Hi chargeroo,
Thank you for an interesting question.
Lawngrasses.com (see map)
http://www.lawngrasses.com/
In the transition zone (purple), a mixture of these two grass types
(warm and cool) is sometimes required. However the Transition zone
generally favors the cool-season grasses over the warm season ones.
*****
Transition Zone Grasses
http://www.lawngrasses.com/season-transition/transition.html
Transition grasses are nothing more than either Warm Season or Cool
Season grasses. Sometimes they are specific mixtures of different
types of grasses.
Within the transition zone, no one type of grass will do well in all
weather conditions (heat / cold). This makes for a difficult
situation where either more intensive maintenance of a cool season
grass is required, or the use of a summer time warm season grass which
goes dormant (and brown in color) in the cool days of fall & winter.
During the summer months, the cool season grasses decline due to the
hot weather in Transition zones. Planting one of the more "cold
hardy" warm season grasses can help keep your lawn in shape and green
through the summer. Cool season grasses must be inter-seeded in these
lawns to maintain a green appearance during spring and fall/winter
seasons.
LawnGrasses.com
The best way to determine a good "warm season" grass to plant in your
lawn for summer purposes is to see what your neighbors have good luck
with. Areas can vary so much within the transition zone due to
temperature differences and soils that using "suggested" grasses for
your specific area can be misleading. What works best is usually what
others plant successfully.
Which is best????? (click on links for Zoysia, Bermuda, Buffalograss,
Fescues, Ryegrasses, and Bluegrass)
Zoysia, Bermuda and Buffalograss are three of the more commonly
planted warm season grasses used in the cooler transition zone areas.
Fescues, Ryegrasses and Bluegrasses are also very popular and used
quite extensively in the transition zone. While there is no one rule
of thumb about which grass works best, cool season grasses seem to be
the more popular choices for the majority of lawns planted in the
transition zone.
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University of California - California Gardening Coooperative Extension
http://groups.ucanr.org/gardening/Flowers-_Lawns_and_Ground_Covers/Choosing_the_best_turfgrass.htm
Flowers, Lawns and Ground Covers Choosing the best turfgrass
No grass is perfect; each one has its good and bad features.
Basically, grass performance depends on its adaptation to the local
climate and soil conditions in your area, as well as the kind of care
you provide. There are two categories of grasses used in California:
the cool season and
warm season grasses
Cool season grasses, as the term implies, are best adapted to areas
with moderate summer temperatures such as typify the coast and coastal
valleys. Warm season grasses, on the other hand, grow very well in the
inland valleys where very warm summer temperatures are common.
Cool season grasses:
The major cool season grasses that are commonly established in cool
summer regions include Kentucky bluegrass, perennial ryegrass and tall
fescue. These grasses can be seeded alone to a lawn or many times
mixes containing Kentucky bluegrass and perennial ryegrass are used.
Kentucky bluegrass and perennial ryegrass are both quite fine textured
grasses that have a good year-round green color. The new improved, or
elite varieties of bluegrass and ryegrass will make an excellent lawn
for many years if properly maintained. Tall fescue, the third commonly
used cool season grass, is much coarser textured because of a
characteristic broad leaf blade. It does, however, provide a
year-round green color and is considered very wear tolerant. Because
of its toughness and comparatively low maintenance requirement, tall
fescue is frequently used for low maintenance, high traffic lawns.
Tall fescue should be seeded alone at 10 pounds per 1000 square feet
for best results.
Warm season grass:
Bermudagrass is the most commonly used warm season grass in the
interior regions of California with high summer temperatures. Either
common or hybrid bermuda have good growth, color, texture and density
during the warm spring, summer and early fall; however, they do go
dormant during the winter months. Common bermuda can be established in
the spring or early summer by seed, whereas, hybrid bermuda must be
established in root stock in sod, stolons, or plugs, which can be
purchased from your local nursery. Lesser use warm season grasses are
St. Augustine and Zoysia. If Zoysia is established, the Emerald
variety should be used. Poor success has been noted with the
nationally advertised Z-52 Meyer Zoysia in California. These
vegetatively-propagated grasses can also be purchased through
nurseries. Like bermuda they grow best during the spring, summer and
early fall and are dormant in winter. When you have selected a lawn
grass, give it the type of care that will help it grow best. Remember
proper watering, feeding and mowing are important
*****
Managing Lawns in Shade
http://groups.ucanr.org/gardening/Flowers-_Lawns_and_Ground_Covers/Managing_lawns_in_shade.htm
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University of California Extension Directory. Phone numbers for county
extension offices. Not just for farmers, UC Extension provides useful,
localized information on home gardening, food preserving, and other
topics. Many free publications.
San Diego County Region 3
Location: Cooperative Extension County Offices
Mail Address: Cooperative Extension San Diego County, 5555 Overland
Avenue, Building 4
San Diego CA 92123-1219
Email: cesandiego@ucdavis.edu Phone: (858) 694-2845 FAX: (858) 694-2849
URL: http://cesandiego.ucdavis.edu
=================================================
Best regards,
tlspiegel |
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