Grass that looks good without mods or cc

Is it just me or is it hard to get good-looking grass when building? I have been able to use a combo of the 'paint-on' grass for other builds and it did not look great but it worked... I am working in De Sol Valley on a lot ('on the hill'). I had added some dark around the fencing and house, but moved them when I placed the lot on a bigger lot. So... in the lighting at that 'time of day' it looked fine when I used the green in the grass 'paint' tool. I also interspersed the green throughout the lot so it would blend, and it looked okay... but in the 'morning' light it looks terrible. The grass around the lot/adjacent (which would have been my original grass also) looks much more lush and 'realistic'. Any recommendations?

(Just had to share... I work in photoshop a lot and it is amazing to me how often I have stopped the impulse-thought of 'Oh, I just need to grab the patch tool or maybe clone and fix that...' ;) )