Typical sod from a sod farm in Ontario consists of a 90% Kentucky blue grass and a 10% fescue mix. As part of our goal for LEED Platinum certification, we sought out drought-tolerant turf, and was able to find a 60% Kentucky blue grass and 40% fine fescue mix from Green Horizons, one of a few local farms that grows specialty sod.
The benefit of such a mix is that during the summer season, there are lower watering demands. In exchange, however, the shade of grass isn’t as green, and the blades not as fine. However, this was an acceptable trade-off for us, and will also help us be more reliant on the rainwater collected by the rain barrels (see our 6000L rain storage). As a side benefit, the thicker blades of grass gave us a more lush lawn, one that the kids loved to roll in.
CaGBC LEED for Homes – Points can be acheived in Sustainable Sites, in Basic Landscape Design (SS 2.2).