Bermuda Grass Pros and Cons: A Good Fit for Your Yard?

I was catching up with my buddy last week and he mentioned he had been golfing down in Georgia. I asked him how he did and he bragged that he’d gotten his game down to just 100 strokes. I haven’t been golfing in forever, but I doubt I could beat that and so I told him so.

After he finished telling me about some of his great shots, he told me about one that had him furious and frustrated. His ball had gotten stuck somewhere along the fairway and he recounted how he was just tearing up the bermuda grass around his ball with every sloppy swing. We laughed for a while and I couldn’t help thinking about how resilient to a beating that turf actually is.

Being resilient to damage is just one of this particular lawn option’s advantages. Check below to see all of bermuda grass’ pros and cons.

An Overview of Bermuda Grass Pros and Cons

Bermuda grass is a tough turf that can handle heavy amounts of traffic and bounce back from damage almost instantly. Other benefits of bermuda grass are that it is able to tolerate drought and high heat without dying off and can grow fast and spread quickly. Bermuda grass propagates by seed, plug, and sod, and is inexpensive to purchase and maintain.

A major drawback of bermuda grass is that it cannot handle cold weather well. It will brown and can be severely damaged by very low temperatures. Bermuda grass needs full sun and warm temperatures to thrive. This turf can also be invasive and is hard to contain making it trouble for precise landscaping applications.

Advantages of Bermuda Grass

Bermuda grass is the ideal turf in many situations. It is the best grass available in southern US states that can be used heavily by kids and pets alike. It is widely used in parks and golf courses and handles heat and drought extremely well. Check out these and other advantages that bermuda grass offers below.

Heat and Drought Tolerant

It is difficult to find a grass that can handle high heat and deal with drought with so few special requirements. Most plants that are able to stand the high heat and summer conditions require ample resources to build the dense turf needed to survive. Not bermuda grass, this grass spreads like a weed and handles the heat and dryness with no issues.

Cheap to Grow and Maintain

Often the really resilient turfs cost a lot of money to seed and grow. Bermuda grass is able to be grown by seed, plug, or sod at a fraction of the cost. It also requires almost no fertilizer to grow and only about an inch of water a week during extended droughts.

Handles Heavy Traffic

There are lots of dark green turf grasses that can survive drought and high heat. None of those grasses comes close to the traffic capabilities bermuda offers. This grass can be used and reused and still bounce back green and straight. It can be mowed short and still retain its rapid healing abilities. The ability of bermuda grass to continuously grow back is its main advantage and why it is so widely used in the south.

Grows Fast and Spreads Quickly

It is common for warm-season grasses to need ample time to develop a dense mat or deep taproots that can survive hot summers. These grasses spread slowly and need a lot of love and attention before they become rich and lush lawns. Bermuda grass shoots out rapidly and spreads with ease. It will take almost no time at all to become a dense turf tolerant of the harshest summer temperatures.

Disadvantages of Bermuda Grass

As tough as bermuda grass is during the summer, it can not handle cold or overly wet conditions. This grass has some serious disadvantages and drawbacks, especially if you live in the northern part of the US. Make sure you know your area’s lowest temperatures before choosing bermuda grass as your lawn’s turf or a long frost could mean a complete reseeding come spring.

Browns During Extended Droughts

Even though this grass can handle high heat and drought it is not impervious to their effects. If a drought lasts more than 3 or 4 weeks then severe browning can occur. This browning is indicative of dormancy vs death for the grass, but adding extra water can help prevent this unsightly issue.

Needs Full Sun

If you have a lawn that is shaded some or most of the day, you will have a hard time growing a full turf of bermuda grass. This grass needs sunlight to aid its rapid growth and regeneration and is stunted in shade. If bermuda grass is in the shade and then is damaged, it may not come back quickly and can lead to barren and dead portions of lawn.

Can Spread Into Flower Beds and the Neighbor’s Yard

The only difference between bermuda grass the turf and bermuda grass the invasive weed is where it is growing. If it’s where you want it, great! But it can be very challenging to keep it contained. The fast-spreading nature of bermuda grass can lead to issues of it appearing in garden beds or invading the neighbor’s turf. If this happens you could be in for some trouble.

Very Cold Weather Can Kill It

If you live in a location where the temperature drops below freezing you might not be able to sustain a bermuda grass lawn through the winter. In cool winter temperatures, this turf will go dormant and turn brown. However, if the temperature keeps falling it can freeze at the roots and never bounce back in the spring.

Weighing Up Whether Bermuda Grass is Right for Your Yard

Bermuda grass’s pros and cons are many and make it a very easy grass to quickly identify as right or wrong for your lawn. If you have the right temperature requirements and want a fast-growing, affordable lawn the pros might be in your favor. But if you have some gnarly winters, lots of shade, or need a contained turf then it might not be right for you.

If you need a drought and heat-tolerant, rapid-spreading turf that can handle a lot of traffic and heal quickly Bermuda grass is for you.

Bermuda grass can get out of your yard and into trouble if not contained correctly. If your lawn’s conditions can sometimes be very wet and you have cold winters it may not be the right turf for you.

The advantages and disadvantages of bermuda grass have been laid out above. You should now be prepared to make the decision about whether this turf is the best grass for your yard.

If some of the pros of bermuda grass are attractive but the cons make it a no-go, check out some of the turf alternatives below:

Tall Fescue: This grass is also heat and drought resistant due to its deep and extensive taproot system. It can handle shade and traffic well and can grow at a good speed. It is a good substitute for bermuda grass if you have a shady yard and experience lower winter temperatures.

Perennial Rye: This turf is often inter-seeded with bermuda grass in fields and on golf courses. Perennial rye can handle colder temperatures much better than bermuda grass. It is also able to grow through wet seasons and can still thrive in shade. It can handle traffic well and is a great companion or substitute for bermuda grass.

Kentucky Blue: This is an excellent turf grass if you need a balance between warm and cool season grasses. Kentucky blue can handle traffic and has a very attractive coloring that makes it a great addition to any turf. While unable to handle extreme droughts, it can handle the temperature swings common with temperate winters and summers.