Suggested grasses for warm NorCal climate zone 9?

fkoehler – posted 08 April 2005 02:12

Hi All,

Great site, wish I had found it sooner. I am in the Vallejo, Northern CA area, 94591, zone 9. Had our front lawn landscaped with a fescue thats working well so far. I would like to do my backyard now, however am interested in another type of grass if possible. The fescue seems to be growing .5″/wk or so. If I don’t watch it for a couple of weeks if I’m busy, I’m always surprised at how tall it has gotten. So now for the backyard, I am thinking of possibly a buffalo grass, since the summers are pretty warm (~90+), and lots of long, sunny days. Would any of the experts have any suggestions on what grasses are best for this area? I’m particularly drawn to the buffalo grasses since they require less water and are much slower growing supposedly.

Also, is there anyway to ID my specific fescue type?

Thanks much.

fkoehler – posted 08 April 2005 02:39

Wow, thats weird. Some maps I’ve seen have indicated 94591 is in USDA Zone 9, yet on lawngrasses.com its shows us in temperate zone 4? Different systems?

ted – posted 08 April 2005 12:29

you’ll need to mow any lawn at least once a week. sounds like fescue is your choice.

seed – posted 08 April 2005 16:27

The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone map is a numerical system for mapping expected minimum winter temperature in zones (e.g., “Zone 9a” or “Zone 9b”) and is useful and widely accepted for that purpose. It has undergone at least one major revision which rearranged the lines, but not so drastically as what you see on lawngrasses.com

There have also been various attempts to describe climate zones (including not only minimum winter temperature, but also rainfall) using intelligible words such as “warm humid” and “Mediterranean” and the authors in the turfgrass area have modified this to include a “Transition Zone” but I cannot think of a numerical system such as the one shown on lawngrasses.com and they do not say where this came from. It does not appear that it would be very useful as presented.

Phil

fkoehler – posted 14 April 2005 22:28

Thanks for the advice and suggestions folks.