Grass types

There are many different species of grass, some are used in amenity mixes that are used in lawns and on sports pitches. Different types of grass are more suited to different lawn requirements and we will often use a mix of different grass types to gain the effect you desire.

Within each different species of grass, there are also many different varieties of grass, many of which have been bred by plant breeders over many years, to try to produce more robust and better looking amenity grasses, that are more disease resistant.

Here we look at some of the more common grass types and where these may be used:

Perennial Ryegrass

One of the more common grasses, historically, these grasses were seen as very coarse and more agricultural but recent breeding programmes have produced vibrant, vigorous much finer varieties that are often the mainstay of our lawn mixes.

Fescues

Fescues are much finer grasses, this is a “chewings” fescue. These grasses help give depth to lawn seed mixtures and although they are not very resilient, they are slower growing and therefore suited to more shady areas.

Creeping Bent

Bents are very fine grasses, often found on golf greens. Many grasses spread in this manner by “stolon’s”. These are stems that run across the surface allowing the grass to spread and infiltrate thinner areas making them very useful although an excess of them will rapidly lead to thick layers of thatch if not managed correctly.

Annual Meadow Grass

This is a very common weed grass which can cause lots of issues with the fact that it tries to flower at a very low height throughout the spring and summer at a very low level which is seen to be unsightly on formal lawns.

Yorkshire Fog

Yorkshire fog is a tufted type perennial grass that is commonly found on all types of grass land. Like annual meadow grass it is considered a weed grass in fine turf. Yorkshire fog prefers poorly drained wet soils but can survive dry conditions. It has soft grey-green broad leaves and stems which stand out more due to it’s pale colour and coarse appearance from other grasses.