Have you ever heard of grass?

What if the 'baddest' of the weeds became our ally to increase the sustainability of our gardens?
Indeed, in general turfs, especially those for technical use or for sports use.

This approach fascinates me a lot, starting from one problem, to making it the solution of another

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Gramigna, un&' weed

There are many sayings that speak of her: 'to be like the grass', 'it sticks like the grass', 'to hear the grass bird'...

All with a negative meaning, which arise from the fact that grass is a &' an omnipresent weed, difficult to eradicate, because it resists heat, drought, trampling and many other stresses that undermine “classic turf species”.

What if these 'negative' aspects were used with a positive side?

This approach is nothing new in recent years, seed companies and sector technicians have been working on it for a long time, but it is l&' an approach that I have always liked and I find brilliant: using a problem to find an opportunity.

Thus, some varieties of Cynodon dactylon (the surname and name of the Gramigna) have been selected because they are aesthetically better and are used and proposed in areas where previously the “microthermal” essences from “English lawn”, Poa and Rye, were traditionally used above all.

What are the advantages?

Above all, greater resistance to high temperatures and drought, so less water consumption for irrigation (even 30%)

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In addition, they grow less with low temperatures, so in February-March, but also in October-November, cuts are less frequent than microtherms.

Disadvantage?

Which is also the problem for which they have been little used so far: with low temperatures, the turf turns completely yellow.

However, there are areas of application where turfs are not used in winter, such as amusement parks with swimming pools, many domestic gardens

or other examples.

Another thing to consider, climate change: with the autumn temperatures of recent years, in the areas of northern Italy, the 'grass' turns yellow much later, compared to a few decades ago and turns green again in spring much earlier.

Here too, genetic improvement, crosses with other species have done and are doing an overwork to have essences that are more resistant to the cold that are able to cover almost the entire season, even in northern Italy.

This is another example of how the sustainability of a system is based on &' careful design

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Matteo Castioni