Couch Grass is one of the all time longstanding favourites for Australian lawn owners. Couch lawns are fine leafed, naturally soft, highly resilient, can be abused and brought back to life, can be cut high or low, Couch is the great all rounder, loved by many around Australia.
Add onto that that the cost of many Couch lawns is very cheap when compared to many other lawn types, which is something appealing to the budget minded homeowner and to the penny pinching property developer, and we can see why the Couch lawn comes out as an all round winner so often.
Couch: pronounced “COOCH”
About Couch Grass
Couch is known to be tough, a lawn type that can stand up to abuse, and wear and tear very well. If damaged it can repair itself rather well and quite quickly.
Couch is a warm season lawn variety which has both Stolons (above ground runners) and Rhizomes (underground runners), this allows Couch lawns to repair themselves even under the most damaging and trying of circumstances when a lawn may have become severely damaged.
These Rhizomes however, when combined with the vigorous growth habits of Couch grass can often lead to a Couch lawn sending its runners underground, under fences, and under paving, and under garden edging, and under other similar obstacles to start spreading itself into unwanted areas of our yard, or our neighbour’s yard, or onto other property.
Likewise, the stolons of a Couch lawn can be found growing amongst the cracks in paving, and even into the cracks in concrete curbing, always searching for new areas to spread into.
Couch grass has a naturally appealing, fine and very narrow leaf, with a nice bright green to dark green colour, is soft underfoot and is suitable for many soil types around Australia.
Couch lawns are susceptible to all lawn weeds, lawn pests and lawn diseases. The upside of this is that Couch is greatly tolerant of all lawn treatments for all these ailments, so it is a lawn type that is easily treated for just about every possible problem that could arise.
Couch Lawns In Sun And Shade
Couch lawns are best suited to full sun environments. Couch grass hates the shade and will usually die off in any area of a lawn where heavy shade begins to encroach. This is when we can begin to see dead parts of a Couch lawn which is growing up against a high fence or garage or underneath trees which may be throwing a lot of shade onto the lawn.
If shade is killing off parts of your Couch lawn, then rectifying whatever is causing the shade is the only option to bring the lawn back to life and vigour again. This may include pruning back trees or bushes, moving a temporary fence etc.
If the shade cannot be removed, then consider removing the Couch lawn in the affected area and planting out a shade tolerant garden instead.
In lightly partially shaded conditions, where the Couch lawn still grows but perhaps doesn’t look as healthy as the rest of the lawn, then mowing the lawn at a higher height in the affected area may help with greater photosynthesis to the affected turf.
Mowing Couch Lawns
Couch lawns can be cut low and frequently with a cylinder or rotary lawn mower, or they can be kept at moderately higher heights with a rotary mower. Thatch however is an ongoing issue for many Couch lawns, and with this in mind homeowners should ensure their lawn mowing frequency matches the growth rate of the lawn, which means more regular lawn mowing for healthy Couch lawns.
Even after mowing, a healthy green Couch lawn should remain green, and never turn brown.
A Couch lawn which is growing rapidly and is then cut too short at greater intervals risks causing scalping and damage to the lawn, leaving an unsightly brown finish which can take some weeks to repair.
Cut the Couch lawn shorter in full sun, and longer in part shade.
Winter Green Couch - A Lawn By Any Other Name
Far and away the most popular Couch lawn variety being grown and sold in Australia today is Winter Green. It’s like someone hit a jackpot with this lawn for its overall quality, appearance, and performance as a home lawn, a much improved variant over so many Couch lawns that came before. In fact if I tried to look for my own personal favourite Couch lawn from many years ago it’s likely I could never find it for sale in Australia anymore, because when Winter Green came along it ended all other competition amongst Couch lawns almost overnight.
There remains of course other much loved and high quality Couch lawn varieties for sale in Australia, but Winter Green pretty much dominated the market immediately.
If you bought a new Couch lawn in the past few years, or if you’re considering a new Couch lawn to purchase now, then chances are that that Couch lawn is in fact Winter Green… even if it’s called by another name.
Yes, in one of those wonderful marketing events, we can find that there seems to be many different varieties of Couch lawns for sale in Australia today, all with different names, often with different claims of quality etc. But the reality is this… that Winter Green Couch is being grown and sold around Australia under a variety of different names.
Why do this?
I can only hazard to guess that it make it seem to the buyer that they have choice, that there is a difference between the Couch being sold on one turf farm compared to another. When the reality is they are each growing exactly the same grass, Winter Green.
It’s much like when Ford sold a Mazda E2000 van and called it an Econovan, or when Holden sold an Isuzu ute and called it a Colorado, same product with different names. And of course the mattress makers have been doing this same thing for decades, selling the exact same product under different names in different stores.
My only suggestion when considering a Couch lawn is this, ask the turf grower if the Couch lawn you are considering is in fact Winter Green. If the answer is yes, then check out another turf grower and ask the same question, and with this new knowledge in mind, you can then shop for the best price and service, knowing you are shopping for exactly the same product, no matter the name.
Couch Lawn Recommendations
Of course Couch must be recommended as a lawn type for Australia. An old favourite for so many decades and so perfectly suited to our environments around the nation.
Like with every other grass type available in Australia, be sure to choose wisely for your needs and for your specific environment where you intend to grow your new lawn. Couch may or may not be suitable for your property, and a little research, and a whole lot of ignoring all the grass advertising which is about can help us all to choose the best lawn for every environment and need.
Couch grass, along with Zoysia and Male Sterile Kikuyu and Queensland Blue should be considered as the superior lawn choices before Buffalo grass in all full sun environments in all warmer regions of Australia.
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