Choosing The Right Grass Seed for Your Light
When choosing the right grass seed for your lawn, it is important to evaluate the light available ahead of time and plan long-term especially if you are planting a new lawn with young trees that are not fully developed yet. Every type of grass available to create a beautiful lawn requires some amount of light. There are varieties of grasses available today that will perform better than others with partial shade, however every species of lawn grass needs some amount of bright sun to perform its best.
Choosing the wrong type of grass seed for your light situation will mean that your lawn will experience stress which will reduce its resistance to disease and various insects. On the other hand, choosing a grass seed that is designed for partial shade when your lawn actually receives full sun most of the time will also stress the grass and create the same types of problems. In the end, stress leads to disease and pests. Both of these create an unsightly lawn and may be expensive to correct. It is much better to spend the time ahead of time with the proper planning and choose the right grass seed or seed mix to begin with.
In order to choose the right grass seed species, you will need to evaluate the light that your lawn or proposed lawn receives over different sections throughout the day. If you are planning on planting any new trees, consider the amounts of shade those trees will provide five and ten years down the line as well.
Full sun is generally considered to be an area that receives direct sunlight a minimum of six hours throughout the day. Full sun conditions are ideal for planting grass lawns in. If you think about the evolution of grass and prairies in general, this makes sense. Grass species will always prefer to be in full sun type conditions and planting according to these preferences will mean much less work and struggle for you.
Part shade is generally considered to be an area that gets somewhere between four and six hours of sun throughout the day. These sites of your proposed lawn are good areas to plant shade tolerant grass seeds.
Full shade – if you have an area of proposed lawn that receives less than four hours of sun a day, you will seriously want to reconsider planting grass iin that area. Ground covers such as ivy will perform very well in these areas in addition to being very low maintenance while adding to the health of any trees in the area. While you may choose to struggle with grasses in these areas, it will be a lot of work and is not advised.
When choosing the right grass seed for your lawn, it is important to evaluate the light available ahead of time and plan long-term – especially if you are planting a new lawn with young trees that are not fully developed yet. Every type of grass available to create a beautiful lawn requires some amount of light. There are varieties of grasses available today that will perform better than others with partial shade, however every species of lawn grass needs some amount of bright sun to perform its best.
Choosing the wrong type of grass seed for your light situation will mean that your lawn will experience stress which will reduce its resistance to disease and various insects. On the other hand, choosing a grass seed that is designed for partial shade when your lawn actually receives full sun most of the time will also stress the grass and create the same types of problems. In the end, stress leads to disease and pests. Both of these create an unsightly lawn and may be expensive to correct. It is much better to spend the time ahead of time with the proper planning and choose the right grass seed or seed mix to begin with.
In order to choose the right grass seed species, you will need to evaluate the light that your lawn or proposed lawn receives over different sections throughout the day. If you are planning on planting any new trees, consider the amounts of shade those trees will provide five and ten years down the line as well.
Full sun is generally considered to be an area that receives direct sunlight a minimum of six hours throughout the day. Full sun conditions are ideal for planting grass lawns in. If you think about the evolution of grass and prairies in general, this makes sense. Grass species will always prefer to be in full sun type conditions and planting according to these preferences will mean much less work and struggle for you.
Part shade is generally considered to be an area that gets somewhere between four and six hours of sun throughout the day. These sites of your proposed lawn are good areas to plant shade tolerant grass seeds.
Full shade – if you have an area of proposed lawn that receives less than four hours of sun a day, you will seriously want to reconsider planting grass iin that area. Ground covers such as ivy will perform very well in these areas in addition to being very low maintenance while adding to the health of any trees in the area. While you may choose to struggle with grasses in these areas, it will be a lot of work and is not advised.
photo credit: brew ha ha
