The Ultimate Guide to the Best Types of Grass for Houston
Houston, Texas, is known for its warm and humid climate where lush green lawns can thrive year-round. The key to achieving a lush lawn lies in selecting the right type of grass that can thrive in Houston’s unique climate and soil conditions. With so many grass types available, choosing the right one for your outdoor space can be overwhelming. To help you make an informed decision, we’ve put together The Ultimate Guide to the Best Types of Grass for Houston, Texas, including St. Augustine, Bermuda, and Zoysia grass types. No grass is perfect, but we offer the best grasses to match your needs. Continue reading to learn about the key points for each grass type and make an informed choice for your yard or upcoming turf project.
St. Augustine Grass:
St. Augustine grass is a great choice for yards in Houston since it loves full sun but tolerates shade well. It’s the most used grass in Texas for a reason! It has a lush, dark green color and a coarse texture, making it feel soft to walk on. Some of the most common St. Augustine grass varieties include:
- Raleigh St. Augustine: This variety is the most popular and has a dense, carpet-like texture. It requires a minimum of 4 hours of full sunlight per day and known for its ability to choke out weeds, tolerate heat and humidity, and withstand wear and tear, making it suitable for high-traffic areas.
- Palmetto St. Augustine: This variety is known for its dark emerald color and soft texture. It also requires a minimum of 4 hours of direct sun per day, but is the most shade and drought tolerant type of St. Augustine and performs very well in shaded areas.
Bermuda Grass:
Bermuda grass is another popular grass type for Houston, known for its ability to thrive in hot and sunny climates. It requires full sun and tolerates very little shade. It’s a great warm-season option because of its extreme drought tolerance and durability. This grass is well-suited to residential lawns, athletic fields, and golf courses since it has a fine texture and a dense growth pattern. The best Bermuda grass varieties for Houston include:
- TifTuf Bermuda: This is the best Bermuda grass on the market, hands down. With an exceptional drought tolerance, it requires less water and maintains a beautiful green color under most conditions. Remarkably, it can survive with no water for extended periods of time and still stay green!
- Celebration Bermuda: With it’s striking dark blue-green color and fine texture, this variety is visually appealing. It’s a popular Bermuda grass option for commercial jobs since it has excellent disease resistance, tolerates shade, and grows and recovers quickly from foot traffic and potential damage.
- Tifway 419: This type of Bermuda grass requires full sun and does not tolerate shade at all. Thriving in heat and humidity, it’s commonly used for residential lawns without shade, fairways of golf courses, and athletic sports fields. It’s extremely drought tolerant and very hardy making it an increasingly popular choice to use in the Houston area.
Zoysia Grass:
Zoysia grass is a warm-season grass that is gaining popularity in Houston due to its ease of maintenance and ability to tolerate heat, shade, drought, and foot-traffic. With a medium to fine texture, it’s a great barefoot lawn grass since it’s soft to walk on and feels good underfoot. It forms a dense turf, making it ideal for lawns with moderate to heavy foot traffic. Popular Zoysia grass varieties in Houston include:
- Palisades Zoysia: This variety has a dark green color and medium blade, making it very visually appealing. It’s known for its drought tolerance, shade tolerance, cold tolerance, and slow growth. Since it’s very shade tolerant like St Augustine grass and drought tolerant like Bermuda grass, it requires less frequent mowing, fertilization, and maintenance.
- Zeon Zoysia: As a fast-growing, fine-bladed grass that is translucent green with a soft leaf texture, it’s favored for home lawns and golf course fairways. It’s the playable fairway turf on the market because of its blade density, allowing the golf ball to sit up like it’s on a tee. It’s the most shade tolerant grass of any variety, only requiring 3 hours of sun.
- Emerald Zoysia: This variety has a fine texture and a dark green color, providing a lush and manicured look to the lawn. It is known for its excellent heat, cold, and drought tolerance and requires less water compared to other Zoysia varieties. Since it’s a slow-growing grass, it requires less frequent mowing and fertilization, which most homeowners can appreciate.
- Cavalier Zoysia: This type of Zoysia grass is almost identical to Emerald Zoysia, but does grow faster for high traffic areas. It’s shade tolerant, drought-tolerant, and easy to care for. Known for its exceptional heat and cold tolerance, it’s also resistant to diseases and pests, making it low-maintenance.
In conclusion, choosing the right type of grass for your Houston lawn depends on various factors such as shade tolerance, sun tolerance, texture, maintenance requirements, drought resistance, cold tolerance, and foot traffic. St. Augustine grass, Bermuda grass, and Zoysia grass are all excellent options for lawns throughout the Houston area, with their respective differences offering unique characteristics to suit your specific needs. St. Augustine grass is an excellent choice for shaded areas, while Bermuda grass is suitable for full sunlight exposure, and Zoysia grass is optimal for heat and drought tolerance. The hot and humid climate of Houston presents unique challenges, but with the right grass type and proper knowledge of how to care for your grass, you can have a beautiful lawn that enhances the curb appeal of your home and lasts a lot longer. It’s important to follow proper lawn care practices including regular mowing, watering, fertilizing, and pest control, to ensure the health and longevity of your grass. By selecting the right type of grass and providing proper care, you can enjoy a lush and beautiful lawn that becomes the envy of your neighborhood.