Centipede Grass – The Lazy Man’s Grass
Centipede Grass, also known as centipedegrass is the perfect grass if you don’t want to spend a lot of time and money taking care of your yard. It’s a medium textured yellow-green colored grass that grows low to the ground. The color of centipede grass most closely resembles a Granny Smith apple. It grows well in the Southern United States, due to the mild winters. In fact, I read somewhere a while back that it is currently the most common type of lawn grass in the South.
One of the first uses of centipede grass, back in the early 1900s was for cemeteries, because of its low maintenance requirements. From there, it moved on to become the lawn of choice during and after the Great Depression. Since it doesn’t require a lot of maintenance, it’s perfect for people who don’t have a lot of time to spend on their lawn. In fact, if you overfertilize centipede grass, you’ll reduce it tolerance to cold while causing yourself long-term maintenance problems.
One nice thing about centipede grass is that it will grow in relatively infertile soil. It spreads from a prostrate stem that grows at or just below the surface of the ground. This stem produces new plants from buds at its tips or nodes. If you are familiar with how strawberries grow, it’s the same sort of thing. It just sends out runners that turn into new growth.
Compared to most other grasses, the maintenance requirements for centipede grass are quite low. It has a pretty good tolerance for shade and can handle drought pretty well. What it can’t handle very well is foot traffic. If you have an area that has a lot of traffic, you won’t want to plant centipede grass there.
Remember what I said about it growing in relatively infertile soil? Well another thing it doesn’t like is a deep sandy soil. It’s very susceptible to nematodes, and nematodes love deep sandy soil. Another thing it doesn’t like is being overfertilized. If you do overfertilize it you can expect two things. First off it’s going to start yellowing, a sign of iron chlorosis. Secondly, and more importantly if you are considering it for it’s low maintenance requirements, it will produce a heavy thatch.
Here’s the top four things you need to do to make sure you have a great looking centipede grass lawn.
- Avoid overfertilizing it
- Remove the thatch when it gets to be more than 1/2 inch thick
- Water it during dry periods, paying special care in the fall and spring.
- Keep it mowed to 1 ½ to 2 inches.
Here’s to a great Lazy Man’s lawn.
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