Choosing A Grass Type For Your Yard

Spring is coming (or is already here) and you’ve probably looked outside with mixed feelings as your eyes land on your lawn. You think about lawn maintenance, weeds, or the lovely and fickle Missouri summers that either drown or desiccate grass until it just gives one last sigh and gives up the ghost. Grass isn’t just one giant green blade, there are many, many varieties and some are ideally suited for our area. Paying attention to what seed you toss out will go a long way toward keeping your lawn green and happy.

Lawns are normally grouped into a couple of catagories; warm season or cool season.  Warm season grasses such as  bermudagrass, zoysiagrass or buffalograss are good for the southern areas of the US where summers are hot and winters are mild. Some such as zoysiagrass will tolerate our northern Missouri climate but will go dormant when temps go below 50 degrees and are among the last of the grasses to green up in late spring. However, they tolerate our burning summers very well and may be the only green on the block when Independence Day comes. It does need at least 6-8 hours of sunlight so avoid planting in large shady areas as the turf will be as thin as a bald man’s head.

Cooler season grasses are best for areas with warm summers and cold winters such as Kansas City. These grasses include fine and tall fescues, bluegrass and bentgrass. They’ll grow well in the spring and fall and then slow during the summer heat. Fescues are a good all around choice as unlike the majority of cool season grasses they are shade tolerant and perform well in the transition areas that bisect Missouri into cooler and warmer zones. It becomes more wear tolerant when mixed with a small amount of rye. Bluegrass is another fine choice and is more wear tolerant than fescue or buffalo grass so is great for high traffic areas. Golf courses love it for fairways, tees and roughs. It has runners that allow it to  spread and fill in bare spots.Cool season grasses can also be seeded in the fall over warm season grasses. This provides a green cover during a period when the warm season lawn goes dormant and turns brown.

Regardless of what type of grass you use in your lawn they will all GROW. And if you have a busy summer schedule you know how mowing can get away from you. We’ve all seen how one good rain can seem to make your grass grow an inch overnight. So if you find yourself coming home after dark so your neighbors can’t gang up on you or you wake up one morning to find your lawn mower sporting a bow on the front porch call us at KC Landscape Curbing. We mow and trim your yard so that it's clean and crisp. Our professional mowers take time to mow in straight lines and attractive patterns. We understand how to mow grass to encourage healthy grass growth. In short, we know grass!