Advice For Type of Lawn

[SLOBuds]

I'd like to plant a lawn and want to hear what people would recommend. There are a lot of seed sites on the web, and each one of them pitches their own seeds for different conditions, but I'm having a hard time synthesizing all of the info.

It's a farm property, so I do not plan to be obsessive about laying down and maintaining a weed-free picture-perfect lawn.

The challenge seems to be my weather. Summers will be up to the teens, and winters will be down to same: the lawn has to survive 10 degree weather and it has to survive 115 degree weather. Most likely temperatures would be 40s for winter and 90s for summer. Plenty of days below 40s and above 90s though.

Other attributes I'd like to see:

I will irrigate the lawn, but I would like the grass to have relatively low water requirements

I'd like it to be a year-round lawn. Green all year, without need to seed and re-seed each season.

Some parts are in direct sunlight. Some parts are in filtered sunlight, under trees. I don't want to have to mess with different varieties in different areas.

Let me know what you think would be best.

Thanks.

 

[MossRoad]

The problem with a lawn is if it doesn't rain often, and you want it green, you have to water it, plain and simple. Very few grasses will remain thick and green without lots of water.

Kentucky blue grass mixes seem to work well in our location. We have temperature swings from below zero to one hundred and it survives quite well... with water.

 

[thatguy]

here in VA, Kentucky 31 (tall fescue) will pretty much grow anywhere as long as you keep it watered well until it gets started and with your irigation system watering isnt a problem. KY31 stays green all year as well.

good luck..

brian

 

[MarkV]

Martin, to me your best bet is to check with the county extension office to see what works best in your area. You might as well do a soil test at the same time and see what amendments the soil needs to give the grass its best chance.

MarkV

 

[MossRoad]

Martin, to me your best bet is to check with the county extension office to see what works best in your area. You might as well do a soil test at the same time and see what amendments the soil needs to give the grass its best chance.

MarkV

That is very good advice.

 

[EddieWalker]

Your local experts will know what's best, but I'll through a few thoughts out there. First, you might want to reconsider what is lawn. If you just plant an arae around the house of an acre or less, then you can water that. It's not too big for sprinklers and easy to maintain. Outside an acre, you can still have grass, but it will be more like pasture that you cut fairly short. Sort of like a golf course with there differnt cut heights.

Centipede is in my opinion the very best lawn grass there is. Five blades, long green season, it loves the heat but can handle the cold and it grows so very slow that you only cut it once or twice a year.

When I lived in California, the fiscue type grasses were very common. But they take allot of water and don't fight off weeds very well. Here in the South, bermuda grass is very popular. There are at least a dozen differenty types of bermuda that do everything from growing hay to covering golf courses. I like it because it is very drought tolerant, it stays green from March to December and it chokes out weeds when it's in.

Eddie

 

[SLOBuds]

I took a look at Tifblair and it seems to be a good grass. Thank you for the tip about centipede.

The area is probably less than an acre. But I have also given thought to your idea of it being pasture, cut short. Also a good idea.

During winter, does the centipede turn brown?

 

[EddieWalker]

Yes, centipede will go dormant like the other warm season grasses, but it's one of the last to do so. Watch out for zoiysa, it's the first to go dormant and turn brown. St. Augastine and Bermuda will stay green up to the third or forth freeze. Centipede seems to follow a freeze or two later.

After Holloween, I broadcast rye grass seed in areas I want it to stay green. When it's freezing out, rye grass grows thick and lush. It takes about a month to get it good and thick, which is good timing for the other grasses to do dormant. With only an acre to deal with, that's just two 50 pound sacks of rye grass. Here, that's about $80.

Eddie

 

[SLOBuds]

It's hard to say what would happen here. We do get temperatures below freezing, but never sustaining. The temperature always comes up above freezing in the daytime regardless of how cold it is at night.

We have a few plants that go into a type of semi-dormancy, where part of the leaves drop but maybe 1/4 of the plant still has green. Then we have a few plants which are intended to be evergreen tropical - that have lost all leaves and then grown them back later.

Most likely these centipedes will stay green in other parts of California that don't have the swings we do. Maybe they would stay green at our place too.

Thanks again.

 

[EddieWalker]

You should do a search on Centipede Grass before buying it, and maybe ask around how it works in your area before committing to it.

You can buy it in seed, but it's very expensive. The good thing is that you don't need very much as it takes a very, very long time to cover an entire lawn. It's extreme slow growth is it's best quality when it's fully in, but it takes years for this to happen. When I've planted it, I've also planted other grasses with it to give quick cover, but knowing that in time, the Centipede will take over and choke it out. Bermuda is the most common for this, but there was a mix I bought at Lowes that I put around my lake that had another grass seed with it that I don't remember the name of.

Eddie