Best Lawn For Small Areas

Which Is The Best Lawn Type For Small Yards

Choosing a lawn type for a small area to be turfed requires some special consideration so that the correct grass type can be chosen which will thrive, while requiring the least amount of upkeep from us.

Our yards are becoming smaller and smaller, even to the appalling extent that many new homes are now being built which have no backyards at all. In the tiny areas of property we have left - we're often faced with the problem of having tiny lawn and garden areas.

There are a few factors to consider when choosing a new lawn for these small areas, and we'll go over these here.

Shade

The most common problem for small yards is shade, these tiny areas are often surrounded by houses, fences, perhaps a small garden shed and a couple of bushes. But in a small area, just these few things can create an immense amount of shade in which a lawn may well struggle to survive.

If your small lawn area will be subject to shade either now or in the future when those small bushes or plants grow bigger, then a shade tolerant lawn will be best.

The better shade tolerant lawns are Durban Grass, which isn't always easy to find, and Soft Leaf Buffalo, and the most shade tolerant of these Buffalo grasses is Sapphire.

The worst grass type to choose for shade would be Couch, this grass will simply die when exposed to any shade.

Low Invasive Lawn

Dealing with a small lawn area often involves a blend of a little bit of lawn mixed in with another small area for a garden. The lawn area will usually be surrounded by paving as well. In this respect, the last thing we want to deal with is having to constantly be pulling overgrown grass out of our garden beds and paving.

The best low invasive grasses for this need would be Zoysia, Soft Buffalo or Queensland Blue.

The worst grass types would be the highly invasive and weedy grasses like Couch and Kikuyu.

Low Maintenance Lawn

Having a small yard also means that most people simply do not have the possibility to create a masterpiece lawn, and most certainly will not want to spend a lot of money on lawn mowers and maintenance for such a small lawn. These small lawns will need to be low maintenance, will need to be able to get away with only having a cut once in a while, and still stay green without risk of damaging the lawn. The lawn will also need to be able to be cut with a simple push mower.

Zoysia is the best lawn to fit these needs. It is very low maintenance so it can be neglected for a while and still look good after a cut, it is drought tolerant so it can miss a watering or few without a problem, it looks good year round, and won't grow long if left uncut for a while, so it can be easily brought under control with a push mower and look good again. Queensland Blue has most of these same characteristics as well.

Soft Buffalo is also low maintenance, but will require more regular mowing, and won't always like missing out on it's water. it also has the ability to grow quite long if left uncut.

The worst grasses are again the usual suspects… Couch and Kikuyu, they requires regular mowing, heavy lawn care to keep looking good, and will begin to look very straggly, long and ugly if neglected.

Best Lawn For A Small Yard

In summary, the best and worst grasses for a small yard would be:

Best Lawn For Small Yards:
- Zoysia
- Soft Buffalo
- Sapphire for heavy shade
- Queensland Blue
- Durban Grass

Worst Lawn For Small Yards:
- Couch
- Kikuyu