, because the last fortnight before it is when everyone calls at once. ### Block slashing FAQs **Do you cut firebreaks and slash overgrown blocks?** Yes. We slash overgrown blocks and cut firebreaks across Perth's southern suburbs, from a single suburban block through to acreage, using heavy machinery. Jobs are quoted upfront from the block size and access. Fire-season slots fill up, so book ahead of your council's firebreak deadline rather than after it. **How wide does my firebreak need to be?** That's set by your local government, not by us, and it differs between councils and by property size. Your annual firebreak notice states the requirement — send it to us with your enquiry and we'll cut to it. **When should I book fire-season slashing?** As early as you can. Every landowner in a council area receives the same notice with the same deadline, so demand is concentrated into the weeks before it. Booking early is the difference between choosing your date and taking what's left. **Do you take the cut material away?** Slashing mulches growth down and leaves it on the ground — that's what makes it economic on a large area. If you need the material collected and carted off, say so in the enquiry: it's possible on smaller blocks but it's a different job and a different price. **What if there's rubbish or debris on the block?** Tell us before we quote. Hidden stumps, star pickets, wire and dumped rubbish are a genuine hazard to a slasher and to the operator, so a block with debris needs clearing first. We'd rather know from a photo than find out with a blade. **Can you slash a block I don't live near?** Yes — a lot of this work is for owners of vacant land who live elsewhere. You never need to attend. We work from the address, quote from photos and satellite, and send finished photos you can forward to a council or insurer. ### Related services - [Lawn mowing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-mowing/) — Once a block is down, keeping it down is a normal mowing cycle. - [Garden clean-ups](https://kissmygrass.com.au/garden-clean-ups/) — For overgrown gardens and beds rather than open ground. - [Tree trimming and removals](https://kissmygrass.com.au/tree-services/) — Woody growth and self-sown trees a slasher can't take. - [Weed control](https://kissmygrass.com.au/weed-control/) — Follow-up treatment so a slashed block doesn't come straight back. --- ## Lawn aeration and coring in Perth URL: https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-aeration/ Published: 2026-08-27 · Updated: 2026-08-27 If your lawn is thin, hard underfoot and water runs off it instead of soaking in, the problem is usually not the amount of water or fertiliser you're putting on. It's that neither is getting down to the roots. Aeration — also called coring or core aeration — punches through compacted soil to open it up, so water, air and nutrients can reach the root zone again. It's one of the cheapest things you can do to a struggling lawn, and on Perth's sandy, heavily trafficked lawns it often does more than another season of feeding. ### What aeration actually does Soil under a lawn compacts over time. Foot traffic, kids, pets, parked trailers, mower wheels and years of watering all press the soil particles closer together, and the air gaps between them — the spaces roots need — disappear. Compacted soil sheds water rather than absorbing it, holds less air, and forces roots to stay shallow because they can't push down. Coring removes small plugs of soil across the lawn, which does three things at once: it creates channels for water and air to move down, it gives roots somewhere to grow into, and it relieves the pressure on the soil either side of each hole. The result is a lawn that takes water instead of shedding it, and roots that go deeper and hold on better through summer. It also helps everything else you do work harder. Fertiliser and wetting agents applied to a compacted lawn largely sit on the surface. Applied just after coring, they go where the roots are. ### Signs your lawn needs coring You usually don't need a soil test. The lawn tells you. - **Water pools or runs off** — You water, and it beads up, sits on the surface or runs to the low side of the lawn instead of disappearing into it. - **The ground is hard underfoot** — The lawn feels solid rather than springy, and a screwdriver pushed into damp soil takes real effort to get in. - **Thin, worn patches in the traffic lines** — The path from the back door to the shed, the strip where the trailer sits, the kids' route to the trampoline — the lawn gives up in the compacted lines first. - **It stays stressed through summer no matter what** — A lawn with shallow roots has no reserve. It's the first thing to go brown in a hot week and the slowest to come back. - **Heavy clay or heavily built-up soil** — Newer estates are often built on brought-in fill that has been compacted by machinery. A lawn laid over that can struggle from day one. If the lawn feels spongy rather than hard, and water sits on top of a soft layer, that's thatch rather than compaction — see [vertimowing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/vertimowing/). The two problems look similar and the fixes are different. ### When to aerate in Perth The right window is when the lawn is actively growing, so it recovers quickly and fills the holes back in. For Perth's warm-season grasses — couch, kikuyu and buffalo — that means spring through to early summer once the soil has genuinely warmed, and early autumn while there's still warmth in the ground. Avoid the depths of winter, when warm-season turf is barely growing and holes stay open, and avoid the hottest part of summer if the lawn is already stressed and you can't water it in afterwards. Once a year is plenty for most home lawns. Lawns with heavy traffic, heavy soil, or a run of poor seasons behind them benefit from doing it two seasons in a row and then dropping back. If we're already visiting for [lawn mowing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-mowing/), coring is easy to add to a scheduled visit. ### How it works 1. **Tell us about the lawn** — Your suburb, the approximate lawn area, and photos of the worst of it. Mention any reticulation you know the position of. The [quote form](https://kissmygrass.com.au/contact/) takes photos. 2. **We quote it upfront** — Priced from area and access. It's often quoted alongside vertimowing or a mow, because doing them in one visit is cheaper than separate trips. 3. **We core it** — Usually a single short visit. Water it in well afterwards, and if you're going to fertilise or apply a wetting agent, straight after coring is the best time you'll get all year. ### Areas we service Aeration is available across our whole patch — Perth south of the river, from North Fremantle across to Belmont, out to Byford and south to Mandurah. The suburb list is on the [service areas page](https://kissmygrass.com.au/service-areas/). It's a job we do a lot of in the newer estates where lawns sit on compacted construction fill — the Atwell and Success belt and around [Cockburn Central](https://kissmygrass.com.au/locations/cockburn-central/) — and in established suburbs like [Spearwood](https://kissmygrass.com.au/locations/spearwood/) and [Bibra Lake](https://kissmygrass.com.au/locations/bibra-lake/) where lawns have simply had thirty years of traffic on them. ### What aeration costs Aeration is quoted from lawn area and access, and it is one of the better-value jobs on this site: it's a short visit, there's no green waste to cart, and the effect lasts a full season. Access is the main variable. A front lawn a machine can be wheeled straight onto is quick. A back lawn behind a narrow gate, up steps or through a courtyard takes longer to set up than to core. Reticulation matters too — we work around heads and lines, and knowing roughly where they run speeds the job up and reduces risk. The cheapest way to buy it is bundled. Coring plus [vertimowing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/vertimowing/) in one visit, or coring added to a scheduled mow, saves you a separate call-out and is how most of our regulars do it. ### Lawns that take water properly When the soil is open, the same amount of water and fertiliser goes considerably further. - Photo: Close-up of dense, even turf. - Photo: A wide front lawn holding colour through summer. - Photo: A corner lawn with no thinning in the traffic lines. ### Lawn aeration FAQs **What's the difference between aeration and coring?** In practice they're used interchangeably. Strictly, aeration is any process that gets air into the soil, and coring is the specific method of removing small plugs of soil — which is what we do, because it relieves compaction properly rather than just spiking holes in it. **When is the best time to aerate a lawn in Perth?** While the lawn is actively growing so it heals fast: spring into early summer once the soil has warmed, or early autumn. Avoid mid-winter, when warm-season grasses aren't growing, and avoid the peak of summer if the lawn is already stressed. **How often should I have it done?** Once a year suits most home lawns. Lawns with heavy foot traffic, compacted fill soil, or a couple of poor seasons behind them are worth doing two years running before dropping back to annual. **Will it damage my lawn?** No, if it's done in the growing season. The lawn looks freckled with small plugs for a week or two and then closes over. That's why timing matters — done in mid-winter the holes just sit there. **What should I do straight after coring?** Water it in well. If you were planning to fertilise, top-dress or apply a wetting agent this season, immediately after coring is the most effective time to do it, because it goes down the holes to the root zone instead of sitting on the surface. **What about my reticulation?** We work around sprinkler heads and lines. If you know roughly where yours run, tell us or mark the heads — it makes the job quicker and lowers the risk of catching something. ### Related services - [Vertimowing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/vertimowing/) — The other half of a lawn renovation — strips out thatch rather than relieving compaction. - [Lawn mowing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-mowing/) — Add coring to a scheduled mow and skip a separate visit. - [Weed control](https://kissmygrass.com.au/weed-control/) — A thin, compacted lawn is where weeds get in. Worth treating together. - [Garden clean-ups](https://kissmygrass.com.au/garden-clean-ups/) — Beds, hedges and green waste while we're on site. --- ## Vertimowing and dethatching in Perth URL: https://kissmygrass.com.au/vertimowing/ Published: 2026-08-27 · Updated: 2026-08-27 If your lawn feels spongy underfoot, water sits on the surface before disappearing, and it stays patchy no matter how much you water and feed it — you almost certainly have a thatch problem, not a watering problem. Vertimowing cuts vertically down through the lawn to strip out that dead thatch layer. It looks brutal on the day and it is the single most effective thing you can do for a tired Perth lawn. We take the thatch away the same day, so you're not left with a yard full of debris. ### What thatch is, and why Perth lawns get it Thatch is the layer of dead and living stems, runners and roots that builds up between the green growth on top and the soil underneath. A thin layer is normal and even useful — it cushions the lawn. Once it gets thick, it turns into a mat that behaves like a sponge sitting on top of your soil. That mat is the problem. Water hits it, spreads sideways through it and evaporates before it ever reaches the soil. Fertiliser does the same. The grass responds by rooting into the thatch itself rather than into the ground, which leaves it with no drought reserve at all — so the lawn browns off in the first hot week and never quite recovers. Perth's most common lawn types are the ones most prone to it. Kikuyu and couch are vigorous runner grasses that build thatch quickly, especially when they're well fed and well watered. Buffalo builds a coarser thatch more slowly but builds it. Add a long growing season and years of regular watering, and a thick thatch layer is close to the default state of an established Perth lawn that has never been renovated. This is why so many people conclude their lawn is beyond help after a couple of seasons of feeding and watering harder. They're feeding and watering a sponge. ### Signs your lawn needs vertimowing - **It feels spongy or bouncy underfoot** — The clearest sign. A healthy lawn feels firm with a little give. A thatched lawn feels like walking on carpet underlay. - **Water sits on the surface, then vanishes** — Water beads and pools briefly, then disappears sideways rather than down. Dig a small plug and you'll find dry soil under a wet mat. - **A visible brown layer in a cross-section** — Cut a wedge out with a spade. If there's more than about a centimetre of brown fibrous material between the green and the soil, that's your answer. - **Patchy no matter what you do** — Thin, uneven colour that doesn't respond to fertiliser, because the fertiliser isn't reaching the roots. - **The mower scalps easily** — A thick thatch layer makes the surface uneven and soft, so the mower sinks in places and shaves the lawn back to brown. Spongy and soft is thatch. Hard and shedding water is compaction — see [lawn aeration and coring](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-aeration/). A lot of lawns have both, and the two jobs are usually done together. ### When to vertimow in Perth Timing matters more for this job than for anything else we do, because vertimowing deliberately takes the lawn back hard. It has to be done when the grass is growing strongly enough to recover and fill back in, which for warm-season grasses means spring through to early summer once the soil has properly warmed. Early autumn can work while there's still real warmth in the ground. Mid-winter is the wrong time: a warm-season lawn taken back in July will sit there thin and open, and weeds will get the space before the grass does. Peak heat is also poor timing if the lawn is already stressed. Once every year or two is right for most lawns, depending on how fast yours builds thatch. Vigorous, well-fed kikuyu might want it annually; a slower buffalo lawn might go two or three years. ### How it works 1. **Send photos and the lawn area** — Photos of the lawn, and if you can, a photo of a cut wedge showing the thatch layer thickness. Plus your suburb and roughly how big the area is. Use the [quote form](https://kissmygrass.com.au/contact/). 2. **We quote it upfront** — Priced from area, thatch depth and access. Most people bundle it with coring, and often with a mow, because one visit is cheaper than three. 3. **We vertimow and take the thatch away** — The machine cuts down through the lawn, the debris is collected, and it leaves with us the same day. Expect the lawn to look thin and shocking for a fortnight — that's normal and it is the job working. ### Four to six weeks after a renovation Thin and shocking for a fortnight, then thicker and greener than it was. This is the far end of that. - Photo: A thick, even lawn once the thatch is gone. - Photo: Dense growth sitting straight on the soil. - Photo: Even colour right to the bed edges. > **It looks worse before it looks better** — A freshly vertimowed lawn looks like it has been attacked. That is what removing years of thatch looks like. Water it well, feed it, and expect two to four weeks of active growing weather before it thickens back up — greener and denser than it was. If you need the lawn looking good for a specific date, do not vertimow in the month before it. ### Areas we service Vertimowing is available right across Perth south of the river, from North Fremantle across to Belmont, out to Byford and south to Mandurah. Full list on the [service areas page](https://kissmygrass.com.au/service-areas/). The lawns that need it most are the established ones — decades of kikuyu and couch growth on the mature streets of [Spearwood](https://kissmygrass.com.au/locations/spearwood/) and [Bibra Lake](https://kissmygrass.com.au/locations/bibra-lake/), and the older parts of the Fremantle flank. Newer turf around [Cockburn Central](https://kissmygrass.com.au/locations/cockburn-central/) is usually a few years off needing it, and those lawns tend to want [aeration](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-aeration/) first. ### What vertimowing costs Quoted from lawn area, how deep the thatch is, and access. Thatch depth is a real cost factor: a lawn with a thin layer is one straightforward pass, and a lawn with years of build-up produces a genuinely large volume of debris to collect and cart, sometimes across more than one pass. Access follows the same logic as every other machine job — a front lawn is quicker than a back lawn behind a narrow gate. Bundling is where the value is. Vertimowing and [coring](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-aeration/) together, in the right season, is a proper lawn renovation and it is much cheaper as one visit than two. Adding it to a scheduled [mow](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-mowing/) saves a trip again. ### Vertimowing FAQs **What is vertimowing, and does my lawn need it?** Vertimowing, also called dethatching, cuts vertically through the lawn to strip out the dead thatch layer that stops water and nutrients reaching the soil. It's why many Perth lawns stay patchy no matter how much they're watered. If your lawn feels spongy underfoot or water sits on the surface, thatch is the usual cause. We vertimow across the southern suburbs and take the thatch away the same day. **Is vertimowing the same as dethatching or verticutting?** Yes — different names for the same job. Vertimowing and verticutting describe the machine cutting vertically into the lawn; dethatching describes what it achieves. Lawn renovation usually means vertimowing and coring done together. **How long does the lawn take to recover?** Two to four weeks of active growing weather. It will look thin and rough at first — that's expected. Water it well and feed it, and it comes back thicker than before. **When is the best time of year to vertimow in Perth?** Spring through early summer once the soil has warmed, or early autumn while there's still warmth in the ground. Don't do it in mid-winter: warm-season grasses won't recover and weeds will take the open space. **Do you take the thatch away?** Yes, the same day. Vertimowing produces a lot of debris and it goes with us, included — you don't need a verge collection or a skip. **Should I vertimow or aerate?** Spongy and soft means thatch, so vertimow. Hard and shedding water means compaction, so core. Many established lawns have both, and doing them together in one spring visit is the standard lawn renovation. ### Related services - [Lawn aeration and coring](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-aeration/) — The other half of a renovation. Bundle both in one spring visit. - [Lawn mowing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-mowing/) — Regular cutting keeps thatch building more slowly. - [Weed control](https://kissmygrass.com.au/weed-control/) — A freshly opened lawn is vulnerable — worth planning treatment around it. - [What is vertimowing, and does your lawn need it?](https://kissmygrass.com.au/blog/what-is-vertimowing/) — A longer read on diagnosing thatch yourself before you book anything. --- ## Weed control in Perth, south of the river URL: https://kissmygrass.com.au/weed-control/ Published: 2026-08-27 · Updated: 2026-08-27 There is a point where a lawn stops being a lawn with some weeds in it and becomes weeds with some lawn in it. Bindii through winter, winter grass everywhere, clover and creeping oxalis in the thin patches, and paving joints full of growth by August. We do selective, targeted weed treatment across lawns, garden beds and hard surfaces. Selective is the important word: on a lawn the aim is to take the weeds out and leave the turf, not to brown off the whole thing and start again. ### Where we treat - **Lawns — selective treatment** — Broadleaf and grassy weeds targeted within the lawn so the couch, kikuyu or buffalo is left standing. This is the bulk of the weed work we do. - **Garden beds and borders** — Beds treated and, where it makes more sense, weeded by hand as part of a [garden clean-up](https://kissmygrass.com.au/garden-clean-ups/). Some beds are a spray job, some are a hand job, and mixed plantings are usually the latter. - **Paths, paving and hard surfaces** — Driveways, paving joints, limestone, gravel and kerbs. This is where growth reappears fastest and where a treatment is most visible. - **Fence lines and boundaries** — The strips along fences and behind sheds that nothing gets mown and everything grows in. - **Vacant blocks and larger areas** — Follow-up treatment after [block slashing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/block-slashing/), so a cut block doesn't grow straight back before the next deadline. ### When to treat Timing is most of the result with weed control. The general rule is to treat while the weed is actively growing and before it sets seed — once it has seeded, you have solved this year's problem and inherited next year's. In Perth that makes the cooler, wetter months the important window for the winter weeds that most lawns struggle with: bindii, winter grass, capeweed and clover all germinate with the autumn rains and run through winter. Treating them early in that cycle, while they're small, is far more effective and cheaper than trying to deal with an established mat in late spring. Bindii in particular is worth getting before it forms the seed heads that make a lawn unusable barefoot. Summer weeds and hard-surface growth are a different cycle and get treated through the warmer months. And a lawn that has just been [vertimowed](https://kissmygrass.com.au/vertimowing/) or [cored](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-aeration/) is temporarily open, which is a moment to plan treatment around rather than ignore. ### Why weeds keep winning Weeds are opportunists — they colonise space the lawn isn't holding. That's why the same patches come back year after year: the bare, thin, compacted or shaded areas are the weakness, and spraying alone never fixes a weakness. A lawn that's thin because the soil is compacted will keep opening up until the compaction is dealt with. A lawn that's rooting into thatch instead of soil has no vigour to compete. A lawn cut too short, or scalped, gives weeds light at soil level. And a lawn under a dense tree canopy is losing to shade, not to weeds. So the honest version of this service is that treatment buys you a clean lawn now, and the lawn's own density is what keeps it clean. If yours keeps going back, the fix is usually a renovation — coring, vertimowing, and a sensible mowing height — rather than more spray. ### How it works 1. **Send close-up photos** — Weed control is the one job where close-ups genuinely matter — identifying what's growing decides the approach. A photo of the weed itself plus a wide shot of the area. Use the [enquiry form](https://kissmygrass.com.au/contact/). 2. **We quote it upfront** — Priced from the area, what's growing and where it is. Often quoted alongside a mow or a clean-up, because one visit beats two. 3. **We treat it** — Applied to suit the weed and the surface, with the timing and re-entry advice you need on the day. Some weeds need a follow-up pass a few weeks later, and if so we'll tell you upfront rather than after. > **Pets, kids and re-entry** — Tell us in your enquiry if you have pets, chickens, kids using the lawn, or edible garden beds nearby — it changes what's appropriate and where. We'll give you clear re-entry advice on the day and we'd rather plan around it in the quote than have you find out afterwards. ### Areas we service Weed control runs across the whole southern corridor — Perth south of the river, from North Fremantle across to Belmont, out to Byford and south to Mandurah. The [service areas page](https://kissmygrass.com.au/service-areas/) has the full suburb list. Established lawns in [Spearwood](https://kissmygrass.com.au/locations/spearwood/) and [Bibra Lake](https://kissmygrass.com.au/locations/bibra-lake/) tend to bring the classic winter-weed problems in older couch and kikuyu. Newer lawns around [Cockburn Central](https://kissmygrass.com.au/locations/cockburn-central/) more often have weeds getting in through thin patches over compacted fill, which is a coring problem wearing a weed costume. ### What weed control costs Quoted from area, surface type and what's growing. Lawns, beds and hard surfaces are different jobs with different approaches, so a quote covering all three will itemise them. Two things move the price. Extent is one: a lawn with scattered bindii is a light pass, and a lawn that is majority weed is a bigger job with a follow-up. Number of passes is the other — some weeds are one treatment, some genuinely need a second a few weeks later, and we tell you which yours is when we quote. It's cheapest bundled onto a visit we're already making, and it's cheapest overall when it's done early in the weed's cycle rather than once it has taken the lawn. ### Lawns and beds we keep clear A dense lawn and a mulched bed are the best weed control there is. Treatment buys you a clean start; the lawn's own thickness is what keeps it. - Photo: A dense corner lawn mown around established beds. - Photo: Mulched, edged rose beds with a clean lawn boundary. - Photo: Keeping a hard edge between lawn and bed. ### Weed control FAQs **Will weed spraying kill my lawn?** Not when it's a selective treatment matched to the weed and the turf type — that's the whole point of selective. Tell us whether your lawn is couch, kikuyu or buffalo if you know, because it affects what's suitable. Buffalo in particular is sensitive to products that couch tolerates fine. **How do I get rid of bindii in a Perth lawn?** Treat it early in its cycle, through the cooler months while the plants are small and well before the prickly seed heads form. Once it has seeded you've lost that round — the seed is already in the lawn for next year. This is the single most common weed enquiry we get. **How long until the weeds die off?** Most treatments show visible change within one to two weeks depending on the weed, the product and the weather. Some weeds need a second pass a few weeks later, and we'll flag that in the quote rather than surprise you with it. **Is it safe for pets and children?** Tell us about pets, chickens, kids and any edible beds when you enquire — it changes what we use and where. You'll get clear re-entry timing on the day. **Why do the same weeds come back every year?** Because they're filling space the lawn isn't holding — usually thin patches over compacted soil, a lawn rooting into thatch, mowing too short, or shade. Spraying clears them; lawn density is what keeps them out. If yours cycles back annually, [coring](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-aeration/) and [vertimowing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/vertimowing/) will do more than another spray. **Can you treat weeds in paving and gravel?** Yes — driveways, paving joints, limestone, gravel, kerbs and fence lines. Hard surfaces are the most visible result you'll get from a treatment. ### Related services - [Lawn aeration and coring](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-aeration/) — Fixes the compaction that keeps letting weeds in. - [Vertimowing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/vertimowing/) — A lawn rooting into thatch can't compete with anything. Strip it out. - [Garden clean-ups](https://kissmygrass.com.au/garden-clean-ups/) — For beds where hand-weeding and mulch beat a spray. - [Lawn mowing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-mowing/) — Correct, regular cutting height is free weed control. --- ## Service areas — Perth south of the river URL: https://kissmygrass.com.au/service-areas/ Published: 2026-08-27 · Updated: 2026-08-27 Kiss My Grass works Perth south of the river: from North Fremantle across to Belmont, out to Byford, and south to Mandurah then back up the coast. If you're SOR, chances are we're already nearby. We batch suburbs by day of the week rather than criss-crossing the city, which is the reason drive time isn't billed to the customer and the reason a crew is usually already working near you when you call. ### How our coverage works Rather than sending crews wherever the next job happens to be, we group the corridor into five areas and give each one a fixed day of the week. It sounds like a small thing. It is actually why the pricing works: a crew that is already on your street is not charging you for the forty minutes it would otherwise have spent getting there. It also means we can usually tell you when we're next in your area the moment you give us a suburb — and if you're flexible about the day, you get the shortest wait. Booking outside your area's usual day is still possible; it just may take longer to slot in. The five areas below cover 45 suburbs. It is not the full extent of where we'll go — it's the core patch. If your suburb isn't on the list, send an enquiry anyway and we'll tell you straight whether we can get to you rather than leaving you guessing. ### The five areas and their days Each area has a regular day. Tell us your suburb and we'll tell you the next available slot. - **Tuesday — coastal south** — Coogee, Munster, Spearwood, Henderson, Wattleup, Naval Base, Hamilton Hill, South Coogee. The coastal strip, where sandy soils and salt exposure make lawn health harder work than inland. - **Wednesday — Cockburn core** — Bibra Lake, Cockburn Central, South Lake, Yangebup, Beeliar, Jandakot, North Lake, Lake Coogee. The middle of our patch, and the densest run of jobs in any single day. - **Thursday — Atwell and Success** — Atwell, Aubin Grove, Success, Hammond Park, Treeby, Banjup, Wandi, Anketell. Newer estates plus the larger semi-rural blocks around Banjup and Wandi, where slashing and acreage mowing are common. - **Friday — south edge** — Bertram, Wellard, Kwinana Beach, Calista, Medina, Orelia, Parmelia, Leda, Mandogalup, Hope Valley. The Kwinana corridor, with a mix of established suburbs and bigger blocks still being developed. - **Saturday — Fremantle flank** — South Fremantle, Beaconsfield, White Gum Valley, O'Connor, Samson, Bicton, Palmyra, Hilton, Willagee, Coolbellup. The oldest housing stock in our patch, which means the most mature gardens and the biggest trees. 45 suburbs and counting. Not on the list? Enquire anyway — tell us your suburb and we'll confirm on the spot. ### The area we cover The shaded area is our patch — North Fremantle down to Mandurah, inland to Byford. Pan and zoom to find your street. 45 suburbs in the core patch and counting. The shading continues south past Mandurah off the initial view. Photo: A finished verge in our Tuesday coastal-south run. Verge mowing is included when we quote the property. ### Suburb pages Three suburbs have their own page with local detail. The rest are covered by the areas above — send an enquiry and we'll confirm your slot. - [Lawn and garden services in Bibra Lake](https://kissmygrass.com.au/locations/bibra-lake/) — 6163, Wednesday area. Established housing, an industrial precinct and the lake reserve, all in one postcode. - [Lawn and garden services in Cockburn Central](https://kissmygrass.com.au/locations/cockburn-central/) — 6164, Wednesday area. Newer estates, compact blocks, young turf on built-up soil. - [Lawn and garden services in Spearwood](https://kissmygrass.com.au/locations/spearwood/) — 6163, Tuesday area. Established blocks, mature gardens, full-sized trees. ### What we do across the corridor Every service is available in every area we cover. In practice the mix shifts as you move across the corridor, because the housing does. The older, established suburbs on the Fremantle flank and through Spearwood and Hamilton Hill have mature gardens and forty-year-old plantings, so they bring more [tree work](https://kissmygrass.com.au/tree-services/), [stump grinding](https://kissmygrass.com.au/stump-grinding/) and big [garden clean-ups](https://kissmygrass.com.au/garden-clean-ups/) — plus lawns old enough to need [vertimowing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/vertimowing/). The newer estates through Atwell, Success, Hammond Park and around Cockburn Central have smaller, tighter blocks with younger turf sitting on compacted construction fill, so they lean towards regular [lawn mowing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-mowing/) and [aeration](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-aeration/). The outer and semi-rural edges — Banjup, Wandi, Anketell, Mandogalup, Hope Valley — have the vacant land and acreage, which is where [block slashing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/block-slashing/) and firebreak work concentrate ahead of each fire season. ### Suburbs outside the patch We get regular enquiries from north of the river and from the eastern suburbs — Joondalup, Scarborough, Subiaco, Mount Lawley, Midland, Armadale, Ellenbrook and Mandurah proper among them. We're honest about it: those are outside the corridor we can service properly, and we'd rather tell you that than take the booking and let you down on the day. If you're just outside the boundary, it's still worth asking. Coverage grows as the fleet grows, and some edge suburbs are workable depending on the job size and the day. ### Service area FAQs **Which Perth suburbs does Kiss My Grass service?** We cover Perth's southern corridor — from North Fremantle across to Belmont, out to Byford, and south to Mandurah then back up the coast. That includes Bibra Lake, Cockburn Central, Spearwood, Coogee, Hamilton Hill, Munster, Beeliar, Yangebup, Atwell, Aubin Grove, Success, Hammond Park, South Fremantle, Bicton, Palmyra, Bertram, Wellard, Kwinana Beach and many more. If you're SOR, chances are we're already nearby. **How quickly can Kiss My Grass get to my job?** We're always around — our team members are based right across the south of the river, and we batch suburbs by day of the week, so a crew is usually already working near you. Tell us your suburb and we'll let you know when we're next in your area. **What if my suburb isn't on the list?** Send the enquiry anyway with your suburb and what you need. The list is the core patch, not a hard boundary, and we'll tell you straight whether we can get to you. **Do you charge for travel?** No. Batching suburbs by day of the week is exactly what lets us not bill drive time — the crew is already in your area. **Can I book a day that isn't my area's usual day?** Usually yes, it just may take longer to fit in. If you're flexible and can take your area's regular day, you'll get the earliest slot. **Do you work north of the river?** No. We're a south-of-the-river business and we keep it that way so the coverage promise stays true. Joondalup, Scarborough, Subiaco, Mount Lawley, Midland, Armadale and Ellenbrook are outside our area. --- ## Lawn and garden services in Bibra Lake URL: https://kissmygrass.com.au/locations/bibra-lake/ Published: 2026-08-27 · Updated: 2026-08-27 Bibra Lake is one of the suburbs we work in most. Wednesday is our Cockburn core day, which covers Bibra Lake along with South Lake, Yangebup, Beeliar, Jandakot, North Lake and Lake Coogee, so there is almost always a crew working within a few streets of you. We are a mobile business, not a depot with a yard — our crews are based right across the south of the river and work outward from wherever they are, which is why we can batch a whole area into one day instead of driving back and forth across the city. ### What we know about Bibra Lake yards Bibra Lake is not one kind of suburb, which is the main thing to know about working here. The residential streets sit alongside a substantial light-industrial and commercial precinct, and the suburb wraps around the lake and its surrounding bushland reserve. Those three things mean we do three quite different kinds of work inside the one postcode. The residential side is largely established housing on regular suburban blocks — lawns and gardens with decades in them rather than newly laid turf. That brings the usual profile of an older Perth lawn: kikuyu and couch that have built up a thatch layer over the years, soil compacted by long use, and trees that were planted small in the 1980s and are now full-sized and close to the house. The commercial and industrial side is a different job again: verges, car park surrounds, fence lines and larger grounds, where the requirement is that a site looks maintained and stays accessible rather than that a lawn looks beautiful. We do a fair amount of that here, and it is quoted from the site rather than from a residential rate. Properties backing onto or near the lake reserve have their own quirk — more leaf litter and windblown material coming in from the bushland side, and boundaries where growth pushes in from outside the fence. It is worth factoring into how often you want a tidy-up rather than being surprised by it each autumn. ### Work in and around Bibra Lake Wednesday is our day in this area, so most of these are properties on a regular cycle. - Photo: A weekly lawn service in Bibra Lake. - Photo: Low hedges and mulched beds around a freshly mown lawn. - Photo: Cutting a clean edge along a limestone garden wall. ### What Bibra Lake books most Regular [lawn mowing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-mowing/) is the bulk of it, mostly on a fortnightly cycle that stretches out over winter — the standard arrangement for an established suburban lawn. Because Wednesday is our day here, most Bibra Lake mowing customers sit on a Wednesday and stay there. Second is lawn renovation, and this suburb has more of it than the newer estates do, simply because the lawns are older. [Vertimowing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/vertimowing/) to strip out built-up thatch and [coring](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-aeration/) to relieve compaction are the two jobs that turn a tired thirty-year-old lawn around, and spring is when they should be done. Third is [tree work](https://kissmygrass.com.au/tree-services/) and the [stump grinding](https://kissmygrass.com.au/stump-grinding/) that usually follows it. Mature plantings on established blocks eventually need reducing, lifting off a roof, or taking out entirely — and once a tree is gone the stump is the bit people did not budget for. We also do commercial grounds and verge maintenance for businesses in the industrial precinct, and [garden clean-ups](https://kissmygrass.com.au/garden-clean-ups/) for rentals and pre-sale properties. Bibra Lake DC (postcode 6965) is covered as well. ### Every service, available in Bibra Lake - [Lawn mowing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-mowing/) — Wednesday is our Bibra Lake day, so a crew is nearby every week. - [Garden clean-ups](https://kissmygrass.com.au/garden-clean-ups/) — Beds, hedges and green waste in one visit. - [Tree trimming and removals](https://kissmygrass.com.au/tree-services/) — Mature plantings reduced, lifted or removed. - [Stump grinding](https://kissmygrass.com.au/stump-grinding/) — Ground below grade so you can re-turf or pave. - [Block slashing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/block-slashing/) — Vacant lots and larger commercial parcels. - [Lawn aeration and coring](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-aeration/) — For soil three decades of use has compacted. - [Vertimowing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/vertimowing/) — The fix for an established lawn that has gone spongy. - [Weed control](https://kissmygrass.com.au/weed-control/) — Bindii and winter grass in older couch and kikuyu. ### Getting a quote in Bibra Lake Same process as everywhere: send your street, what needs doing and a few photos, and you get an upfront price back by text — usually within a few hours, with no callout fee. You do not need to be home for the quote or for the job, as long as we can get to the yard. One local advantage worth using: Bibra Lake sits in the middle of our patch rather than at its edge, and Wednesday is our day here, so short-notice jobs are usually easier to fit in than they are out at the far ends of the corridor. If you need something done this week, say so. ### Bibra Lake FAQs **Which day do you service Bibra Lake?** Wednesday. Bibra Lake sits in our Cockburn core area along with South Lake, Yangebup, Beeliar, Jandakot, North Lake and Lake Coogee, so a crew is in the area every week. Booking a Wednesday gets you the earliest slot. **Do you have a depot or office in Bibra Lake?** No — we are a mobile service. Kiss My Grass Pty Ltd is registered at Bibra Lake, WA 6163, but there is no shopfront or yard to visit and no depot the crews drive out from. Our team members are based right across the south of the river and work outward from wherever they are, which is how a crew is usually already near you. **Do you cover Bibra Lake DC 6965 as well?** Yes — the 6965 postal district is covered along with the 6163 residential and industrial areas. **Do you do commercial grounds in the Bibra Lake industrial area?** Yes. Verges, car park surrounds, fence lines and larger grounds for businesses in the precinct. Those are quoted from the site and access rather than from residential rates — send the address and we'll take a look. **My lawn is thirty years old and looks tired. What does it need?** Most likely vertimowing, coring, or both, done in spring. Spongy underfoot means thatch; hard and shedding water means compaction. Older Bibra Lake lawns very often have both, and doing them together in one spring visit is the standard renovation. **We back onto the lake reserve and get a lot of leaf litter. Can you handle that?** Yes, and it's a common ask on those streets. It's usually best handled as a scheduled tidy-up rather than a one-off, because the material keeps arriving — tell us which boundaries are affected and we'll build it into the quote. --- ## Lawn and garden services in Cockburn Central URL: https://kissmygrass.com.au/locations/cockburn-central/ Published: 2026-08-27 · Updated: 2026-08-27 Cockburn Central is the newest housing we work on regularly, and it needs a different approach to the older suburbs a few kilometres up the road. Smaller lawns, tighter access, limestone retaining everywhere, and turf that is often sitting on ground a machine compacted during construction. It shares our Wednesday run with Bibra Lake, South Lake, Yangebup, Beeliar and Jandakot, so there is a crew in the area every week. ### What makes Cockburn Central different Cockburn Central grew up as an activity centre — the train station, the shopping precinct and the surrounding estates were largely built from the 2000s onward, which makes it one of the youngest suburbs in our corridor. Nearly everything about the yard work here follows from that. Blocks are smaller and built out closer to the boundaries, so lawns are compact and often split into a modest front strip and a courtyard-sized back. That changes the economics: the mowing itself is quick, but access is tighter, with narrow side gates and paved runs where a full-size mower does not fit comfortably. Levels are the other signature of the area. Newer estates on this ground were cut and filled to create flat building pads, which is why limestone retaining walls are everywhere — often with lawn running right up to them. Mowing and edging against a retaining wall, and grinding a stump beside one, are both slower and more careful jobs than the same work in open lawn. The most important difference is under the grass. Turf in a new estate is usually laid over brought-in fill that has been rolled and driven on by construction machinery. That soil starts compacted, so a lawn that has never had a bad season can still be thin, shed water rather than absorb it, and let weeds in through the gaps. People here often assume they have a watering problem or a bad batch of turf. Usually they have a compaction problem. ### Work in and around Cockburn Central Compact lawns, tight access and limestone retaining — the signature of these estates. - Photo: Lawn maintenance in Cockburn Central — limestone retaining is everywhere in the newer estates. - Photo: A corner lawn mown around established beds. - Photo: Whipper-snipping the edges of a back lawn. ### What Cockburn Central books most [Lawn aeration and coring](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-aeration/) punches above its weight here compared to the rest of our patch, and it is the job we most often recommend when someone describes a young lawn that will not thicken up. Relieving compacted fill is usually the difference, and it does more than another season of fertiliser. Regular [lawn mowing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-mowing/) is still the volume work, typically on a fortnightly cycle. Small lawns and tight access mean these jobs are quick, and a Wednesday slot in this area is easy to hold. [Weed control](https://kissmygrass.com.au/weed-control/) comes up more than you would expect for new turf, for the reason above: a thin lawn over compacted ground leaves space, and weeds take it. Treating the weeds without dealing with the compaction is why they come back every year. [Tree work](https://kissmygrass.com.au/tree-services/) here is mostly clearance rather than reduction — trees planted tight to a boundary or a house ten or fifteen years ago now needing to be lifted off a roof, a fence or a driveway. Full removals are less common than in the older suburbs, and [garden clean-ups](https://kissmygrass.com.au/garden-clean-ups/) tend to be smaller, more frequent tidy-ups rather than one big rescue. We also do a reasonable amount of strata and townhouse common-area work in the precinct. [Vertimowing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/vertimowing/) is the one service most Cockburn Central lawns are not ready for yet — thatch takes years to build. If your lawn is under about five years old and struggling, start with coring. ### Every service, available in Cockburn Central - [Lawn aeration and coring](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-aeration/) — The one we recommend most here. Compacted construction fill is the usual culprit. - [Lawn mowing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-mowing/) — Compact lawns, tight access. Wednesday is our day in this area. - [Weed control](https://kissmygrass.com.au/weed-control/) — For weeds getting in through a thin new lawn. - [Garden clean-ups](https://kissmygrass.com.au/garden-clean-ups/) — Smaller, regular tidy-ups suit these blocks. - [Tree trimming and removals](https://kissmygrass.com.au/tree-services/) — Clearance pruning off roofs, fences and driveways. - [Stump grinding](https://kissmygrass.com.au/stump-grinding/) — Careful work where a stump sits against retaining. - [Vertimowing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/vertimowing/) — For the older streets — most new turf isn't ready for it. - [Block slashing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/block-slashing/) — Lots sitting vacant between builds. > **Buying or renting in a new estate?** — If the turf was laid by the builder and has never thrived, get the soil looked at before you spend another season on fertiliser. Coring a compacted new lawn is one of the cheapest jobs on this site and it is usually the thing that was actually wrong. ### Cockburn Central FAQs **Which day do you service Cockburn Central?** Wednesday. Cockburn Central sits in our Cockburn core area with Bibra Lake, South Lake, Yangebup, Beeliar, Jandakot, North Lake and Lake Coogee, so a crew is in the area every week. **My new lawn won't thicken up. What's wrong with it?** In this suburb, most often compaction. Turf in newer estates is usually laid over brought-in fill that construction machinery has rolled solid, so water runs off instead of soaking in and roots stay shallow. Coring relieves it. If the lawn feels hard underfoot and water pools, that's the sign. **Can you mow a small courtyard lawn?** Yes, and a lot of what we do here is exactly that — a compact courtyard is one of the quicker jobs we do. Tell us the width of your narrowest gate in the enquiry, because it decides which gear comes. **Do you work around limestone retaining walls?** Yes — they're everywhere in these estates. Mowing, edging and stump grinding beside retaining is slower, more careful work than open lawn, and it's factored into the quote rather than sprung on you. **Do you do strata and townhouse common areas?** Yes. Common-area lawns, verges and garden beds for strata and townhouse complexes in the precinct, quoted from the site rather than as a residential job. **Should I vertimow a five-year-old lawn?** Probably not yet. Thatch takes years to build into a problem, and vertimowing a young lawn takes it back for no gain. Core it instead — that's almost always the right first move on newer turf here. --- ## Lawn and garden services in Spearwood URL: https://kissmygrass.com.au/locations/spearwood/ Published: 2026-08-27 · Updated: 2026-08-27 Spearwood is the opposite end of the spectrum to the new estates: bigger, older blocks, gardens with forty or fifty years in them, mature trees that are now genuinely large, and a lot of front lawn to cover. Tuesday is our coastal south day, which takes in Spearwood along with Coogee, Munster, Hamilton Hill, South Coogee, Henderson, Wattleup and Naval Base. ### What Spearwood yards are actually like The defining feature is scale. Spearwood was subdivided generously compared with anything built in the last twenty years, so the blocks are larger and much of that space is open lawn — wide front lawns running to the verge, and back yards big enough to have a genuine garden rather than a courtyard. It means mowing here is usually a bigger job than the same service two suburbs east, and it is quoted accordingly. The verges are part of the character. Wide, often palm-lined, and frequently the customer's responsibility in practice even when they are technically council land. Verge mowing and tidying is a normal part of a Spearwood quote rather than an add-on. The soil is deep, free-draining coastal sand. Spearwood sits on the sandy country that made this area productive market-garden land for generations before it was suburb, and that soil profile is a mixed blessing for a lawn: it never waterlogs, but it also holds very little water or nutrient. Water and fertiliser move straight through unless the lawn has depth of root and organic matter to hold onto them. It is why so many established lawns here look thin in February despite being watered. And then there are the trees. Plantings that went in when these houses were new are now full-sized — gums, big figs, palms and old fruit trees — often close to the house, over a roof, or across a boundary. This is the suburb where we do the most genuine tree work. ### Work in and around Spearwood Bigger blocks, wide verges and mature plantings. Tuesday is our day in this area. - Photo: A verge and lawn tidy in Spearwood — wide, palm-lined verges are typical of these streets. - Photo: A large front lawn mown down to the driveway. - Photo: Timber-edged rose beds alongside a striped lawn. ### What Spearwood books most Regular [lawn mowing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-mowing/) with the verge included, most often fortnightly year-round, is the backbone. Larger lawns benefit more from a consistent cycle than small ones do, because a big lawn left to get long is a substantially harder cut rather than a slightly harder one. [Tree services](https://kissmygrass.com.au/tree-services/) are proportionally bigger business here than anywhere else in our patch. Reducing and lifting mature canopies off roofs and gutters, deadwooding old plantings, taking out trees that have simply outgrown the block, and storm damage after a bad night. [Stump grinding](https://kissmygrass.com.au/stump-grinding/) follows most removals, and doing both on one visit saves bringing the grinder back. Lawn renovation is the other Spearwood specialty. Decades-old kikuyu and couch on sandy soil is the textbook case for [vertimowing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/vertimowing/) — thick thatch, water running sideways through a spongy mat and never reaching the sand underneath. Pairing it with [coring](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-aeration/) in spring is the job that transforms a lawn people had written off. Big [garden clean-ups](https://kissmygrass.com.au/garden-clean-ups/) are common too, especially on properties changing hands or between tenants, where forty years of garden has filled in around a house. And because the lawns are large and the sand is hungry, [weed control](https://kissmygrass.com.au/weed-control/) matters — bindii and winter grass find every thin patch. ### Every service, available in Spearwood - [Lawn mowing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-mowing/) — Larger lawns and wide verges. Tuesday is our Spearwood day. - [Tree trimming and removals](https://kissmygrass.com.au/tree-services/) — The most tree work of any suburb we cover. Fully insured. - [Stump grinding](https://kissmygrass.com.au/stump-grinding/) — Ground below grade — book it with the removal and save a trip. - [Vertimowing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/vertimowing/) — Decades-old kikuyu on deep sand is the classic thatch case. - [Lawn aeration and coring](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-aeration/) — Pairs with vertimowing for a full spring renovation. - [Garden clean-ups](https://kissmygrass.com.au/garden-clean-ups/) — Forty-year-old gardens brought back to manageable. - [Weed control](https://kissmygrass.com.au/weed-control/) — Bindii and winter grass in big established lawns. - [Block slashing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/block-slashing/) — For the larger and rear-lot parcels. ### A note on watering a Spearwood lawn Because the soil drains so freely, the instinct is to water more. On a lawn with a thatch layer, watering more mostly waters the thatch — and on bare sand it drains past the root zone before the grass can use it. Both feel like a watering problem and neither is fixed by the tap. The sequence that actually works on this soil is: strip the thatch, relieve the compaction, then improve what the soil can hold. Do the first two in spring and the same amount of water goes considerably further. Perth also has seasonal sprinkler restrictions and a winter sprinkler ban set by the state, so check the current rules before you change your watering — they are not ours to interpret. ### Spearwood FAQs **Which day do you service Spearwood?** Tuesday. Spearwood is in our coastal south area with Coogee, Munster, Hamilton Hill, South Coogee, Henderson, Wattleup and Naval Base. A Tuesday booking gets you the earliest slot. **Do you mow the verge as well?** Yes — verge mowing is normal here, not an extra. Spearwood verges are wide and often palm-lined, and they're included when we quote the property. We also do verge-only jobs. **My established lawn goes thin every summer no matter how much I water it. Why?** Two likely causes, and Spearwood lawns often have both. A thick thatch layer means water spreads through the mat and evaporates before it reaches the soil. Deep sand underneath holds very little water once it does get there. Vertimowing plus coring in spring is what changes it — more water on its own won't. **Can you handle a large mature tree close to the house?** Yes — this is the suburb where we do the most of that work. Send photos from a few angles including the base, and tell us how a truck and chipper would get near it. Note that some trees are protected and some councils require approval before significant pruning or removal, so check with your council first. **The blocks here are big. Does that make mowing expensive?** Bigger lawns take longer, so they are quoted accordingly, and very large ones are quoted individually from the site. A consistent fortnightly cycle is the cheapest way to run a big lawn — letting it get long turns a mow into a clean-up. **Do you work on the older market-garden style rear lots?** Yes. Deeper rear parcels and semi-cleared land are quoted from size and access — depending on the growth it's either mowing or block slashing, and we'll tell you which after seeing photos. --- ## About Kiss My Grass URL: https://kissmygrass.com.au/about/ Published: 2026-08-27 · Updated: 2026-08-27 Kiss My Grass has been looking after lawns, gardens and trees across Perth's southern suburbs since 2010 — fifteen years, one team, out of Bibra Lake. The idea has not changed in that time: you should be able to get your whole yard sorted by one crew, on one quote, without juggling three contractors and chasing all of them. Photo: The crew and the fleet — and there are more trucks and utes on the road than fit in one photo. ### One team, not a network of subcontractors A lot of yard-care businesses are really booking platforms — they take your job and pass it to whoever is available. It is why you get a different person each visit, why the standard moves around, and why nobody quite remembers that your side gate is locked. We run our own crew. The same people come back, they know your property, and the standard is consistent because it is the same hands doing it. The team is ABN registered and police-cleared, which matters when someone is working in your yard while you are at work. It also means we can be honest with you about the work, because we are the ones doing it. If a hedge has gone too woody to recover, or a tree cannot be reduced without ruining it, or your weed problem is really a compaction problem, we would rather tell you that than sell you the job you asked for. ### The details, verified Everything a customer might reasonably want to check before letting a crew onto their property. - **Trading since** — 2010 — fifteen years across Perth south of the river. - **Legal entity** — Kiss My Grass Pty Ltd, ABN 78 634 301 321, GST registered. - **Registered address** — Bibra Lake, WA 6163, Australia. This is the registered business address, not a depot or shopfront — there is nowhere to visit. - **How we work** — Fully mobile. Our team members are based right across the south of the river and work outward from wherever they are, so no job waits on a crew driving out from a yard. - **Insurance** — $20 million public liability cover. Certificate of currency available on request. - **Team** — Our own crew — ABN registered and police-cleared, not subcontracted. - **Jobs completed** — More than 90,000 since 2016. - **Google rating** — 4.8 out of 5 from 380+ reviews. - **Hours** — Monday to Saturday, 7:00am to 5:00pm AWST. Closed Sundays. - **Recognition** — Named in the 2026 Quality Business Awards for Lawn Care Services, City of Perth WA. ### The fleet and the range The orange trucks and utes are the visible part. Behind them is the reason we can quote both ends of the market: we hold the machinery for small residential work and for heavy work, so a courtyard lawn and a commercial site with a chipper, an elevated platform and a slasher on it are both normal weeks. That range is what makes the one-team promise real rather than marketing. A [garden clean-up](https://kissmygrass.com.au/garden-clean-ups/) that turns out to need [tree work](https://kissmygrass.com.au/tree-services/) and then [stump grinding](https://kissmygrass.com.au/stump-grinding/) does not need three businesses. An overgrown block that needs [slashing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/block-slashing/) and then a regular [mowing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-mowing/) cycle is one arrangement, not two. The crew and the fleet keep growing. There are more trucks and utes on the road than we can fit in one photo, working suburbs right across the southern corridor. ### The range, in practice Small residential courtyards through to commercial sites with a chipper and an elevated work platform on them — the same crew, the same quote. - Photo: Tree work on a commercial site. - Photo: Hedging and lawn maintenance on a suburban block. - Photo: Whipper-snipping a limestone garden edge — the detail that makes a mow look finished. ### How we work Everything is quoted upfront from photos. You send your suburb, what needs doing and a few pictures; we come back with a price, usually within a few hours. There is no callout fee for a quote, and the number does not move unless the scope does. We batch suburbs by day of the week rather than criss-crossing the city, which is why drive time is not billed to the customer and why a crew is usually already working near you. The [service areas page](https://kissmygrass.com.au/service-areas/) sets out which day covers which suburbs. On the day you get an SMS the day before and another when the team is on the way. You do not need to be home as long as we can get to the yard, and you get finished photos. Green waste always leaves with us. Free cancellation up to 24 hours before your slot; inside 24 hours a small fee applies, because a last-minute drop means the crew drove for nothing and somebody else missed out on the slot. ### Where we work, and where we don't Perth south of the river — from North Fremantle across to Belmont, out to Byford, and south to Mandurah then back up the coast. Forty-five suburbs in the core patch, grouped into five weekday areas. We do not work north of the river, and we say no to Joondalup, Scarborough, Subiaco, Mount Lawley, Midland, Armadale and Ellenbrook rather than take a booking we cannot service properly. Keeping the patch tight is what makes the rest of it work. ### About Kiss My Grass — FAQs **How long has Kiss My Grass been operating?** Since 2010 — fifteen years across Perth's southern suburbs. The business is Kiss My Grass Pty Ltd, ABN 78 634 301 321, registered at Bibra Lake, WA 6163. **Is Kiss My Grass insured?** Yes — fully insured, ABN registered, and we carry $20 million public liability cover. Certificate of currency available on request. **Do you use subcontractors?** No. We run our own crew, ABN registered and police-cleared. It's the same team on your property each visit, which is the whole reason the standard stays consistent. **Will Kiss My Grass actually show up on the day?** Yes — that's the whole point. You'll get an SMS the day before and again when the team is on the way. If we're ever delayed by weather, we tell you the moment we know — usually with a same-week reschedule. **Do you do commercial work as well as residential?** Both. We hold machinery for small residential jobs through to large commercial sites — strata common areas, commercial grounds, industrial verges and acreage. Commercial work is quoted from the site rather than a residential rate card. **What's the cancellation policy?** Free cancellation up to 24 hours before your slot. Inside 24 hours we ask for a small cancellation fee to cover the team's time and drive — we're booked solid in summer and last-minute drops mean someone else missed out. ### Where to next - [All our services](https://kissmygrass.com.au/services/) — Eight services, each with its own page — what's included and what it costs. - [Service areas](https://kissmygrass.com.au/service-areas/) — The 45 suburbs we cover and which day we're in each area. - [Get a free quote](https://kissmygrass.com.au/contact/) — Send photos and your suburb, get an upfront price back by text. - [Lawn and garden advice](https://kissmygrass.com.au/blog/) — Straight answers on mowing, aeration and thatch for Perth conditions. --- ## Contact Kiss My Grass and get a free quote URL: https://kissmygrass.com.au/contact/ Published: 2026-08-27 · Updated: 2026-08-27 Send us your suburb, what needs doing and a few photos, and we will come back with an upfront price — usually within a few hours, with no callout fee. If you would rather talk to someone, call 08 6244 3366, Monday to Saturday between 7:00am and 5:00pm. Photo: We come to you. There is no premises to visit — the ute turns up, the job gets done, and you get a finished photo. ### How to reach us - **Phone** — 08 6244 3366 — the office line, Monday to Saturday 7:00am–5:00pm AWST. - **Email** — info@kissmygrass.com.au - **Registered address** — Bibra Lake, WA 6163, Australia — the registered business address only. We are a fully mobile service across Perth south of the river: no shopfront, no depot, and nowhere to visit. We come to you. - **Hours** — Monday to Saturday, 7:00am to 5:00pm AWST. Closed Sundays. - **Business** — Kiss My Grass Pty Ltd, ABN 78 634 301 321. Fully insured, $20 million public liability. ### What to include in your enquiry Four things make a quote fast and accurate, and getting them in first time saves a round of back-and-forth. Your suburb, because it tells us which day we are already in your area. What needs doing, in your own words — you do not need to know the trade name for it. Photos, several, from a few angles, including whatever is worst. And anything about access: a locked side gate, steps, a narrow path, or the width of the tightest gap a machine would have to fit through. For tree work, include a shot of the base of the tree and what is underneath it. For stump grinding, the diameter across the widest point. For a firebreak, the requirement from your council notice. For weed control, a close-up of the actual weed — identifying it decides the treatment. ### What happens next 1. **We read it and price it** — Usually back to you within a few hours by text with an upfront number and what's included. No callout fee. Larger tree and commercial jobs get a look on site first — also free. 2. **You book a slot** — We'll tell you when we're next in your area. Taking your area's regular day gets you the earliest slot. Free cancellation up to 24 hours before; a small fee applies inside 24 hours. 3. **We turn up and do it** — SMS the day before and again when the crew is on the way. You don't need to be home if we can access the yard. Green waste leaves with us, and you get finished photos. ### Know what you need already? Go straight to the service page for what's included and what moves the price. - [Lawn mowing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-mowing/) — Mowed, edged, blown down and clippings included. - [Garden clean-ups](https://kissmygrass.com.au/garden-clean-ups/) — One-off blitz or ongoing upkeep. - [Tree trimming and removals](https://kissmygrass.com.au/tree-services/) — Pruning through to full removals. - [Stump grinding](https://kissmygrass.com.au/stump-grinding/) — Ground out below grade. - [Block slashing and firebreaks](https://kissmygrass.com.au/block-slashing/) — Book ahead of the council deadline. - [Lawn aeration and coring](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-aeration/) — For hard ground that sheds water. - [Vertimowing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/vertimowing/) — For a lawn that feels spongy underfoot. - [Weed control](https://kissmygrass.com.au/weed-control/) — Lawns, beds, paving and fence lines. ### Quote and booking FAQs **Is a quote free?** Yes. There's no callout fee to get a quote, including for the larger tree and commercial jobs where we come and look at the site first. **How quickly will I get a price back?** Usually within a few hours during business hours. Mowing is often quicker than that; bigger clean-ups, tree work and commercial sites take longer because they're scoped properly rather than guessed. **Do I have to be home for the quote or the job?** No to both. Quotes are done from photos, and on the day we only need access to the yard. Most of our regulars are at work when we visit and get finished photos afterwards. **How many photos can I send?** Up to ten with the form, and large phone photos are fine — they're resized in your browser before they upload. More photos means a more accurate price and less chance of a variation later. **Which suburbs do you service?** Perth south of the river — from North Fremantle across to Belmont, out to Byford, and south to Mandurah then back up the coast. The [service areas page](https://kissmygrass.com.au/service-areas/) lists all 45 suburbs and the day we're in each area. Not listed? Ask anyway. **How do I pay?** Cash, credit card or bank transfer. --- ## Lawn and garden advice for Perth URL: https://kissmygrass.com.au/blog/ Published: 2026-08-27 · Updated: 2026-08-27 Most lawn advice online is written for a climate that is nothing like ours — cool-season grasses, summer rainfall, soil that holds water. Applied to a kikuyu lawn on Perth sand it is somewhere between useless and actively wrong. These are the questions we get asked most often on the job, answered for Perth conditions and Perth grasses. No sign-up, no course, no upsell — if the answer is that you do not need us, that is what it will say. ### Latest articles - [How often should you mow a lawn in Perth?](https://kissmygrass.com.au/blog/how-often-to-mow-a-lawn-in-perth/) — Why the answer changes by season and grass type, the one-third rule that stops a lawn being scalped, and what actually happens when you skip three weeks in December. - [When is the best time to aerate a lawn in Perth?](https://kissmygrass.com.au/blog/when-to-aerate-a-lawn-in-perth/) — The window that matters for warm-season turf, how to tell compaction from thatch with a screwdriver and a spade, and why coring beats another bag of fertiliser. - [What is vertimowing, and does your lawn need it?](https://kissmygrass.com.au/blog/what-is-vertimowing/) — How to diagnose thatch yourself in two minutes, why well-watered Perth lawns stay patchy, and what the lawn looks like for the fortnight afterwards. ### Why Perth is different Three things set lawn care here apart, and almost every piece of generic advice ignores at least one of them. The grasses are warm-season. Couch, kikuyu and buffalo grow hard when the soil is warm and go quiet when it is cold. Every timing decision — mowing, coring, vertimowing, feeding — follows that cycle, which is the reverse of the cool-season calendar most online guides assume. The soil is sand. It drains fast, holds little water and holds even less nutrient. Water and fertiliser move through it rather than sitting in it, so the useful question is rarely how much you are applying and almost always whether it is reaching the root zone. And the water is regulated. Perth has seasonal sprinkler restrictions and a winter sprinkler ban set by the state, so you cannot simply water your way out of a problem even if you want to. Which makes getting the soil and the thatch right the only real lever you have. ### Perth lawns we look after Real jobs from across the southern suburbs. Everything below is a lawn on a regular cycle, not a one-off showpiece. - Photo: A wide front lawn kept on a fortnightly cycle. - Photo: A dense corner lawn mown around established beds. - Photo: Timber-edged borders holding a clean lawn line. ### What's coming next The topics we're working through, each written to answer a question we get asked on the job rather than to hit a keyword. If you want one of these sooner, tell us and we'll bump it. - **How much does stump grinding cost?** — Why nobody can quote a stump over the phone, the two factors that decide the price, and the one measurement to take before you enquire. Supports [stump grinding](https://kissmygrass.com.au/stump-grinding/). - **Signs a tree needs pruning or removal** — The contact, safety and practical signals worth acting on before a storm rather than after one — and what needs council approval first. Supports [tree services](https://kissmygrass.com.au/tree-services/). - **How to clean up an overgrown garden** — Where to start, what order to do it in, what's worth saving, and the point at which it's cheaper to get a crew in. Supports [garden clean-ups](https://kissmygrass.com.au/garden-clean-ups/). - **How to prepare an overgrown block for sale** — What buyers and valuers actually look at, why a block you can walk photographs completely differently, and how far ahead to book. Supports [block slashing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/block-slashing/). - **A lawn care calendar for Perth homeowners** — One page covering what to do to a warm-season lawn in each season — mowing height, feeding, coring, vertimowing and weed timing, in order. - **Bindii: getting rid of it for good** — Why treating it in spring is already too late, the window that works, and what makes it come back every single year in the same patches. Supports [weed control](https://kissmygrass.com.au/weed-control/). ### Who writes this The crew that does the work — Kiss My Grass has been mowing, renovating and clearing yards across Perth's southern suburbs since 2010, and everything here comes out of doing the job rather than out of a content brief. That also means we will tell you when you do not need us. Several of these articles end with a test you can do yourself with a spade and a screwdriver, and if the answer is that your lawn is fine, that is the answer. We would rather be the business you call in three years because we were straight with you now. ### Or skip the reading If you already know what the job is, go straight to it. - [Lawn mowing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-mowing/) — Mowed, edged, blown down and clippings taken away. - [Lawn aeration and coring](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-aeration/) — For hard ground that sheds water. - [Vertimowing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/vertimowing/) — For a lawn that feels spongy underfoot. - [All services](https://kissmygrass.com.au/services/) — Everything we do, with what affects the price explained on each page. --- ## How often should you mow a lawn in Perth? URL: https://kissmygrass.com.au/blog/how-often-to-mow-a-lawn-in-perth/ Published: 2026-08-27 · Updated: 2026-09-10 The short answer: every seven to fourteen days through the warm months, and every two to four weeks through winter. But the useful answer is that frequency is not really the thing to decide. How much you take off is. ### The rule that actually matters Turf managers call it the one-third rule: never remove more than about a third of the leaf height in a single cut. Break it and the lawn does not just look bad, it goes backwards. Here is why. Grass feeds itself through its leaves. Take a third off and the plant has plenty left to keep photosynthesising, so it recovers in days. Take two-thirds off and you have removed most of its food factory in one hit — the lawn goes pale or brown, the plant burns stored energy from the roots to rebuild leaf, and while it is doing that it stops growing roots. A lawn scalped repeatedly ends up shallow-rooted, thin, and far more vulnerable to a hot week in February. Cutting a long lawn short also exposes the pale, unphotosynthetic lower stems that had been shaded, and opens the soil surface to light — which is an invitation to every weed seed sitting in it. So the practical framing is: mow often enough that a normal cut is only ever taking off a third. Once you have that, the calendar sorts itself out. Photo: A lawn kept on a regular cycle: every cut takes off about a third of the leaf, so it never has to be scalped back. ### Perth's seasons, and what they do to growth Our common lawn grasses — couch, kikuyu and buffalo — are all warm-season types. They grow hardest when the soil is warm and effectively idle when it is cold, which makes growth here strongly seasonal rather than steady. Through the peak growing months, roughly October to March, a well-watered kikuyu or couch lawn can put on real length in a week. This is when weekly mowing genuinely earns its keep, and where fortnightly starts to push the one-third rule on a lawn that is thriving. In the shoulder seasons — early spring and autumn — growth is moderate and fortnightly suits most lawns comfortably. Through the cold months, warm-season turf slows right down and can stop growing more or less entirely. Every two to four weeks is plenty, and mowing a dormant lawn hard does it no favours. What winter does bring is weeds, because they are cool-season and they are growing while your lawn is not — which is why a lawn can look worse in August despite needing less mowing. ### By grass type All three want the same principle applied at slightly different heights and intervals. - **Couch** — The fastest to look untidy and the one that suits the shortest cut. Weekly in peak growth, fortnightly in the shoulders. Couch handles a low height well and thickens when cut regularly, but it thatches quickly if you feed and water it hard. - **Kikuyu** — The most vigorous of the three by a wide margin. Weekly in summer or it will get away from you, and it is the grass most often scalped because people underestimate a fortnight of December growth. It also builds thatch faster than anything else here. - **Buffalo** — Slower and best kept longer — buffalo does not tolerate being cut short the way couch does, and scalping it is a genuine setback. Fortnightly usually suits it, with a longer blade height than you would use on couch. If you don't know which you have: couch has fine, soft leaves; kikuyu has broader leaves and thick, obvious runners; buffalo has wide, coarse, folded leaves. ### Mowing interval, by grass type and season Read it as a starting point, then check it against the one-third rule on your own lawn — a shaded back lawn and a full-sun front lawn on the same block can sit a week apart. *How often to mow couch, kikuyu and buffalo lawns in Perth, by season.* | Grass type | Peak growth (Oct–Mar) | Shoulder (Apr–May, Sep) | Winter (Jun–Aug) | Cutting height | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Couch | Weekly | Fortnightly | Every 2–4 weeks | Lowest of the three — thickens when cut short and often | | Kikuyu | Weekly | Fortnightly | Every 2–4 weeks | Low to mid — the one most often scalped after a skipped cycle | | Buffalo | Fortnightly | Fortnightly | Every 2–4 weeks | Highest of the three — cutting it short is a real setback | Winter intervals are the same across all three because warm-season turf is barely growing — there is simply nothing to take off. The differences show up in summer, and so does the damage from getting it wrong. ### What skipping three weeks in December actually costs This is the most common way a good lawn gets damaged in Perth, and it usually happens over Christmas. Three weeks of peak-season kikuyu growth means the next cut cannot obey the one-third rule at any sensible height. If you take it back to where it was, you scalp it — brown patches, exposed stems, and a lawn that looks worse after being mown than before. If you leave it long, you have accepted a taller lawn and you now need to bring it down in two or three staged cuts a week apart. The staged approach is the right one. It is also more work and more visits, which is why a skipped cycle costs more than the mow you skipped. And a scalped lawn in January is entering the hottest part of the year with reduced leaf and shortened roots — the worst possible timing. If your lawn has already got well past the point where staged cuts will fix it, that is not a mowing job any more. A [garden clean-up](https://kissmygrass.com.au/garden-clean-ups/) resets it, and a normal cycle picks up from there. ### When mowing more often is not the answer Sometimes a lawn looks poor and the mowing schedule has nothing to do with it. Two patterns come up constantly. If the lawn feels spongy underfoot and water sits on the surface before disappearing sideways, you have a thatch layer — and no mowing frequency fixes that. [Vertimowing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/vertimowing/) does. If the ground is hard underfoot and water runs off rather than soaking in, the soil is compacted, the roots are shallow and the lawn has no reserve. [Coring](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-aeration/) is the fix. Both of those get misread as needing more water, more fertiliser or more mowing. If your lawn is thin despite a sensible cycle, check for those two before you change anything else. ### Edging and detail work The part that decides whether a lawn looks cut or looks finished — included in every mow. - Photo: Whipper-snipping the edges of a striped back lawn. - Photo: Cutting a clean edge along a limestone garden wall. - Photo: Low hedges and mulched beds around a freshly mown lawn. ### Common questions **How often should I mow my lawn in Perth in summer?** Weekly for kikuyu and couch that are being watered, fortnightly at the outside. Buffalo can usually go fortnightly. The test is whether a cut takes off more than about a third of the leaf height — if it does, you're mowing too infrequently. **How often in winter?** Every two to four weeks. Warm-season grasses barely grow when the soil is cold, so there's little to take off, and cutting a dormant lawn hard doesn't help it. **What happens if I mow too short?** You remove most of the leaf the plant feeds itself with, so it burns root reserves to rebuild, stops growing roots, goes pale or brown, and opens the soil surface to weed seed. Repeated scalping produces a shallow-rooted lawn that struggles every summer. **Should I catch the clippings or leave them?** Light clippings from a regular cut can be left and will break down, returning some nutrient. Heavy clippings from an overdue cut should come off — a thick layer of cuttings smothers the lawn and adds to the thatch layer. When we mow, clippings leave with us either way. **Is fortnightly mowing enough?** For most Perth lawns most of the year, yes — and it's what the majority of our regulars run. In peak summer growth on a well-watered kikuyu lawn, weekly is better. Most of our customers hold a fortnightly cycle and let us tighten or stretch it with the season. ### Related - [Lawn mowing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-mowing/) — What's included, what affects the price, and the areas we cover. - [Vertimowing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/vertimowing/) — If the lawn is spongy, mowing frequency isn't your problem. - [Lawn aeration and coring](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-aeration/) — If the ground is hard and sheds water. - [More Perth lawn advice](https://kissmygrass.com.au/blog/) — Aeration timing and thatch diagnosis. --- ## When is the best time to aerate a lawn in Perth? URL: https://kissmygrass.com.au/blog/when-to-aerate-a-lawn-in-perth/ Published: 2026-08-27 · Updated: 2026-09-10 Spring, once the soil has genuinely warmed and the lawn is actively growing — or early autumn while there is still warmth in the ground. That is the window, and the reason is simple: aeration works by making holes, and you want a lawn growing fast enough to heal them. ### Why timing decides whether it works Coring removes small plugs of soil from the lawn. Immediately afterwards you have a lawn full of open holes and a scattering of plugs on the surface. Whether that ends well depends entirely on how fast the grass grows into it. In active growth, warm-season turf closes those holes over within a couple of weeks, and the channels left behind become permanent routes for water, air and roots. That is the whole point. Do it in mid-winter, when couch, kikuyu and buffalo are dormant or close to it, and nothing happens. The holes sit open. The lawn does not thicken. What does grow is cool-season weeds, which are actively growing at exactly that moment and now have bare, open soil to germinate into. You have aerated the lawn and seeded a weed problem. So the rule is: core when the grass is winning, not when the weeds are. ### The Perth calendar - **Spring, once the soil has warmed — the best window** — Growth is accelerating, there is a whole season of warmth ahead, and the lawn has time to establish deeper roots into the new channels before summer heat arrives. If you only do it once a year, do it here. - **Early autumn — the second-best window** — Still enough warmth in the soil for real recovery, and it sets the lawn up going into winter. Better than late spring if you missed the first window. - **Peak summer — only with care** — Possible, but only if the lawn is healthy and you can water it in properly afterwards. Coring an already heat-stressed lawn adds stress at the worst time. - **Mid-winter — don't** — Warm-season turf isn't growing, the holes stay open, and cool-season weeds take the space. This is the single most common way aeration gets wasted. ### What a lawn with a working root zone looks like Dense, even, and able to hold on through February — the result of water and nutrient actually reaching the roots. - Photo: Close-up of even, healthy turf. - Photo: A thick corner lawn with no thinning in the traffic lines. - Photo: A large front lawn holding colour right to the kerb. ### Is it actually compaction? Two tests Before you book anything, work out which of the two common problems you have — because compaction and thatch look almost identical from a distance and need opposite treatments. The screwdriver test, for compaction. Water the lawn, wait an hour, then push a long screwdriver into the soil. In healthy soil it goes in with light hand pressure. If you have to lean on it, or it stops after a couple of centimetres, the soil is compacted and coring is your answer. The spade test, for thatch. Cut a wedge out of the lawn and look at it side-on. Between the green growth and the soil you will see a brown fibrous layer. Under about a centimetre is normal. Much more than that and you have a thatch problem, which needs [vertimowing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/vertimowing/), not coring. The quick version, without tools: hard underfoot and water runs off means compaction. Spongy underfoot and water sits then vanishes sideways means thatch. Plenty of established lawns have both, in which case do both in one spring visit — that is what a lawn renovation is. ### Compaction or thatch? Side by side Both make a lawn thin, and both get blamed on the reticulation. The tests tell them apart in a couple of minutes. *Telling soil compaction apart from a thatch layer, and which treatment each one needs.* | How you check | Compaction — needs coring | Thatch — needs vertimowing | | --- | --- | --- | | Feel underfoot | Hard and solid, especially when dry | Spongy and springy, like walking on carpet underlay | | What water does | Runs off or pools on the surface | Sits, then disappears sideways without wetting the soil | | Screwdriver test | Stops after a centimetre or two, or needs you to lean on it | Goes in normally once through the fibrous layer | | Spade test — cut a wedge, look side-on | No thick brown layer; the soil itself is dense | A brown fibrous layer well over a centimetre thick above the soil | | Best time to treat it | Spring once the soil has warmed; early autumn second best | Spring once the soil has warmed, so the lawn can regrow into it | | The treatment | [Coring](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-aeration/) — plugs of soil removed | [Vertimowing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/vertimowing/) — thatch cut out vertically | Plenty of established Perth lawns tick both columns. That is not a problem to choose between — it is a lawn renovation, and both are done in the one spring visit. ### Signs your lawn needs coring - **Water runs off or pools** — Rather than soaking in. The clearest single sign, and the one most often blamed on the reticulation. - **Hard underfoot** — The lawn feels solid rather than springy, especially when dry. - **Worn traffic lines** — The path to the shed, the strip where the trailer parks, the kids' route to the trampoline — compaction shows in the traffic lines first. - **It browns off first every summer** — Shallow roots mean no drought reserve, so it's the first to go and the slowest to come back. - **New estate turf that never thrived** — Lawns laid over rolled construction fill start compacted. Very common in the newer suburbs, and often misread as a bad batch of turf. ### Why coring beats another bag of fertiliser This is the part that changes how people spend money on their lawn. Fertiliser applied to a compacted lawn largely stays near the surface, and on Perth sand a good deal of what does move goes straight past the root zone. The nutrient is not the constraint — delivery is. Applying more of it does not fix a delivery problem. Coring changes the delivery. Water goes down the channels instead of running off. Air reaches the root zone. Roots have somewhere to grow into and go deeper, which is what builds actual drought tolerance rather than the appearance of it. Which is why the sequence matters more than the products: core first, then feed. Fertiliser and wetting agents applied immediately after coring go down the holes to where the roots are, and the same bag does considerably more. Doing it the other way round is why people conclude their lawn is beyond help after three seasons of feeding. ### How often, and what to do afterwards Once a year suits most home lawns. Lawns with heavy foot traffic, compacted fill, or a couple of poor seasons behind them are worth doing two years running before dropping back to annual. There is little point coring twice in one season. Straight afterwards: water it in well. Then, if you were going to fertilise, top-dress or apply a wetting agent at any point this season, do it now — this is the most effective window you will get all year. Keep traffic light for a week or two while the holes close. The plugs on the surface can be left to break down, or raked and removed if you want it tidier. Neither choice makes much difference to the outcome. ### Common questions **When is the best time to aerate a lawn in Perth?** Spring, once the soil has warmed and the lawn is actively growing, or early autumn while there's still warmth in the ground. Avoid mid-winter, when warm-season grasses aren't growing and cool-season weeds take the open holes. **What's the difference between aeration and coring?** They're used interchangeably in practice. Strictly, aeration is any process that gets air into soil; coring is the specific method of removing small plugs, which relieves compaction properly rather than just spiking holes into it. Coring is what we do. **Should I aerate or vertimow?** Hard underfoot and shedding water means compaction, so aerate. Spongy underfoot with water sitting on the surface means thatch, so vertimow. Many established lawns have both and are best done together in one spring visit. **Will coring damage my lawn?** Not if it's done in the growing season. The lawn looks freckled for a week or two and then closes over thicker than before. Done in mid-winter, the holes just sit there — which is the real risk, not the coring itself. **How often should a Perth lawn be cored?** Annually for most lawns. Two years running if it's heavily trafficked, sitting on compacted fill, or recovering from a bad run — then back to annual. **Can I core it myself?** You can hire a machine, and for a small lawn that's reasonable. The two things that catch people out are reticulation — knowing where lines and heads run — and getting the plugs deep enough to actually relieve compaction rather than just dimpling the surface. ### Related - [Lawn aeration and coring](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-aeration/) — What's included, what moves the price, and the areas we cover. - [Vertimowing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/vertimowing/) — The other half of a renovation — for thatch rather than compaction. - [What is vertimowing?](https://kissmygrass.com.au/blog/what-is-vertimowing/) — How to diagnose a thatch layer yourself in two minutes. - [Lawn mowing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-mowing/) — Add coring to a scheduled mow and skip a separate visit. --- ## What is vertimowing, and does your lawn need it? URL: https://kissmygrass.com.au/blog/what-is-vertimowing/ Published: 2026-08-27 · Updated: 2026-08-27 Vertimowing — also called dethatching or verticutting — is a machine that cuts vertically down through a lawn to strip out the dead thatch layer sitting between the green growth and the soil. It is the answer to one of the most frustrating problems in Perth lawn care: a lawn you water, feed and mow properly that stays thin and patchy anyway. ### What thatch is Thatch is the layer of dead and living stems, runners and roots that accumulates at the base of a lawn, above the soil. Every lawn has some. A thin layer, up to about a centimetre, is normal and slightly useful — it cushions foot traffic and insulates the soil surface. Past that, it stops being a cushion and becomes a barrier. A thick thatch layer is a dense fibrous mat, and it behaves like a sponge laid over your soil. That is the problem in one image. Water hits the sponge, spreads sideways through it, and evaporates off the surface before any of it reaches the soil. Fertiliser does exactly the same. And the grass, finding moisture in the mat rather than in the ground, roots into the thatch itself instead of into the soil — which leaves it with no depth and no drought reserve at all. So you end up with a lawn that browns off in the first genuinely hot week of summer, recovers slowly, and looks thin no matter how much you put on it. Not because you are doing too little, but because almost none of what you are doing is getting through. ### Why Perth lawns are so prone to it Three local factors stack up, which is why thatch is close to the default condition of an established Perth lawn that has never been renovated. The grasses. Kikuyu and couch are vigorous runner grasses — they spread by putting out stems along and just under the surface, and that is exactly the material thatch is made of. The more vigorously they grow, the faster it accumulates. Buffalo builds a coarser thatch more slowly, but it still builds it. The season length. A long warm growing season means more months of growth per year than a cooler climate produces, so the layer builds faster. And the care. This is the counter-intuitive part: thatch builds fastest on lawns that are well looked after. Regular water and regular feeding produce vigorous growth, and vigorous runner grass produces thatch. The lawns we see with the worst thatch layers usually belong to people who have been diligent about their lawn for a decade. ### A lawn without a thatch problem Firm underfoot, even colour, water going straight down instead of sideways. This is what you are aiming at. - Photo: A thick, even lawn with no spongy layer underfoot. - Photo: Close-up: dense growth sitting straight on the soil. - Photo: Even colour right to the bed edges. ### Diagnose it yourself in two minutes You do not need anyone to look at it. Two checks, and you will know. - **Walk on it** — A healthy lawn feels firm with a little give. A thatched lawn feels bouncy or spongy — like walking on carpet underlay. This is the single most reliable sign, and most people recognise it immediately once they know to look for it. - **Cut a wedge out with a spade** — Take a small triangular plug and look at it side-on. You will see green growth on top, brown fibrous material below it, then soil. Measure the brown layer. Under a centimetre is fine. Two centimetres or more and that is your problem, confirmed. - **Watch what water does** — Thatch: water beads and sits briefly on the surface, then disappears sideways rather than down. Dig a plug straight afterwards and you'll find wet mat over dry soil — which is the whole story in one look. - **Rule out the other one** — Compaction produces similar symptoms from the opposite cause. Hard underfoot and water running off means compacted soil, and the fix is [coring](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-aeration/). Spongy underfoot means thatch. If you're unsure, push a screwdriver into damp soil — if it's hard to get in, you have compaction too. Lots of established lawns have both problems. That's normal, and doing both in one spring visit is what a lawn renovation is. ### What the machine actually does A vertimower runs vertical blades that cut down through the lawn into the thatch layer, slicing it up and lifting it out. It is a genuinely aggressive process — this is not a light rake. The debris that comes out is startling. A lawn with years of build-up can produce a volume of material that looks like it cannot possibly have come from that area. Dealing with it is part of the job: when we vertimow, the thatch is collected and leaves with us the same day rather than being left in piles. What is left behind is a lawn cut down to its runners with soil visible between them, which brings us to the part nobody warns people about. > **It will look terrible, and that is correct** — A freshly vertimowed lawn looks like it has been savaged — thin, brown, soil showing through. That is what removing years of accumulated thatch looks like, and everyone's first reaction is that a mistake has been made. Water it well, feed it, and give it two to four weeks of active growing weather. It comes back thicker and greener than it was. Do not vertimow in the month before a wedding, a home open or a rental inspection. ### Timing, and how often Because vertimowing deliberately takes the lawn back hard, timing is not optional. It has to be done when the grass is growing strongly enough to recover and fill back in: spring through early summer once the soil has genuinely warmed, or early autumn while real warmth remains in the ground. Mid-winter is the wrong answer and it is worth being blunt about why. A warm-season lawn stripped back in July is not growing, so it does not recover. Cool-season weeds are growing, and they now have open soil to germinate into. You will spend the following spring dealing with a weed problem instead of enjoying a thicker lawn. Frequency depends on how fast your lawn builds thatch. Vigorous, well-fed kikuyu may want it annually. A slower buffalo lawn might go two or three years. If the spade test shows under a centimetre, you do not need it this year. ### The full renovation Vertimowing and [coring](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-aeration/) address different problems, and done together in one spring visit they are what turf people mean by a lawn renovation. The logic of the pairing is straightforward. Vertimowing removes the barrier between water and soil. Coring opens the soil itself so water can move down into it and roots can follow. Do one without the other and you have fixed half the path. Immediately after both is also the best moment all year to fertilise, top-dress or apply a wetting agent, because for once it will actually reach the root zone. And it is cheaper as one visit than as two — which is how most of our customers buy it. ### Common questions **What is vertimowing, and does my lawn need it?** Vertimowing, also called dethatching, cuts vertically through the lawn to strip out the dead thatch layer that stops water and nutrients reaching the soil. It's why many Perth lawns stay patchy no matter how much they're watered. If your lawn feels spongy underfoot or water sits on the surface, thatch is the usual cause. We vertimow across the southern suburbs and take the thatch away the same day. **Is vertimowing the same as dethatching or verticutting?** Yes — three names for one job. Vertimowing and verticutting describe the machine cutting vertically into the lawn; dethatching describes what it achieves. 'Lawn renovation' usually means vertimowing and coring done together. **How do I know if I have thatch?** Walk on it — spongy or bouncy is the giveaway. Then cut a wedge out with a spade and look at it side-on: more than about a centimetre of brown fibrous material between the green and the soil confirms it. **How long before the lawn looks good again?** Two to four weeks of active growing weather. It looks thin and rough at first, which is expected. Water and feed it and it comes back denser than before. **When shouldn't I vertimow?** Mid-winter, when warm-season grasses can't recover and cool-season weeds will take the open space. Also not in the month before any date you need the lawn to look good. **Do I need to do it every year?** Not necessarily. Vigorous kikuyu might want it annually; a slower buffalo lawn can go two or three years. Use the spade test — under a centimetre of thatch means you can skip it. ### Related - [Vertimowing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/vertimowing/) — What's included, what moves the price, and the areas we cover. Thatch taken away same day. - [Lawn aeration and coring](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-aeration/) — The other half of a renovation. Bundle both in spring. - [When to aerate a lawn in Perth](https://kissmygrass.com.au/blog/when-to-aerate-a-lawn-in-perth/) — The window that matters, and two tests to tell compaction from thatch. - [Lawn mowing](https://kissmygrass.com.au/lawn-mowing/) — Regular cutting slows thatch build-up.