What's The Right Type Of Grass For Your Garden ???
Choosing the right type of grass for your garden is quite important in the long term. Although everyone wants to have a beautiful lawn, nobody want the extra work to maintain it.
While everyone wants to have a maintenance free garden, you can’t run away from the fact that whatever grass you choose, there is always some maintenance required to make sure your lawn stays nice and green.
At the moment, the types of grass that are common for gardens in Singapore are as follows:
cow grass / pearl grass / Philippine carpet grass / Japanese carpet grass
Many choose the type of grass for their garden without taking the following into consideration:-
1) Weather in Singapore
2) Amount of weeding
3) Sunlight
4) Water requirement
5) Mowing requirement
6) Fertilizer
Usually after your renovation project, what is upper most on your mind is cost especially if you have under budgeted for your renovation project. Since the garden is usually the last section to be completed, invariably it is the place where many people choose to cut back and try to spend less.
If you have a small garden, then the total cost will not be too much. If however you have a large garden for example 1,000 sq ft, then the cost can be substantial when you include the cost of grass, labour, soil and any necessary ground work as required.
While everyone wants to have a maintenance free garden, you can’t run away from the fact that whatever grass you choose, there is always some maintenance required to make sure your lawn stays nice and green.
At the moment, the types of grass that are common for gardens in Singapore are as follows:
cow grass / pearl grass / Philippine carpet grass / Japanese carpet grass
Many choose the type of grass for their garden without taking the following into consideration:-
1) Weather in Singapore
2) Amount of weeding
3) Sunlight
4) Water requirement
5) Mowing requirement
6) Fertilizer
Usually after your renovation project, what is upper most on your mind is cost especially if you have under budgeted for your renovation project. Since the garden is usually the last section to be completed, invariably it is the place where many people choose to cut back and try to spend less.
If you have a small garden, then the total cost will not be too much. If however you have a large garden for example 1,000 sq ft, then the cost can be substantial when you include the cost of grass, labour, soil and any necessary ground work as required.
Cowgrass (Axonopus Compressus)
Its leaves are wide & short, greenish & feeling soft, rooting firmly & trailing horizontally & spritting at each end.
1. Two-petalled leaves are bigger and in dark green color. They are suitable to plant at slopes or roadside.
2. Three-petalled and in emerald green color. These are suitable for residence or garden, for beautification purpose.
Above are the grass species. In Singapore, we only provide Two-petalled grass that is commonly seen on road side.
This grass is common and grows everywhere. It is hardy, don’t need fertilizer and do not require much water unless the weather is consistently hot and dry over a period of several weeks. The downside to cow grass is that it is not fine and doesn’t have a carpet look. It also needs mowing every few weeks depending on rainfall and how fertile the soil is. The more water and fertile the soil, the faster it grows.
Carpet Grass
- Type A (Blue Zoysia / Matella Blue): Leaves are dense, smaller and longer. Without weeds and in emerald green color.
Suitable for courtyard. - Type B (Matella):
Leaves are bigger and in darker green color. Suitable for golf course
Philippine carpet grass
Suitable for residential area.
Philippine carpet grass is finer compare to cow grass or pearl grass. They are quite hardy as well once they take root. If you don’t water them regularly, roots can go deep and over time, you won’t need to water them at all even in hot weather but they will have a lighter green.
However, if you water them, they tend to have a darker shade of green which some people prefer. This type of grass likes full sunlight the entire day. Under shade, they tend to grow taller and bushy. The grass is quite aggressive and can compete with other types of grass therefore you only need some weeding.
Philippine carpet grass need regular mowing about once every 2 weeks. If you allow too much time between mowing, the grass will become tall and if you cut the grass too short, you will leave brown patches. Once they have grown too tall, the only way to make them short again is trim your lawn over several trimmings.
So instead of say once every 2 weeks, you have to trim say once a week and at each trimming, you don’t cut too much.
Philippine carpet grass is finer compare to cow grass or pearl grass. They are quite hardy as well once they take root. If you don’t water them regularly, roots can go deep and over time, you won’t need to water them at all even in hot weather but they will have a lighter green.
However, if you water them, they tend to have a darker shade of green which some people prefer. This type of grass likes full sunlight the entire day. Under shade, they tend to grow taller and bushy. The grass is quite aggressive and can compete with other types of grass therefore you only need some weeding.
Philippine carpet grass need regular mowing about once every 2 weeks. If you allow too much time between mowing, the grass will become tall and if you cut the grass too short, you will leave brown patches. Once they have grown too tall, the only way to make them short again is trim your lawn over several trimmings.
So instead of say once every 2 weeks, you have to trim say once a week and at each trimming, you don’t cut too much.
Japanese Carpet Grass
Suitable for residential area.
This type of grass has finer blades compared to Philippine carpet
grass. The grass blade is softer, shorter and compact. They grow rather slowly and need only minimal trimming. The grass requires watering and in dry soil, they tend to die off.
Since they grow slowly, they can’t compete with faster
growing species and can be outgrown by weeds and wild grass
This type of grass has finer blades compared to Philippine carpet
grass. The grass blade is softer, shorter and compact. They grow rather slowly and need only minimal trimming. The grass requires watering and in dry soil, they tend to die off.
Since they grow slowly, they can’t compete with faster
growing species and can be outgrown by weeds and wild grass
Pearl Grass
An upward trend grown in recent years. The leaves are in round shape. Suitable for residential area.
Pearl grass looks like cow grass but they have shorter, rounder and thicker leaves. Instead of the grass blade that stands
up, pearl grass grows sideways and lie flat against the ground. They need more water compared to cow grass to do well and are less hardy.
Growth rates are much slower and they grow well with some shade and not under direct sun the whole day. Under direct sun, they require frequent watering otherwise the edges of the grass blade starts to turn brown. Pearl grass do well in sandy and well drained soil. If your garden is water logged after heavy rain, they tend to get infected with fungus and dies off.
The advantage of pearl grass is also its main disadvantage. They grow slowly so mowing is almost never required. However because they grow so slowly, other seeds blown into your garden can take root
easily. While you won’t need to mow them, you have to weed more often to get of any wild grass that grow in your garden. Wild grass and weeds can easily overtake pearl grass if you don’t weed your garden regularly.
Pearl grass looks like cow grass but they have shorter, rounder and thicker leaves. Instead of the grass blade that stands
up, pearl grass grows sideways and lie flat against the ground. They need more water compared to cow grass to do well and are less hardy.
Growth rates are much slower and they grow well with some shade and not under direct sun the whole day. Under direct sun, they require frequent watering otherwise the edges of the grass blade starts to turn brown. Pearl grass do well in sandy and well drained soil. If your garden is water logged after heavy rain, they tend to get infected with fungus and dies off.
The advantage of pearl grass is also its main disadvantage. They grow slowly so mowing is almost never required. However because they grow so slowly, other seeds blown into your garden can take root
easily. While you won’t need to mow them, you have to weed more often to get of any wild grass that grow in your garden. Wild grass and weeds can easily overtake pearl grass if you don’t weed your garden regularly.