type of grass

16 years ago

Silly newbie question, but if you didn't plant yourself how do you know what kind of grass you have? I inherited my yard from the previous owners and am not much of a landscaper. I live in the Pacific Northwest. Thanks.

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Comments (4)

quirkyquercus
16 years ago
You can post a photo of it, or more specifically photos including one closeup, one of the grass plants pulled out against a contrasting background and one distance shot. OF course it could always be a mix. Or you could take it to an agricultural extension or some place that sells grass like a nursery or hardware store.
bestlawn
16 years ago
Lisa, I've yet to see a silly question on this forum. If I knew what state you live in, I'd link you to the extension service. Since I don't, just Google "[your state] cooperative extension." Google will finish the question before you do. Once on the site, you'll find the county office listing of locations. There's likely one close to you. Identifying turf species and diagnosing turf problems are among the many things they do. Take them several samples w/ roots.

Other than that this site might help you do it yourself. Like Quirky said, you may have a mix of several different ones.
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You're out of my normal range in terms of recommendations, but... Your lawn actually looks quite good from the middle distance, so that brings up the question as to your goal here. Making some normal assumptions, we'll start with the normal questions. Do you know what you currently have? I can't ID that from the far shot and I'm lousy at grass ID anyway. What is your watering and feeding regimen? Things will differ depending on whether you currently have a northern or southern lawn, although both tend to prefer deep and infrequent watering. A northern lawn down there will need more frequent watering, I'm thinking--perhaps every 5 days in the hottest part of summer, while a southern lawn shouldn't need to be soaked all that often as TN isn't Texas in terms of heat. But in both cases, you'll want to add about an inch of water all at once if the soil will support that (sandier soils may require modification for less, while heavy silts may hold more water and need watering far less often). What I'm saying here is that the look at a distance is so good that a simple fix in care may be enough for you to "rescue" this lawn (which does not look like it needs rescuing, half the people here would love it if you dug that lawn up and shipped it to them). But if you explain what bothers you, maybe reseeding really is the solution and we can suggest something for you.
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For me, identification of grasses usually involves seeing the seed heads, but I'm no expert. They do look different enough to be different species; however, the one on the right could be what the plant looks like when it is about to produce a seed head. Here is an ARTICLE with more info.
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lisa98112
Original Author
16 years ago
I live in Washington state. I took your advice and Googled the following on what grows well here. I also took a look at the site with photos. I think we have a mix of creeping bentgrass, fescue, and perrenial rye.

"To establish a lawn in western Washington, choose a combination of turftype tall fescue grasses and turftype perennial rye grasses. A mix that adds up to about 90% of these two grass seed types will grow well in either sun or light shade in western Washington. Turftype perennial ryegrass takes full sun and stands up to traffic. Turftype tall fescues are adapted to shadier locations. In combination, the mix works for a lawn in average light conditions. Mixes containing fine-leaved fescues or chewings fescues will also establish well. Fine-leaved fescues offer bright green color, and will take some shade, but do not take heavy use.

Many commonly-grown grass types from other areas of the United States will not thrive in western Washington's cool, dry summer climate. AVOID mixes with high concentrations of Kentucky blue grasses. DO NOT PLANT Zoysia, bermuda, dichondra, centipede, carpetgrass, St. Augustine, or mondograss. Buffalograss isn't suitable for western Washington, though it may thrive in eastern Washington. "

We overseeded with a "Pacific Northwest Blend" from a box store, hopefully this will work well.
quirkyquercus
16 years ago
Yeah I've read that before. For some reason your state college has a real big problem with anything but rye and tall fescue.

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type of grass

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quirkyquercus

bestlawn

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type of grass

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quirkyquercus

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