Gardening Life 365 ™

Identify the Grass in Your Yard

There are two main categories of grasses, warm and cool seasons.  Warm-season grasses prefer hot, humid, bright, sunny climates and thrive despite drought-like conditions.  Cool-season grasses flourish in places where winters are cold and summers are hot.  

The different types of grasses in each category are as follows:  Warm-season grasses include Bermuda, Bahia, Zoysia, Centipede, Carpet, Buffalo, and Paspalum grasses.  Cool-season grasses include Bent, Blue, Fescue, and Rye grasses.  A brief description of each of the more common grass types is below. 

Grass Type	Description
Bermuda	A fine to medium texture, fast-growing, aggressive grass that helps prevent weeds because it fills in quickly.  It thrives in extreme drought conditions, needs medium water, can tolerate medium traffic, and needs full sun.
Bahia	A coarse texture grass, moderately aggressive growing, can withstand high traffic, drought conditions, low water, and full sun to partial shade.
Zoysia	Prefers full sun to partial shade, has a fine to medium texture, needs a medium level of water, allows for heavy traffic, and is dense.
Centipede	Grows slowly, requires little maintenance, and can tolerate poor soil conditions.  It has a coarse texture, requires medium water, full or partial shade, and can survive in medium drought conditions.
Buffalo	A low maintenance, fine-textured grass that tolerates high traffic, drought conditions, low amounts of water, and full sun.

Grass Type	Description
Fescue	Comes in varieties, such as tall and fine, which creates different textures.  Most fescues are drought resistant, require low water, and tolerates high traffic and full sun to partial shade.  These grasses do well in mild winters and warm summer climates.
Blue	A durable and dense grass with a fine to medium texture.  It needs full sun to partial shade, medium to high water, and can permit medium to high traffic.  Blue grasses are more tolerant to colder conditions and are disease resistant.
Bent	This grass is high maintenance with a dense, carpet-like appearance.  It has a fine texture, requires high amounts of water, has a low drought tolerance, and can withstand high traffic and full sun to partial shade.
Ryegrass	Can be a perennial or annual grass and is used typically to over-seed lawns.  It has a medium to coarse texture and low drought tolerance.  It also requires a large amount of water and is intolerant of extreme temperatures.