Arguably the most important decision you will make concerning the appearance and care of your lawn will be what type of grass seed you decide to use. While the choice doesn’t have to be difficult or time consuming, selecting the right grass seed for your lifestyle and needs will impact the appearance and maintenance of your lawn for years to come.
If you have ever tried to have or care for a lawn at any point in your life, you know how fussy creating the perfect green grass can be. Planting during the wrong season, sowing the wrong type of seeds, or even choosing the incorrect fertilizer will set back your lawn and create all kinds of headaches you can do without. Just having a little bit of knowledge ahead of time and choosing the right type of grass seed for your lawn will go a long way in eliminating these potential problems.
First of all, you will need to determine which planting zone you life in. A climate map sometimes called a transition map is a good starting point, or you can also consider contacting your local agricultural extension for a list of grass varieties that perform well in your local climate. Don’t just blindly trust that your local national chain store carries only grass seed appropriate to your area – often times this is not the case.
After narrowing down the species of grasses that will do well in your area, you will be able to find the correct grass or grass mix that will perform well during all seasons in your area. It doesn’t really benefit you to plant grass seed before even knowing if the variety will survive a winter or a summer in your locale.
Different types of grasses and mixes require differing amounts of maintenance. Before choosing a grass seed for your lawn, consider how much time and effort as well as what kind of budget you would like to spend on your lawn. Aside from the initial start up cost of seeding, you should also consider annual, seasonal, monthly, and weekly maintenance. After eliminating the grasses that will not perform well in your climate, this is probably the second most important concept to consider when choosing a grass seed.
Tertiary considerations include the look and appearance of different grasses as well as what uses you have planned for your lawn. Certain grasses and grass mixtures perform better with high traffic than others. Also some grasses have a very fine appearance where as others such as St. Augustine grass grows very thick with a lot of creeping and interwebbing.
Researching the different types of grass seed available is probably the most effective thing you can to to have a beautiful green lawn year round.
photo credit: ChrisDale
