In general, a seed mixture of several grass species and their varieties is used for the establishment of grasses, but it is possible to base the planting purely on one species/variety. The use of multi-component seed mixtures is more prevalent as they better meet the needs of an increasingly wide range of users. Complementing each other's beneficial properties, the well-chosen ingredients not only provide aesthetic, installation and care benefits, but can also provide an effective solution to the increasingly challenging extreme ecological and climate change problems, e.g., shade tolerance, disease resistance, drought tolerance, resistance to elevated salt levels in the soil, tolerance to extreme temperatures.
In seed mixtures, the protection required for the initial development of slower-growing, longer-lived, more sensitive but more valuable species is provided by short-germination, fast-growing, usually shorter-lived, so-called "protective grasses", such as the English ryegrass.
Grasslands planted for a variety of uses can basically be divided into two broad groups according to their needs and the grasses that can be used for their formation:
- Lawns that primarily provide an aesthetic experience, require intensive care, have a velvety appearance, are bright green in colour, have a fine texture, and avoid broad-leaved species and varieties. These grasses, formed from fine-leaved grasses (mainly chimes and tips), are initially slower in development and can be planted with more expensive raw materials, and their special quality can also be maintained with higher maintenance costs and greater expertise.
- Wide-leaved grasses are already present in the composition of grasses that tolerate different levels of mechanical stress and have a good tolerance for trampling. Here, other valuable properties of lawns, such as drought tolerance, shade tolerance, resistance to diseases, are not always combined with the elegant appearance characteristic of fine-grained grasses. Tread tolerance is associated with intensive growth during most of the growing season, so professional care should not be neglected here either.