Can lawn grass be cut higher than most people do for the purpose of reducing water consumption?

Question

I wonder if cutting my grass long will compensate for the fact I don't have sprinkler system. Does this really work? Surely different grasses have different max heights. My grass is in South Carolina, has mature trees 30ft apart, and poor red clay soil. There are 25% gaps of strong sunlight between the shade of the trees. I need to optimize the grass type and cutting height to minimize water consumption. I am using tall fescue, but am considering something either self-seeding or rhizoidal so re-seeding is unnecessary.

Answer 1

Cutting grass longer is a great thing to do. Less sunlight hitting the soil means less evaporation and less light for weeds to germinate. Fescues require reseeding as the clumps will die off from what I understand. I am a home owner in Ohio but I have researched this quite a bit.