What Type of lawn grass is most common in the Triangle? (Raleigh: HOA, purchasing)

[North_Raleigh_Guy]

Hmmm....exactly as I feared. The asnwers seem to be all over the place with varying opinions. Seems like fescue, while a popular choice is not the best suited for this region. I have it simply because that was what the lawn was when I bought the house. I guess I will see how mine turns out this summer now that it is no longer being neglected (as it was by the previous owner) and see how bad the water bill is this summer before making any change over to bermuda or zoysia.

[sloppy_joe]

IMO, bermuda is great if you want just a lawn and a tree or two. If you want anything in your yard that resembles separate garden beds, be prepared to constantly pull out the runners from the gardens, install thick & deep barrier (since bermuda roots have been shown to grow very deep even in tough soil conditions), or give-up and watch the bermuda take over everything. I have it currently and despise it.

Does anyone know why St Augustine is not common here? I assumed "Raleigh" St Augustine would be here and am surprised it's not. Perhaps it's too cold for it here to survive winter.

I'm frustrated that my builder will use bermuda in Raleigh, but I plan to spray the sod w/ 10% vinegar to kill it all, dig it up, and plant something I can actually garden around w/o painstaking, constant labor.

[MikeJaquish]

Saint Augustines is a coarse grass, and covers ground, but doesn't look very good.
All IMO.

[Skipstone]

Stilt grass.

[sinstars]

The triangle is in a "transition" area regarding turf, so year in and year out, it may be to cold for warm season, or too hot for cool season. Fescue is the least expensive in the short term, but if you want to keep it looking great all summer, it can get costly. Requires much water and fungicides for brown patch control. If you are going to be in your home for the long-term, invest in zoysia. Upfront it is expensive, but over the term of ~10 years, you will have less inputs, and less time working on the lawn, more time for summer activities, as compared to fescue. If you want green in winter, you can overseed the zoysia with ryegrass, which you can kill in the late winter, or it will die off with heat.
In between fescue and zoysia, would be bermuda hybrids, less cost than zoysia, but not as dense. Check with NCSU for info on the latest zoysia and bermuda suited for this area.

[MikeJaquish]

Originally Posted by sinstars

The triangle is in a "transition" area regarding turf, so year in and year out, it may be to cold for warm season, or too hot for cool season. Fescue is the least expensive in the short term, but if you want to keep it looking great all summer, it can get costly. Requires much water and fungicides for brown patch control. If you are going to be in your home for the long-term, invest in zoysia. Upfront it is expensive, but over the term of ~10 years, you will have less inputs, and less time working on the lawn, more time for summer activities, as compared to fescue. If you want green in winter, you can overseed the zoysia with ryegrass, which you can kill in the late winter, or it will die off with heat.
In between fescue and zoysia, would be bermuda hybrids, less cost than zoysia, but not as dense. Check with NCSU for info on the latest zoysia and bermuda suited for this area.

Good stuff, sinstairs!

[OmegaBaby]

Originally Posted by holt4fam

We bought our house last June and the grass was nice and green. In the fall it turned brown, so it turns out we have Bermuda grass. I personally don't like it because most of our neighbors have green grass. It makes our yard look burnt. We're planning on eliminating it over time, but I'm not sure how long that'll take. No Bermuda at our next house!

Killing Bermuda grass is no small task. You must be sure to kill it COMPLETELY. Otherwise, it will just come back and overtake any cool season grass during the warm months. And then you end up with a lawn with brown patches in the summer (the Fescue), and brown patches in the winter (the Bermuda). It typically takes about 3 separate applications of round-up. Apply the round up...wait a week....kill what's left....wait a week.....kill what's left.

If it were me, I'd live with the Bermuda. If you were starting from scratch, I'd probably recommend Tall Fescue. But even Tall Fescue really only looks good in the spring and fall. Otherwise, it's often brown during the summer, and grayish green in the winter. At least Bermuda is a solid green about 7-8 months of the year, and it requires much less water. And don't worry about your neighbors lawns....it's only a matter of time before you're Bermuda grass takes over the rest of the neighborhood.

[cary native]

You all know i just have to put in my .02
As someone already stated, in this area (Raleigh/Cary) neither warm nor cool season grasses do great. It's too hot for the cool, and the soil is not right for the warm. If you go as little as 20 miles south and east, warm season does better. If you go that same distance north and west cool season does better.
Both types of grass can look good here though with some work. After weighing out all the odds, one type of grass is neither cheaper nor easier to keep looking its best, so it comes down to personal preferance.
The thought that warm season handles the heat and drought better is not necessarily true. What it does is rebound faster once it does cool off a little and get some water. Cool season will rebound fine too if it has been properly cared for before going dormant.
One thing that i am hearing alot from people that are new to the area and dealing with warm season grass is that they are not liking the amount of "dead" grass that they track into the house during the winter.

[House Lady]

be responsible when choosing grass. Fescue is not meant for our area, but many people plant it because they love the fact that it can be green all year. That look comes with a high price, though. The single biggest problem in our rapidly growing area is the even more rapidly growing difficulty of supplying clean, safe water to us all. Our water comes from area lakes, which are filled from area rivers that are fed from the runoff from all our lawns. Fescue requires excessive watering, fertilizer and weed killer all of which are creating problems for us and our wildlife and seafood. Wells are also being ruined with these chemicals and they cannot be foltered out. It's past time for us to grow up and stop competing to have every new and shiny thing our neighbors have at the cost of our health and future. Plant Centipede, people. It rarely needs watering, needs very little mowing, does not like fertilizer and can be easily weeded. It can be grown from runners which you can get from neighbors, You don't even need to buy seed, although it can be grown that way, too. It does go dormant in the winter as is NATURAL. This is the perfect time to get any weeds out since they mostly stay green all year and you can see them! Bermuda also works the same way, but as everyone has stated. It gets into flower beds and is impossible to remove. Also, your neighbors will hate you because it will get in their yards, too. Zoysia is not quite as bad as fescues are and will grow in semi-shady spots.

[cary native]

House Lady,
If i can get the right picture up, i will show you a fescue lawn in this area that looks good most of the year that is not watered AT ALL(other than rain), is not over fertilized, nor has there been any herbicide applied to this lawn in 3 years.