Bermuda grass is renowned for its durability and is often used on golf courses and sports fields. This type of grass has deep roots and a rapid growth rate, making it a warm-season herb that does best in southern climates. Homeowners who need a new lawn quickly, such as when selling a house, may find grass to be a great option. However, not all types of grass perform equally well when subjected to stresses such as dog urine or pedestrian traffic.
Some types of grass are more tolerant than others to certain challenging conditions. If your lawn is struggling to successfully overcome those challenges, that will mean more lawn maintenance for you. For example, some types tolerate drought better than others. If your lawn doesn't tolerate drought, that will mean you need to water it more.
Some grasses tolerate shade better than others. If you grow a type that doesn't tolerate shade in a shady area of your garden, it may perform poorly. If you're faced with several challenges, you might not find a single type of herb that will successfully overcome each and every one of them; instead, you'll have to choose your poison and adapt it accordingly. Here are nine types of grass that are commonly sold: Kentucky bluegrass, tall fescue, fine fescue, St. Augustine's Wort, Zoysia grass, centipede grass, Bermuda grass, Bahia grass and ryegrass.
Kentucky bluegrass is a cold-season herb that tolerates human foot traffic, dog traffic and urine, as well as light shade. It needs more fertilization than some of the other types of grass but is among the most cold-resistant pastures. It spreads through rhizomes to form a dense mat with an attractive color. Tall fescue has wide leaves that are very thick to the touch and the upper parts are shiny.
It spreads mainly by distributing seeds rather than by crawling and forms clumps instead of spreading through stolons or rhizomes. Fine fescue has narrow leaf blades giving it a fine texture and superior appearance to its taller cousin. There are several different types of fine fescue (all are cool-season herbs); sometimes you get a mix of fescue to chew on, two different types of creeping red fescue, hard fescue and sheep fescue. Fine fescue may be more valued for its shade tolerance but is also drought- and salt-tolerant (making it suitable for coastal communities). It's great as a low-maintenance type of grass but doesn't withstand traffic very well. St.
Augustine's Wort is a warm-season herb with a slow creeping habit that allows it to form dense mats. The blades of grass are wide and flat and it is salt tolerant making it an ideal choice for people who live along the ocean. It's also an ideal choice for Southerners with shady spots in the yard as St. Augustine is the most shade-tolerant of warm-season grasses.
Zoysia grass spreads by stolons and rhizomes to form a dense mat but can spread too freely invading adjacent flower beds and tends to produce heavy straw. It withstands human foot traffic, dog traffic and urine well and is reasonably drought tolerant. Centipede grass is another warm-season herb that doesn't stand up particularly well to human foot traffic, dog traffic and urine but does tolerate acidic soils and doesn't require much fertilization or irrigation. Bahia grass is a warm-season herb that spreads through stolons to form a thick layer that keeps weeds at bay reducing grass maintenance but doesn't withstand human foot traffic, dog traffic or urine very well. Finally, ryegrass is a warm-season herb that prefers soils with low fertility so you save money on fertilizer. It's also an ideal option if you have acidic soil and don't want to bother raising the soil's pH as it is also drought tolerant.
Of all these types of sod grasses, Bermuda grass stands out for its durability due to its deep roots and fast growth rate making it the best choice for courses with high traffic such as golf courses.
