7 Fastest Growing Grass Seed For Your Garden
If you want to grow a stunning, green lawn – and who doesn’t? – you will naturally want to choose grass seed that grows quickly. This is especially beneficial for filling out any bare spots in your garden.
Can you use any type of fast-growing grass? You need to choose the type of grass that suits your climate, light levels, soil type, and air quality, otherwise you won’t have success with growing and maintaining your lawn.
Growing grass fast can be helpful to makeover your garden. Here’s what you need to know about the best types of grass seed to choose.
Seven Of The Fastest Growing Grass Seeds
GreenIQ provides the lowdown on some of the best types of grass seeds that will grow quickly. Here’s what to know about them.
Perennial Ryegrass
This is one of the fastest-growing type of grass, but it requires temperate climates in order to thrive. It’s a beautiful grass as it has a fine texture and a dark green color. It germinates quickly and is strong enough to tolerate light traffic within just two months.
However, when purchasing perennial ryegrass you should avoid buying the Linn variety. It’s affordable but has a low quality, so it’s not worth it.
Perennial ryegrass, since it grows quickly, is great for seeding bare patches in your lawn. You can also use it to make your existing lawn thicker.
This type of grass is a cool-season grass that requires temperatures of between 50 and 65 degrees Fahrenheit to grow. Its seeds germinate within seven to 10 days.
Annual Ryegrass
This type of ryegrass can sprout in 10 days. It’s a cool-season grass that has a coarse texture and an attractive lime-green color.
Since it does have shallow roots, you’ll need to irrigate the soil well so that it remains lovely and green all year round. It’s especially beneficial to plant in temperate regions because it doesn’t tolerate drought very well.
Note that this type of grass is designed for overseeding over warm-season grasses. It shouldn’t be used as permanent lawn grass because it can’t handle much foot traffic.
Zoysia
This is dark green grass that’s dense and can tolerate high amounts of sunshine. If you really want it to grow quickly, you should purchase it as sod.
Zoysia is popular as a luxury type of grass because it produces a beautiful lawn by spreading naturally, so it’s great for you if you want to fill up any bare spots in the soil.
Since it’s a perennial grass, Zoysia will grow back every year without fail, as long as it’s been planted according to the climate. In good planting conditions, Zoysia seeds take 14 to 21 days to germinate.
Tall Fescue
This is a durable type of grass that can handle foot traffic and it’s low maintenance for homeowners because it doesn’t require as much watering or mowing as other types of grasses.
You can seed it on its own without having to make a seed mix. However, if the soil where you wish to plant it doesn’t have good drainage, you should improve it before planting the tall fescue seeds.
Tall fescue seeds will germinate within four to 14 days when planted during autumn, so they’ll transform your lawn quickly.
Fine Leaf Fescue
This grass has delicate leaves and feels soft when you walk on it, which is why it’s so popular with so many homeowners. Fine leaf fescue seeds can germinate within 10 days, so they’re one of the fastest-growing seeds on the market.
Fine leaf fescue is also a great choice for you if you want a low-maintenance lawn, but just make sure that it has moderate soil moisture so that it can grow evenly all over your lawn.
Buffalo grass
If you live in a very sunny area, you should consider planting buffalo grass. It’s a warm-season grass that can tolerate high temperatures without becoming brown and it’s even drought-resistant. You don’t have to water or mow it too often, which is a bonus.
Although buffalo grass seeds take between 14 and 21 days to germinate, it’s worth the wait. This type of grass germinates and becomes fully established so that it can spread throughout the planting area within its first year.
If you want to speed up how long it takes to grow, consider buying it as sod.
Kentucky Bluegrass
This is a common, popular grass because of how it can grow at a fast rate during fall, spring, and even winter. However, that does come at a price because it can take between 14 and 30 days to germinate.
You can get around this issue by combining it with other types of grasses that germinate within 10 days, like ryegrass. This is also useful to prevent weeds from growing in your lawn.
Plant Kentucky bluegrass in cold areas that don’t get extremely hot in the summer because its growth can be suppressed by high temperatures.
Why Isn’t Your Grass Growing Well?
There are many issues that can cause your grass to experience a lack of growth. These include a lack of soil drainage. If you’re worried this could be the issue, you should use a fork to spike the lawn. This will help to increase spaces in the soil where water can circulate.
Purchasing the incorrect grass seeds is also something to consider. You need to read product labels closely before you buy grass seed so that you can tell if it’s appropriate for your garden and climate.
A pro tip when you want your grass to grow quickly is to ensure that you apply fertilizer to it after you’ve planted it. Then, after seeding and fertilizing the soil, you need to ensure the top inch of soil remains moist until the seeds germinate or sprout.
You can achieve this easily by misting the soil once per day without letting it become waterlogged.
What Are Warm-Season And Cool-Season Grasses?
Warm-season grasses do well in areas that experience hot summers and mild winters, such as states in the Deep South of the United States.
By comparison, cool-season grasses are suitable for areas where the summers are moderate and winters experience below-freezing temperatures, such as New England and Northern California.
- What cool-season grasses grow quickly?: Some cool-season grasses that grow the quickest include ryegrass, which can germinate in five and 10 days, and tall fescue seeds that need four to 14 days. You should plant cool-season grasses early in spring or fall.
- What warm-season grasses grow quickly?: If you need to plant warm-season grass, one that grows very quickly is Bermuda grass. This germinates in 10 to 30 days. Other fast ones include centipede grass which needs between 14 and 21 days to germinate and buffalo grass which takes the same amount of time. You should plant warm-season grasses in spring or early summer.
Should You Mow Fast-Growing Grasses More Regularly?
Seeing as though fast-growing grass will give you a lush green lawn very quickly, it needs to continue to thrive and grow. This means you’ll have to mow it more regularly.
But, make sure you stick to a lawnmower setting that’s at the height the species of grass requires to thrive – you’ll usually see this recommendation listed on the seed pack.
When mowing your grass, make sure you avoid cutting it too short. This will allow weeds to take hold, which will harm the health of your grass and ruin the appearance of your immaculate lawn.
Related Questions
How long do grass seeds generally take to grow?
On average, grass seeds can take about eight weeks or more to germinate.
Is rough bluegrass a grass or weed?
Although you might assume it’s a type of grass, rough bluegrass is actually a weed. It’s aggressive and spreads quickly.
Conclusion
If you want to have a lush lawn or fill up bare spots in your garden quickly, there are some grasses that are better to grow than others. In this article, we’ve featured some of the fastest-growing grass seeds on the market to help you turn an average lawn into an amazing one.
While you might think it takes a lot of work to get a beautiful lawn, the truth is that by choosing a fast-growing grass seed and planting it correctly, you can easily reap the rewards of a lovely lawn all year-’round.
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