Nov
Be The Envy Of Your Neighbors-Get A Fantastic Looking Lawn
Generally speaking you should fertilize your lawn once in spring, summer & early fall. Do not fertilize your lawn during the cold season months. However be sure to use a “winterizer” during the winter months. There is more. This should be done at least once but twice or two times is ideal. Ask you local nursery for this type of “winterizer”.
Mowing your lawn: Here is one question I get all the time. When do I mow my lawn? Here is my standard answer. Mow it when it needs it… Duh. Always keep you mower blades sharp this helps the blades from recuperating much faster thus making it look much better & greener. Also lift your mower blades up one notch after each mowing. Do you follow? Too low & the grass will look dull & brownish the higher the blades the better… Below I will list the types of lawn grasses or sod for general landscaping design.
But first the difference between grass & sod. Grass is sod & sod is grass. You can purchase bermuda, fescue, zoysia, & St. Augustine grass in sod form.
You can also get them in seed form. Seed grass comes in well seeds. It is usually spread with a broadcast , handheld or dropdown spreader you can even do it by hand but may come out in clumps. It works best with a broadcast spreader.
Sod is commercially grown & usually cut to the buyers specifications. You can purchase sod at a nursery or at a retail sod store. It comes in a mat size of about 16″ by 45″ for a total of 5sq ft.
Bermudagrass - Has many uses & is what most folks use through out the desert southwest. It is very drought tolerant & will creep & grow during the summer season. However you can control spreading with some of the hybrids below.
Here are some varieties & descriptions of bermuda sod. This type of grass/sod is drought tolerant, you can water about 1-2 times per week during the hot summer months. About 15 minutes on a sprinkler system. If you want it to look super I recommend once every other day during the hot summer months. It can tolerate traffic & is perfect for the backyard. You should fertilizer at least once per month. There are many varieties to select from & below is a list.
Bermuda -Tifton is for home lawns, commercial fields, coarse & blends with common Bermuda.
Bermuda -Tifgreen is for home lawns, commercial, putting greens & the blades are fine, low growing grass.
Bermuda -Tifway 419 used for lawns, commercial, fairways, medium blades.
Bermuda -Santa Ana used for home lawns, commercial, fields, medium type blades.
Bermuda -Texturf 10 Mostly used for home lawns, & have coarse blades.
Bermuda -Overseeded with perennial rye used for lawns, commercial , medium to fine blades.
Overseeded means the perennial rye will look green thru the winter months but will go dormant during the summer season when the Bermuda looks best. You can calculate how much sod or topsoil you need at: Sod Calculate
Fescue - There are many varieties of fescue. This type of grass/sod is not drought tolerant but looks great almost year round wit additional watering. It will usually cost more in sod or seed form.
Fescue Advantage known as Festuca arundinaceum, is a cool 
season, perennial grass which means it will stay green all year round.
Tall Fescue is actually Kentucky 31 variety & is a cool season grass but will do well during the hot summer months with ample watering.
Creeping or red Fescue, can be grown in single stands & prefers more shadier & cooler areas than most other cool season fescue grasses.
Hard Fescue likes shade & is drought & disease resistant & it likes higher elevation type environment. Usually not available at retail nurseries. .
Gary & Paul Guzman are the authors of this article: Gary is the owner of Color your world nurseries & Paul is general manager of Guzman’s greenhouse & the webmaster of http://www.guzmansgreenhouse.com To receive more free information about gardening click here
