What Is The Best Lawn Type For Homes With Kids And Pets?

This is a photo of my neighbors back yard in February. He has 2 dogs and 3 kids all under the age of 10 and in mid summer their lawn looked like this. The grass was dead and all you could see was dirt. The large divot in the corner of the photo was made by the youngest child trying to make a hole next to the trampoline. The area where the trampoline is had once been a beautiful patch of fescue grass but it was no match for the chaos of kids and dogs all playing in this area of the yard all summer long.

I start by saying that choosing the wrong type of grass for your yard can be a disaster for homeowners with lots of kids and pets. High use households need a special type of grass and once you have chosen the wrong type it can lead to a cycle of disappointment and constant re-seeding. I have seen the problems that this can cause for many homeowners and I don’t want to keep silent any longer.

Durability isn’t just about being tough

This is a misconception of really tough grass. There are many types of grass that are tough but not all of them are suitable for households with children and pets. They are often very scratchy. There is a trade off between grass that is able to withstand a lot of wear and tear and grass that is soft and more comfortable for people to lie on. The toughest of grasses may last longer but they are often the hardest witted grass of all and can cause the most discomfort to people walking on them.

However, when you consider it a little more, the scratches from tough lawn can be quite painful for bare skin of kids. On the other hand, if the lawn is too soft, it may not withstand regular wear and tear and hence not be very practical for active families

The characteristics of lawn that are endurable will enable the lawn to recover from any form of traffic yet at the same time, the grass will need to be soft enough so that people will actually enjoy spending time on it. As a result, there is a very narrow band of characteristics in terms of choice of the type of lawn grass to choose that can satisfy both ends of the spectrum.

Anchor Link Buffalo grass Perth lawns are ideal for a number of applications, including domestic and commercial use. It is particularly suitable for school and kindergarten grounds as well as parks and other public areas where children play. Homeowners with large families and pets find that it is the perfect lawn for withstanding wear and tear, yet it still looks great all year round. Because it is so hardy it can recover from wear and tear quickly, meaning that even though it can get muddy in the winter, it will bounce back to its normal lush green in no time at all.

The recovery question nobody asks upfront

Just because your grass is the toughest on the market, does not mean it will have recovery from the wear of constant use. All lawns have the odd dead patch from time to time but some have a lot more than others and that is what you need to be thinking about when choosing your grass.

Lawn durability and the ability of a lawn to recover from damage are not necessarily the same things. Many grasses that are considered to be very durable and tough are slow to recover from damage and as a result they may form bare spots. The extent to which a grass is able to recover from damage will affect the quality and appearance of your lawn, so this is a key consideration when choosing the right grass for your household.

Comparison for durability and recovery of common lawn types:

Grass type	Wear tolerance	Recovery speed	Soft texture?
Buffalo	High	Moderate to fast	Yes
Couch	Very high	Fast	Moderate
Kikuyu	Very high	Very fast	No (coarser)
Zoysia	High	Slow	Yes
Fescue	Low	Slow	Yes

Kikuyu lawn is another type of lawn that is very aggressive at recovering from wear. It has the ability to recover very quickly from wear but it also has the ability to spread very quickly. For this reason Kikuyu is not recommended for lawns with garden beds as it will spread to areas where you do not want it to. As for Couch it is one of the most durable grasses for high traffic areas as it can withstand a lot of wear. The only downfall of Couch is that it is very scratchy to walk on with bare skin. If you have kids and they love to play in the yard and roll around on the grass all summer then a soft variety of buffalo grass or a soft zoysia lawn would be a better option for you as they are not as durable in high traffic areas but they are a lot softer to walk on than Couch.

Shade is the silent lawn killer

All lawn guides at the end of their articles discuss how shade affects lawns and all basically say it does very little bad to the lawn. Oh how wrong they are. Of course many of the best lawns for kids and for dogs are in shaded areas. They are generally found under trees, around a pergola or under a fence line.

A variety of environments exist in which to grow home lawns and the choice of turf grass is largely determined by the amount of shade in the yard. Most of the warm season grasses such as Couch, Kikuyu and Zoysia are not well suited to perform in shaded areas and of these Couch and Kikuyu will actually go ‘skinny’ and form bare spots in lawns that receive even limited amounts of shade. Of the grasses in the warm season group the Buffalo grasses are by far the best option for a lawn that contains a large amount of shade as they are able to tolerate partial shade better than the other grasses.

Most children and pets will play on areas of the lawn close to trees, fence lines and other obstacles such as pergolas, garden beds and large planters. These are also areas that are subject to a lot of shade. The wear and tear on grass in these areas can be extreme. Many species of grass are not tolerant of such conditions, they can start to thin, die off and produce large amounts of weeds. These areas require a special type of grass that can handle the lack of sunlight and also be able to cope with constant wear.

Before You Lay Your Lawn Down To Die……check the following out:

Soil drainage: pet urine and constant foot traffic compact soil surprisingly fast. Poor drainage drags down recovery speed for every grass type, no matter how resilient the variety looks on paper.
Mowing height tolerance: some softer grasses struggle when cut too short, which becomes a recurring problem when kids decide the lawn doubles as a cricket pitch and want it clipped to regulation length.
Chemical sensitivity: if you use pet-safe lawn treatments — and you should — confirm the product is compatible with your chosen variety before committing to anything. Some soft buffalo cultivars have specific sensitivities worth knowing about early.

So what’s the actual answer?

In fact, most questions like this are really just fishing for information on how you are as a household. In the example of a very relaxed household with a single non-destructive dog, that only comes out to play when kids are outside, as opposed to a family with three very active children and two very destructive dogs that are outside most of the time and love to run the length of the fence, the two households require very different backyards.

For most families the best lawn for kids and dogs will be a tough lawn that has a soft texture and can recover from wear and tear. There are not too many lawns that fit this description better than a Buffalo grass lawn. It has the soft broad blade of a Zoysia lawn but is much more durable in wear than a Zoysia lawn. There are some soft Zoysia grasses on the market but none of them have the durability in wear of a tough Buffalo grass lawn. In full sun though a Couch lawn would be more durable for very high amounts of traffic but would have a harsher texture to walk on in bare feet.

I note my neighbor (of some years now) has recently switched to an Anchor Turf fescue lawn & it looks great… a completely different lawn to what he had with the trampoline divots etc, that he finally managed to pull down. The new lawn is very quiet even with the kids doing the usual mayhem running around etc.