Types Of Grass

Seeding Your Lawn is Easy Once You Choose a Type of Grass

Have you been wondering which grass is the right grass for you? Seeding your lawn can be intimidating. There are so many grasses to choose from and you may feel that you have to wish, hope, and pray that your grass seed is planted correctly so it will germinate. But seeding your lawn can be easy with the right lawn tool. The Grass Stitcher takes the guesswork out of determining the correct depth in which to plant while the ergonomic design removes backbreaking labor from the equation. The physical aspect of planting a great lawn should not keep you from getting out there and doing it yourself. So once you determine which grass is right for you, getting the seed in the ground will not be a problem.

You have probably heard of different species of grass and a popular choice is fescue. Fescue is a cool season grass which comes in several varieties. As the name implies, cool season grasses prefer cooler climates, but fescue tends to stay green all year. This type of grass germinates quickly and has a coarse texture, making it good for erosion control. If you have hot, dry summers, you will need to water regularly and overseed in the fall to repair summer’s heat damage.

Another well-known choice is bermuda grass. Bermuda is a sturdy grass and makes a dense turf. You see bermuda grass on golf courses and athletic fields, so you know it is good for high traffic lawns. It does well with hot summers and goes dormant in the winter. But it loves full sun, so if your yard is on the shady side, bermuda may not be for you. Also, it requires edging, otherwise it will creep into flowerbeds!

Centipede is another option to consider. This is a low lying grass, so you may find you do not have to mow as often. Because it is dense, weeds are not much of a problem. These two benefits do not mean it is a maintenance-free grass, though. Centipede grass does not tolerate some lawn care products and requires fertilizer and other lawn products specifically made for centipede. It also does not do well in colder climates and heavy traffic causes damage.

Of course, these are only three types of grasses and there are many more out there. Keep in mind that sowing grass seeds, no matter what kind, can be made a lot easier with the Grass Stitcher, a tool that perforates the ground at the right depth to ensure germination and is easy to use. Using this tool for maintenance and reseeding later on is just as simple, so the hardest thing about getting a great lawn is choosing which type of grass is right for your yard.

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Which Are The Best Grasses To Over Seed For A Winter Lawn

In the southern regions of the United States, some gardeners want a lawn that is green all year around. In most regions, the preferred summer grass is Bermuda Grass, a fantastic choice for a thick and healthy summer lawn. However, over winter, Bermuda Grass does start to turn brown, and it certainly loses its vigor. As a gardener, you have two choices: you can leave your lawn be and take the winter off, or you can encourage winter grasses, which means undertaking more lawn care work.

For those who do want a nice green lawn in winter, the best choice is a perennial winter rye. This is a good choice as it grows well in winter, is hardy, and requires little maintenance. Winter rye will grow in most soil types and doesn’t require a lot of food or water. Better yet, it can be planted out from seed. The key to a good winter lawn is preparation, so prepare your Bermuda Grass for over sowing, and they should all be happy.

Some gardeners recommend scalping a lawn before over seeding. This could be a little harsh, and could expose the crown and the roots to damaging sunlight, especially if you have few really warm days. You can cut your Bermuda lawn to around the half to one inch mark. Dethatch with a garden rake, and aerate if you haven’t done if for several years. Once you have completed these preparations, don’t water or fertilize, just let your lawn rest for ten to fourteen days.

Once your lawn has rested, use a lawn repair tool to prepare the surface, then overseed with a good quality perennial winter rye. Be sure to use plenty of seed as winter rye’s are not renown for being good spreaders (or creepers), their growth is more up than out. You can leave rye grasses to grow at around two to three inches in height, so they will not require a lot mowing over winter. Come spring, as the weather starts to warm, your rye grass will fall away allowing your Bermuda grass to grow through and take over for summer.

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How To Develop A Low Maintenance Lawn

If you are a busy person, then the last thing you probably want is a high maintenance lawn. It is possible to migrate your lawn from a high maintenance grass to a low maintenance grass. It should be remembered that most great looking lawns are high maintenance, so you may have to accept a lesser quality lawn for that low maintenance benefit. If you take the migration method, you will need several seasons before you gain the most benefit. The alternative is to rip up your lawn and to start all over using a low maintenance grass type. Low maintenance grasses include:

Fine-leaf Fescue: best suited to cool zone lawns. The down-side to a Fine Fescue is that it is not traffic tolerant. However, Fine Fesuces are drought resistant and shade tolerant.

Tall Fescue: best suited to transition zone lawns. Good drought resistance and better able to tolerate traffic than a Fine Fescue.

Bahia Grass: best suited to warm zone lawns. Bahia grows quite low so it doesn’t require a lot of mowing. Develops a good thick turf that fends off weeds and some insects.

Buffalograss: best suited to warm zone lawns. A native grass that is drought tolerant, however, it does turn brown during very hot or very cold weather. Buffalograss is not very tolerant of traffic either.

Centipedegrass: best suited to warm zones. Low growing but fast spreading grass that requires little fertilizer or mowing. Some consider this a weed so you will need to maintain good control around the borders or it will grow into your garden beds. Will turn brown in summer and does require a little extra water when it’s hot and dry.

Fescues are generally best mixed with other grasses to obtain a good lawn. Centipedegrass does not like cold weather and frosts can damage leaves and the root systems of young plants. In areas that don’t suffer from frosts, it is one of the better low maintenance grasses.

You can migrate from high maintenance to low maintenance grasses by over sowing each fall and spring with a low maintenance grass seed. Use a lawn seeding tool to make quick and effective work of the over seeding process.

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Which Is The Best Grass For Your Lawn?

There are hundreds of different types of grass available for lawns today, many of them bred specifically for certain conditions. Today, there are over a hundred different variations of Kentucky Bluegrass, and that’s just one grass. While breaking the nation up into three zones when it comes to lawns, each area in each zone has its own individual factors that will affect how well a grass grows. Rather than point to a specific grass for your lawn, check first for factors that may affect how well a particular grass will grow in your area. Some of these factors include:

Climate conditions: grasses generally prefer specific climates such as humid, coastal, dry, cool.
Temperature: some grasses grow well in hot weather while others turn brown. The reverse is also true with some grasses growing well in cooler weather. It is hard to find a grass that grows well throughout all temperature ranges.
Water: some grass species perform very well with little water, often recovering quickly after a drought. Other grasses are less tolerant of droughts, often preferring moist conditions.
Sunlight: some grasses need full sun while others will grow well with only partial sun. There are even a few grasses that will grow in full shade.
Traffic: there are many grasses that are not very tolerant of foot traffic. These grasses require constant repair work. Other grasses survive very well with high levels of traffic, not just traffic, but full day use on sports fields.
Maintenance: while not a growing condition, you need to assess the level of maintenance you are prepared to give your lawn. Some lawns are low maintenance and only require a mow every week. Other grasses are high maintenance requiring regular applications of fertilizer, water and perhaps even weed or insect protection.

Once you have determined the environmental factors affecting your lawn, you can then make a selection of the most appropriate grass for your lawn. If you make the wrong selection, you will find that you are spending a lot of time repairing your lawn rather than enjoying it. Many gardeners prefer grass mixes as these provide a range of different growing strengths.

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What Is The Best Grass For Erosion Control?

Most home owners have reasonably level blocks of land so their choice of grass types is really only limited to the types suited to the climate in that region. There are other home owners who have one or more deep slopes and growing grass in these areas can be difficult, and they can be even more difficult to mow. One of the problems with maintaining a lawn on a slope is erosion control – one heavy downfall and the lawn’s roots are exposed and the grass starts to wash away. There is a wide range of solutions available, especially if you look at native grasses. In most cases they don’t even need mowing.

Native grasses are often tall growing grasses so they are not suitable for use if you only want a ground cover. One grass that is well worth considering is Crown Vetch. This is a low growing legume which requires little maintenance once established. Crown Vetch is both drought and cold tolerant so it is suitable for a wide range of regions. As a ground cover, it flowers profusely with pinkish-purple flowers from late spring all the way through summer – it’s more like a floral carpet than a lawn, a factor that should be considered before seeding.

The down side to Crown Vetch is that it is very slow to germinate and grow. The most successful method to gain a good cover is to mix your Crown Vetch seed with Creeping Red Fescue and Annual Ryegrass. These grasses will germinate quickly and provide some erosion control while the Crown Vetch slowly germinates and sinks its much deeper network of roots. If you plant now through to the end of September you will find that, in two years, you have a wonderful cover of Crown Vetch and erosion on that slope will be a problem of the past. Being a legume, you will not need to fertilize – just water occasionally when the weather is really dry, and perhaps mow in early fall after the summer flowering has finished.

You can use a lawn seeding tool for small slopes, simply seeding through any existing grasses. For large slopes, you can either seed it section by section or do a complete renovation. For best erosion control, over seeding section by section is the better method – if you completely renovate, you run the risk of losing a lot of your soil during the next heavy rain. Crown Vetch – it looks good, has great soil erosion control qualities, and it’s low maintenance, perfect really for difficult slopes.

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An Overview of Grass Seed Types

If you are about to plant a new lawn, the number of different grass seed types might overwhelm you. How do you go about narrowing your options? The first thing you should decide is whether you live in an environment for a warm-season grass or a cool-season grass.

Warm-season grasses are extremely heat tolerant but quickly go dormant at cooler temperatures. Cool-season grasses thrive in the cold, but they will need lots of irrigation to stay green in rising summer temperatures. Once you determine which kind of grass will do better in your climate, you can pick a grass seed type based on your needs and preferences.

Warm-Season Grasses

Bermuda grass: Bermuda grass is very drought tolerant and traffic tolerant. It won’t need frequent irrigations, and can grow in a variety of soils, from sandy to clay. It has very little shade tolerance or cold tolerance, and needs direct sunlight to grow.

Buffalo grass: Buffalo grass is one of the lowest maintenance lawns available for the home. It is very drought tolerant, and can endure some cold temperatures, although it will go dormant during the winter. It also cannot tolerate shade or heavy foot traffic. It can grow in a variety of soils, but prefers more clay than sand.

Zoysia grass: Zoysia grass is drought tolerant, but it has the tendency to go dormant quickly if it goes without water for too long. It can endure heavy foot traffic and some shade. It grows in a variety of soils, but needs adequate drainage in order to thrive.

Cool-Season Grasses

Fine fescue grass: Fine fescue grass is really an umbrella term for a group of grasses including sheep fescue, red fescue, hard fescue, and chewings fescue. Fine fescues are great for shaded areas and need very little maintenance. They tolerate moderate foot traffic, do not need to be watered frequently, and can grow in a variety of soils.

Kentucky bluegrass: Kentucky bluegrass is slow to establish, but it grows into a beautiful and traffic tolerant lawn. It needs to be grown in loamy soil, and will quickly go dormant during the summer if not watered frequently, even daily. It can tolerate some shade.

Perennial ryegrass: Perennial ryegrass has the quickest establishment rate of any grass species. It has a very high traffic tolerance, so it is a good choice for a recreational yard. It will need frequent irrigating during the summer and should be planted in rich, loamy soil. It can tolerate partial shade.

Tall fescue grass: Tall fescue grass is very drought tolerant and will need infrequent but deep irrigations. Although it has a slow establishment, it does not require significant maintenance, and can grow in sandy to clay-like soil. It also has a partial tolerance for shade.

Nature’s Finest Seed offers premium grass seed for each of the above species as well as blends that are designed to increase your lawn’s tolerance for different environments. They are a great resource for finding the right type of grass for your lawn.

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Archives

Seeding Your Lawn is Easy Once You Choose a Type of Grass

Which Are The Best Grasses To Over Seed For A Winter Lawn

How To Develop A Low Maintenance Lawn

Which Is The Best Grass For Your Lawn?

What Is The Best Grass For Erosion Control?

An Overview of Grass Seed Types

Warm-Season Grasses

Cool-Season Grasses

Grass Stitcher Testimonials and Reviews