Alex C. Gomez 3&4b
Types of Grasses
What are the most popular grasses used in landscaping and homes
across America? Why do we use grasses in our front yard in the first place?
These are questions people would ask to know which type of grass is best
to plant in certain geographical areas and what are the positives and
negatives to each variety of grass used.
But first before I can give you the dirt on grass, what is grass? It is
the same species of plant that covers a big range, but in the beginning it
was pastures grass for animals to graze on. But true grass, however, is
considered to be a controlled lawn that are common in commercial and
private yards. But they are not all are the same as some do prefer different
temperatures and some are heat and cold resistance. In Utah, you will
want to plant a different type of grass depending on where you live.
Looking at the USDA Utah zone map you can determine what grass to grow.
There are two seasons which grasses fall under. Cool and warm
seasons. Cool season grasses are grasses that actively grow during the
cooler spring and fall weather. And warm season grasses are grasses that
go dormant during the cooler months and grow during the warmer months.
There are cool season grasses like Kentucky bluegrass, Bentgrass,
Fescue, and Ryegrass. And warm season like Buffalograss, Bahiagrass, and
Carpetgrass are used in Utah, however warm seasons grass are not
preferred in Utah because of the long winter.
Cool season grasses
But the most common grass grown in Utah is Kentucky-bluegrass with a
slow set time. It is a moderately fine leaf; it takes up a lot of water but has a very
high drought and wear resistant. It tolerates high cold and medium heat
tolerance. But it doesn’t tolerate shade.
Bentgrass (colonial) is fine grass with a fast establishing time and
moderate water and shade tolerance. But it is a very poor grass to have
during years of droughts. It has a very low wear and cold resistance and has
great heat resistance if you live in the more southern parts of Utah.
Fescue (chewing) is a fine leaf that fast establishes itself; it doesn’t
need much water and has a very excellent drought resistance and very high
shade resistant. But it has a very low wear and heat resistance but makes
up for it with a high cold resistance.
Ryegrass (perennial) has a moderate to fine leaf with a fast set time.
It has a moderate water use and good drought resistance with a moderate
to poor shade tolerance. High wear and heat resistances with low cold
resistances
Warm Season grasses
Buffalograss is a coarse leaf plant but a slow establish rate. It
consumes very little water use and is excellent for its drought tolerance but
has very poor shade tolerance. It has a high cold and heat resistance but
may wear down faster than other grasses.
Bahiagrass has a very coarse leaf with a slow establish rate. Excellent
drought and shade tolerance and uses very little water at all, very high
wear and heat tolerance but low cold tolerance.
Carpetgrass is coarse leafed with slow establish time, with low water
intake, it is drought and shade tolerance. Carpetgrass has very high cold
and heat tolerance but wears fast.
How lawns got its start
Lawns got their start in the early medieval times and were principally
used as communal grazing areas for livestock to feed off of. Later on the
upper class of medieval times saw that it could be used outside of the
pasture and that it had an aesthetic look and used it in landscaping. Before
the invention of the lawn mowing machines of the 1830 lawns were either
managed by shearing, scything, or were maintained by through grazing by
sheep and other livestock. During the Elizabethan era gardens and lawns
became social areas for the wealthy. By the end of the 17th century the
English lawn was a symbol of status of aristocracy and gentries. Thomas
Jefferson has been one of the first people to attempt English –style lawn at
his estate. In the 1870 lawn had started to show up in affluent American
properties and city parks. During the Victorian era the lawn had began to
shrink as more plants were being introduced and available horticulturaly in
Europe. Eventually the wealthy were moving away from cities trying to
escape urban congestion and its perceived affects on mental and physical
health. In 1856 a book was published that there should have a grassy space
for children to play on and a space to grow fruits and vegetables. As houses
started to become smaller the lawn had started to become even more
apparent in housing. 1951 Abraham Levitt and his sons built more than
seventeen thousand homes each with its own lawn, Levitt had wrote that
“No single feature of a suburban residential community contributes as
much to the charm and beauty of the individual home and the locality as
well-kept lawns”.
It is interesting to read about the evolution of grass and to learn that
it first started out as grazing fields for animals. Nowadays there are so
many types of grasses to choose from. Our choices are endless, from what
type of grasses can be used for a golf course to what would be the best
type to plant in Florida or Utah, and which is the best disease and pest
resistant. In the end we can see how lawns weren’t even really lawns and
how they got their start.
www.montereylawngarden.com/glossary/
http://www.outsidepride.com/resources/states/utah.html
www.800plants.com/pages/GLOSSARY.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawn
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/grass