Although ground cover grasses are not considered to be as good looking as their more ornamental counterparts such as the Moroccan and Arabic grasses, landscapers say they have a lot of benefits.
“The Kikuyu grass has so many advantages. It is drought-resistant. It grows very well in even in low temperature areas such as Limuru,” says Roy Simon, the operations manager at Motherland Landscapinga, a firm in Nairobi.
“It also holds soil so that you don’t have much soil erosion and when it is well-watered and well lawned it looks like a carpet,” he adds.
Kikuyu grass is lauded for its high resistance.
“When you have a party or something like a big event and people step on it too much, it is not threatened. It has very high in matters of resistance against hazard such as rain, drought and even hailstones,” says Mr Simon.
According to him, the resistance that Kikuyu grass possesses means that it does not coexist well with other lawns.
“When you plant it together, you find that it quickly traps the other plants that were grown with it,” he says.
Further, he says, Kikuyu grass is prone to infestation by mould which bores holes in the grass.
Another ground cover grass is the thick Zimbabwean grass.
Mercy Kibet, a pharmacist technician based in Nakuru, tried a lot of grasses for her personal lawn before she selected the Zimbabwean grass whose praises she sings.
“The other grasses would take forever to grow and they didn’t grow under shades,” says Ms Kibet.
The Zimbabwean grass which she sells for Sh3,000 for a 90 kilogramme-bag does well under shade, grows rapidly and requires much less management.
“It really makes your lawn nice. Even my customers have been telling me it is nicer than what they had grown before,” says Ms Kibet.
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