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

[North_Raleigh_Guy]

Here is another springtime landscaping inspired thread! I have a tall fescue lawn, my neighbor across the street has Zoysiagrass, and then another neighbor down the street has Bermuda Grass. So this has got me thinking..... what grass type is best suited for the area and most common among the many lawns in the Triangle? The NC State Turfiles website gives growing tips for several warm season and cool season grasses stating the pros and cons of each, but I am curious what the majority of people here in the triangle have. Like I mentioned above, I have a fescue lawn now, but is bermuda better suited for this region?

What type of grass is your lawn comprised of?

[RaleighRob]

Originally Posted by North_Raleigh_Guy

What type of grass is your lawn comprised of?

Clover, wild onion, monkeygrass and English Ivy.

[MikeJaquish]

Tall Fescue here.
If I ever redo the entire lawn, I may go Zoysia.
Like walking on plush carpet...
It has its own maintenance demands, but likes the summers better.

[ncsu99]

This is a good resource for lawn and turf care:

www.turffiles.ncsu.edu

[ducter]

I myself like to looks of tall fescue the best but I have seen many people lose the battle in the summer to it going dead and weeds. I have heard that it requires alot os water in the summer.

Now bermuda is better at all these things except that it is completely brown in winter and early spring.

I would like to hear comments on my comments since I am also seeking some clarity since I dont have alot of grass exp.

[MikeJaquish]

ducter,

If you study the turffiles link from NCSU, you will learn a ton. Trust NC State. They could grow turf on Jesse Ventura's bald pate.

Zoysia and Bermuda are warm weather grasses. They take care, but it is different care than cool weather grasses like fescue and Kentucky Bluegrass.
The advantage of the warm weather grasses is the summer splendor, and their drought resistance, and their ability to spread and fill in when one plant dies. Yes, they will be brown between first and last frost.

Fescue is a non-native grass, basically being "forced" here, as folks like the winter green.
Fescue will not fill in. When a grass plant dies, you have a void, which is conducive to weed and pest growth.

Kentucky Bluegrass is, IMO, the most beautiful lawn, in the North. It is also just about the highest maintenance lawn, and finicky, even in its climatic range.
It is totally out of place in the South, but requested by some northerners and ergo stocked and sold, particularly by big box chains.
Bad choice in our area.

Read turffiles...

[ncsu99]

Originally Posted by ducter

I myself like to looks of tall fescue the best but I have seen many people lose the battle in the summer to it going dead and weeds. I have heard that it requires alot os water in the summer.

Now bermuda is better at all these things except that it is completely brown in winter and early spring.

I would like to hear comments on my comments since I am also seeking some clarity since I dont have alot of grass exp.

I had a fescue lawn, but the 95-100 degree heat scorched it in the summer. So, last April I sowed bermuda and by the end of September it had covered about 50% of my lawn, replacing the fescue. Bermuda is definitely more adapted to grow in the long, hot summer of NC, especially if you have very little shade like I do. Bermuda also requires little maintenance and is much more drought resistant than fescue.

Of course Bermuda is brown in the winter, but it's green from April to at least through October. My fescue only tended to be "healthly" looking in the early spring and early fall, when the temperatures are moderately warm, and the nights are still cool.

[OmegaBaby]

I have tall fescue. But it keeps getting invaded by some sort of wild bermuda grass blowing in from somewhere. I'll kill off the bermuda, but it comes back elsewhere. And the bermuda spreads very rapidly (the runners seem to be able to spread about 10 feet in a year if left untouched). So I end up with brown patches in the winter. The fescue also thins out badly in the summer, and you have to overseed every fall.

I tilled up a section of my lawn last fall and planted heat-tolerant bluegrass. It looks pretty good right now, but I'm waiting to see just how heat-tolerant it is. I've heard good and bad things about it (the bad was mostly that it's difficult to germinate). The benefit of bluegrass is that it spreads, unlike fescue, so it shouldn't need to be reseeded constantly. And since it fills in, it should outcompete and eliminate the bermuda during the cool months (fingers crossed).

[lovemaine]

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!

[autumngal]

I just redid my lawn this fall with kentucky 31. I used it in my last house and 5 years later that lawn is still looking great, so decided to give it a go with this house now.
We shall see what happens,

p.s. ues oh those wild onions