Residential Grass Types

Warm Season

• Experts divide residential grasses into two broad groups: warm season and cool season grasses. Warm season grasses, as the name indicates, do better in regions with higher temperatures, such as the southern United States. Warm season species include Bermuda grass, Bahia grass and St. Augustine. These grasses typically do better than cool season grasses during periods of drought. They may simply go dormant and start growing again once more water is available.

Cool Season

• Cool season grasses, such as tall fescue, Kentucky bluegrass and perennial ryegrass, perform best in cooler regions such as the northern and midwestern United States. The best time to plant a cool season grass is in the fall, when the prevailing temperature and moisture conditions are most favorable, according to Purdue University. The seeds of cool season grasses, such as Kentucky bluegrass, typically need a combination of warm days and cool nights to germinate.

Varieties

• All the major species of residential grass have various cultivars, or varieties. A lawn consisting of one species of grass needs to have different varieties of that species. This will make the lawn more vigorous and help it resist disease and pests, according to the Ohio State University Extension. Cultivar selection is important to seeding or sodding a new lawn since each cultivar has different strengths and weaknesses. Planting a blend of two to four cultivars of a species will help you maintain a healthy turf.

Ornamental

• Another type of residential grass, ornamental grass accents and fills out home gardens. The many different species of ornamentals can have widely divergent watering needs. For instance, some grasses, such as switchgrass, thrive in areas that average 25 to 30 inches of rain per year. Others, like little blue stem, do well in regions with as little as 2 to 4 inches per year. Gardeners growing an ornamental grass outside its native region need to know the specific requirements of each species for best results.