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We, too, have spent a fortune on keeping up and improving our fescue. We have a pro come and fertilize, and we mow and water it. Maybe 20% of our lawn is brown/dormant now. My neighbor does absolutely nothing to his fescue, stopped running his irrigation several years ago and rarely mows and it looks better than ours.
Most of our lot is on a slope and it is difficult to get the water to perk down. Be sure you are aerating and removing thatch. I've been dethatching for the past week. I heard that too much thatch can keep the water from penetrating the ground and that's what's happening in our yard (wasted irrigation). Also, with watering, frequency is not the issue -- the amount of water is -- water deep at least once a week. Someone mentioned cutting it higher - try that. We did it this year with good results. I read somewhere that the roots will dig down as deep as the grass is tall. A good root system will help the grass revive itself after the dormant stage as well as help fight off disease.
There are also different varieties of fescue and each has its own particular growing preferences. Full sun, shade, hill/slope, poor soil, etc. and some are fine blade and some more broad. Consider this when seeding and perhaps try multiple types specific to your particular problem areas instead of using one type of seed or blend throughout your entire yard. Here's a website that describes the different varieties. Types of Fescue Grass|Fescue Grass Seed - For Lawns|Fescue.com
Many established (fescue) lawns are a blend or mix of different types of fescue and could very well have perennial ryegrass - the same with bags of seed. Check the label on the seed. Perennial ryegrass is favored because it's the first to really green up in the spring but it does not tolerate drought or heat and will die back (not go dormant) and that may be what you are experiencing.
It's very frustrating, and we've considered a warm season grass but we don't like how it turns completely brown during the cooler months. We can live with mostly green all year and a little brown in the summer. It really is a tradeoff.
Last edited by cstleddy; 07-03-2010 at 07:37 AM..
Reason: added note about perennial ryegrass
An option for warm season grasses is to overseed in the fall with an annual rye grass. Golf courses typically do this to keep green fairways all year. Many have Bermuda fairways to withstand the summer heat, but overseed the fairways in the fall with rye. This accounts for the green fairway/brown rough you see here in the winter on golf courses as the Bermuda rough goes dormant. The rye dies out in late Spring when the Bermuda greens up.
My fescue was Home and Garden quality in the fall/spring. This heat is killing it. Watering it is kinda like keeping a dying patient on life support - it's going to die anyway.
Water is expensive, seed is cheap. Let it go - it will add to the soil quality anyway as it decomposes. Throw some seed down on it in the fall and your yard will look awesome again for another 9 months.
It seems this year the very very dry April really set up fescue to fail - my reseeded fescue from the fall time didn't reach its full potential due to the dry April. A lot of it died.
But I am battling bermuda back on both sides with expensive chemicals - I just hate the look of it. Zoysia is pretty however to seed it, it takes forever to grow, and to sod it is very expensive. Plus bermuda will overtake zoysia, so it would be a waste.
We have 3/4 full sun and 1/4 full shade in my yard. Planted fescue in 1996, was a new lot and took us about 2.5yrs to establish a healthy full lawn. Aerate and reseed every fall. We only water when the seed is germinating for 2-3wks, no other times at all in the year, seriously...we don't waste water on grass. Our lawn is healthy and looks great 3 seasons of the year. In the summer, its brown. We don't have weeds, we use weed control at the right times and esp. crabgrass pre-emergent in Jan. We put milky spore out about 7-8yrs ago so we have no grubs feeding on the fescue roots. I'm only telling people this because they think growing fescue is so hard, its not. If you understand what it needs to grow, its pretty simple.
1. Don't mow short in the spring (before it heats up) leave your grass about 4" high.
2. Don't water too often (or for me, at all) as it causes your root system to be shallow and therefore will die in summer because its so dependent on your watering to survive.
3. Use crabgrass Pre-emergent every January.
4. Put out milky spore so you won't have grubs eating your delicious fescue roots. You will also decrease your J@p@nese beetles in June/July. Milky spore lives in your lawn for about 20yrs, if I recall correctly.
5. Fertilize in Feb, June and Nov.
6. Aerate every fall.
7. Don't bag your clippings, use a mulching mower and let those bits feed and water your lawn!
We have 3/4 full sun and 1/4 full shade in my yard. Planted fescue in 1996, was a new lot and took us about 2.5yrs to establish a healthy full lawn. Aerate and reseed every fall. We only water when the seed is germinating for 2-3wks, no other times at all in the year, seriously...we don't waste water on grass. Our lawn is healthy and looks great 3 seasons of the year. In the summer, its brown. We don't have weeds, we use weed control at the right times and esp. crabgrass pre-emergent in Jan. We put milky spore out about 7-8yrs ago so we have no grubs feeding on the fescue roots. I'm only telling people this because they think growing fescue is so hard, its not. If you understand what it needs to grow, its pretty simple.
1. Don't mow short in the spring (before it heats up) leave your grass about 4" high.
2. Don't water too often (or for me, at all) as it causes your root system to be shallow and therefore will die in summer because its so dependent on your watering to survive.
3. Use crabgrass Pre-emergent every January.
4. Put out milky spore so you won't have grubs eating your delicious fescue roots. You will also decrease your J@p@nese beetles in June/July. Milky spore lives in your lawn for about 20yrs, if I recall correctly.
5. Fertilize in Feb, June and Nov.
6. Aerate every fall.
7. Don't bag your clippings, use a mulching mower and let those bits feed and water your lawn!
Pretty much nailed it, only thing I do differently is fertilize four times a year(Feb-May-Sept-Nov), aerate and overseed every year(not just aerate). Lime at least every other fall and that helps a lot also.There is a reason it is called a cool season grass, it hates the summer heat. Great grass in the Summer and Fall. Try seeding a little Kentucky blue with it, that seems to help.
Fyi, it does not go dormant in the summer, it does stress from the heat and turn a little brown - but once it gets crunchy it is dead.
I recently went to a lawn care presentation by representatives of Brickman - the landscape maintenance company. The rep there said the biggest mistake people make in caring for their lawns is cutting it too short.
As for fertilizing - he said to use holidays as a reminder:
Valentine's Day - Pre-emergent crabgrass preventer
Memorial Day - Weed & Feed
Labor Day
Thanksgiving - Winter Fertilizer
I was trying to find some data to find out if fescue went dormant during summer.
I found this
Watering - june -> august
" Either water as needed to prevent
drought stress or allow the lawn to go dormant.
Dormant lawns must be watered once every 3
weeks during a drought."
So it sounds like even though the lawn is dormant you need to put some water on it.
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