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What's the Best Lawn Grass for You
from: Lawn and Garden MagicLawn care is not only hard work, but it can also be very confusing. If you live in a suburban neighborhood, you know how much peer pressure there is to have the perfect lawn, but there is a lot to keep track of in the process. You have to know when to fertilize, which fertilizer to use for the time of year, and then there's deciding which grass type you're going to use. There are many factors that determine what type of grass to seed in your lawn, but the first will likely be the climate where you live.
For instance, if you live in the southern United States, where the weather is warm almost year around, you'll likely want to plant a warm season grass. Warm season grasses do their active growing roughly between the months of April and October. Warm season grasses obviously prefer warmer climates. For proper growth of warm season grasses, your area needs soil temperatures to be around 70 degrees Fahrenheit. However, you must be careful -- don't make the mistake of trying to plant a warm season grass if you live too far north. The grasses are genetically bred to row in warm climates and won't be able to survive a Midwestern or northern winter. Bermuda grass is an example of warm season grasses.
If, however, you live in the Midwest or northern part of the country, then you'll need to plant a cool season grass. Cool season grasses do most of their growing in late spring and early fall. Since they're bred for cooler weather, their growth usually slows down considerably during the heat of the summer. The best time to plant your cool season grass is early fall. If, however, you want to plant at a different time of year, be careful that you do so when soil temperatures are around 50 degrees Fahrenheit, likely in the spring. Kentucky bluegrass is cool season grass for example.
A third option, and one that's best for beginners, is to plant a grass seed mixture. The mixture will contain a number of different grass species. Planting a mixture will help to avoid disease in your lawn. Most fungi that attack lawns are specific to certain species of grass. If there are various species growing in the yard, it's hard for fungi or other diseases to spread from one plant to another when there are other species buffering them from one another. Mixed lawns will tend to adjust themselves to differences in the soil makeup or sun exposure in different parts of the lawn. Therefore a mixture is lower maintenance for a lawn care beginner.
Another kind of grass to consider for your lawn isn't one you'd make your base grass in the lawn, but can be a big part of the overall look of your landscaping. That type is ornamental grass which is becoming increasingly popular to improve the look of lawns and landscaping. While ornamental grasses can be grown from seed, the most popular way of raising it is to buy pots of the grass. Each pot can be divided up to make more grass, and if you're savvy with grass you'll be able to grow all of the ornamental grass you could want.
Growing and maintaining a lawn can actually be stressful if you don't know what you are doing. When it comes to seeding a lawn, the number of species and options in the grass seed aisle of your local garden store can be intimidating. However, if you educate yourself through a little research, you can make good decisions about the grass to plant in your lawn. Talk to a representative at your local nursery or garden store and find out what is best. If you decide to go with a mixture, the same representative can help you select the mixture that will work best for you and require the least maintenance.
Planting Grass News
Invasive grass spreading along dunes - Traverse City Record-Eagle
EMPIRE -- Clumps of invasive lyme grass continue to crop up along the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, but the problem plant has yet to thrive as it has along southern Lake Michigan. Lyme grass competes with native dune grass and can hinder ...
Read more...Texas Crop, Weather: Drought Continues, Cattle Sell-Offs - CattleNetwork.com
COLLEGE STATION – Most of the state's agricultural producers continued to suffer dry if not drought conditions. Low soil moisture levels were critical in some areas, limiting the planting of winter wheat and possibly even spring wheat if rainfall ...
Read more...Texas Crop Report - El Paso Times
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Read more...Fire Station No. 3 opens - Fort Bend Herald
After months of construction, Richmond’s third fire station is operational, thought not quite finished. Richmond firefighters moved into the Richmond Fire Station No. 3 last week. Crews moved into the building Dec. 22, located at 2441 Farmer Road ...
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The Saltlander forage grass mix of perennial grasses with salt tolerance transforms unproductive land with soils of high saline content to productive land, according to Tom Miles, Producer’s Choice Seeds northwest region sales manager of Nampa ...
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This latest ice storm really worried me. Losing power was one concern. But once the lights stayed on, I still fretted. How could pheasants and quail survive with a thick coating of ice over everything? If you hunt upland birds, you’ve no doubt ...
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