The Home of Tom & Morven

Previously I had posted about how I don’t think Windsor Green couch lawn is as drought tolerant as Santa Anna couch lawn. Here is a screen-shot from the website of the company that recommends Windsor Green for it’s drought tolerance. Click on it to enlarge:

The last bits of the Windsor Green are dying off in our Santa Anna couch lawn. Every time we have a heat wave a bit more of the Windsor Green dies. Sometimes it comes back after browning off, but I don’t think it will this time. Click on the photo below to enlarge. Note that the circled areas highlight which parts of the lawn are Windsor Green, as it is hard to tell from the photo. In fact, I actually had to go back outside after taking the photo to work out which was the Windsor Green and which was the Santa Anna. It is hard to tell, but the Windsor Green generally has a bluish tinge to it. This is the same colour as it was when I bought it, so I don’t think it’s turning bluish because of our particular soil. Up close I can tell which is the Windsor Green not only by what colour it is, but because the blades are generally slightly matted together, and dwarf like.

You can see that two of three patches of Windsor Green in the above photo are burning in the heat. The interesting part is this section of lawn gets shade from mid afternoon onwards, so it’s surprising that any lawn here would burn. It is possible that the Windsor Green is being attacked by the Santa Anna, and the heat waves are just the final blow. But, usually when there are several species of lawns they blend together. My overall conclusion is, that regardless of how drought tolerant a “lawn professional” claims Windsor Green to be, it’s not as drought tolerant as Santa Anna in our situation.

I would be interested to hear if anyone has had success with Windsor Green over Santa Anna. Perhaps there is a scenario in which Windsor Green performs better?