? type of grass to plant, Atlanta, GA

EricLarson – posted 22 June 2005 20:38

Hi, Been reading the board and got some good info but I wanted to see what people thought.

First my front yard was sodded when we moved in 3 years ago. It looks fairly good and appears to be a fine tall fescue blend. It likes to be mowed high (around 2-3 inches) and gets very brown if mowed lower. I am not sure of the variety.

My issue is with the back yard. Previously it was weed and I killed it all off with roundup. After it was all very dead I too soil samples and tilled in the stuff the extension services said to use. It has been sitting ready for seeding for a few weeks as I wanted to see if any weeds came up so I could kill them off first. I plan to plant soon.

The back yard is about 3000sq feet and sees direct light about 5-6 hours a day and decent indirect light another 4 or so. I am basically at a loss as for what to plant back there as everything I read about the fescues says they are much better for cooler temps. It is hot as heck here and I would rather plant something back there that will be good for the higher temps.

Anyway thanks for reading the post and any opinions are appreciated. Ah… Sod is out of my budget I wish I could but I can’t.

thanks!

Eric

kyleinmarietta – posted 22 June 2005 21:01

If you’re looking for something that’ll be green year round, the only choice in Atlanta is Fescue.

If you’re looking for an attractive, robust lawn in the warm months, give one of the improved Bermuda’s (the seeded varietys) a try. If you keep the seed moist, Bermuda will sprout in a week or 10 days, and a month later, you’ll have a lawn of sorts. By the end of September, you should have a pretty full yard.

Zoysia is more shade tolerant, but is much harder to grow from seed. It sprouts and spreads much slower. If you have the time to wait, and the patience to water multiple times a day for 3-4 weeks, you might try one of the seeded zoysias.

EricLarson – posted 22 June 2005 22:14

Thanks! Kind of what I was thinking after reading a lot of this board. Decitions Desitions…

I am still at a loss over the exact type of grass in my front lawn. The darn stuff turns very brown in the winter and stays that way until it is pretty hot out. It did not green up until around late APR to May. It looks to me like fine fescue but I sure could be wrong. It is very wirey and brown from the ground up to about .5 inches. It is nice and green on top, but only if I mow to about 2-2.5 inches or so. It also does not seem to like shade very much.

I am thinking for ease a fine fescue should probably be fine. We are only planning on being in this house another 3-4 years but I want the lawn to look good. My only real concern is how it will hold up to the high heat of summer?

Thanks again.

EricLarson – posted 23 June 2005 20:31

Well took some grass to the local green house and they say my front lawn is bermuda. Odd part is that if I mow it below about 2 inches it turns very brown and looks scalped.

Also did a better job of looking at full sun to my back yard that I want to plant. It is only getting about 5 hours of direct sunlight per day, and about 4 hours of filtered light threw a very high tree line. The rest of the day it is blocked by the house.

Still looking for a grass to plant… Probably stuck looking for a decent fescue.