Kentucky bluegrass is considered the best lawn grass, but there are years when it is in short supply, and it has the disadvantage of needing a resting period in midsummer and,also, of soiling light-colored clothes. It does form a thick turf and it will grow in alkaline or slightly acid soil, resisting weeds to an extent.

For putting-green lawns for a small area on a terrace or in a garden, bent grasses are used. Colonial bent is widely used in mixtures, thriving as it does under less favorable conditions than those required by creeping bent or velvet bent. The bent grasses are low-growing, fast-spreading grasses, needing frequent mowing and top-dress.

Redtop combines well with Kentucky bluegrass because it rests in fall after the bluegrass has recovered, and it does not stain. Chewings fescue is a fine-textured shade grass. Maturing late in the season, the various fescues resist midsummer drought, grow well in acid soil and fight weeds.
For new lawns, rye grass, a perennial, is a tough, quick-growing grass which helps keep out weeds until the lawn is under way.

Bermuda grass is used in the South and the Southwest, where soil is sandy. Whether or not clover is to be used with these grasses is a personal matter. With its white flower and its tendency to grow in patches, it spoils the continuity of the turf, but, on the other hand, it will grow in poor soil, edging out weeds that might grow in these areas.

A mixture of grasses gives better satisfaction than a single species as a rule, because the various grasses are active in development at different seasons. Mixtures stand up against disease and disorders that will attack one grass and leave another alone.

Other Ground Cover

In many cases cover other than grass is desirable. Foundation plantings, banks, shady places, all often require other cover. Good covers are dependable, inexpensive and not weedy.

For open sunny areas, banks, or where a large, high cover is wanted, wild trailing rose with its white blossom is most popular; it makes a thick mat of foliage 2 feet off the ground. Also in sunny places, various forms of juniper (e.g., creeping juniper, which is long, low and spreading; Waukegan juniper, blue-gray except in winter, when it is purple, and Sargent juniper, a dense green type) form a mat 8 to 20 feet high. All are attractive either pruned or in a natural state.