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Yes. Not sure of the timing down here, but it's best to plant grass after the hot parts of summer are over. In New England, that means post-Labor Day.
Having a nice looking Fescue lawn is effort in frustration. Even if you water consistently (not every day, but enough weekly) you are almost always reseeding in the fall. After trying for 20+ years of fighting it, I am switching to a warm season grass.
I've seeded with fescue three times now, and it's died in the summer every time, no matter how much I watered. I told myself I'd switch to zoysia if the third try didn't work, so I'm getting the yard ready to sod now. The only reason I can see for fescue's popularity is that it's green in the winter, but that doesn't make up for all its shortcomings, at least AFAIC.
I'm in the same boat, OP. A friend who is more knowledgeable about Southern lawns told me not to get a reel mower because the Sweet gum balls and pine cones will mess it up, but not the needles.
I also have trouble with the grass staying alive and green especially on one side of my driveway. The only neighbor I see with a plush, beautiful lawn lives catacorner and has a lawn service. They come out there about a couple times a week.
I've considered just starting over with a service to replant everything and then I would maintain it once it was pretty and plush again. I just get nervous because so many companies ring the doorbell and I really don't know how to tell which services are good for my lawn/area and which ones is "snake oil" per se.
Interestingly, I have a fescue lawn few trees and don't really have issues with it dying. It will get thin and a bit worn in places in the hottest part of the summer, but will come back in the fall or if it rains a few days and cools down. I do have irrigation, but try not to put too much water on it in the drought times. Just enough that it does not go completely dormant. I will have it aerated every fall usually and sometimes I might buy a bag of seed and run around the yard afterword, but not every year. Definitely you want to use one of the drought tolerant fescue blends out there with some bluegrass in it.
And for cutting, when I had my first place in 2001, I used a reel mower, but it just would not allow a high enough cut. I have looked at various others over the years and none cut much higher than 2.5" and that's just too short for fescue here, except maybe right now and in the late fall.
This was second week of August last year.
Another key is to never cut more than 1/3 of the grass blades off at one time. Though if you get a good stand of grass going, that means you will have to mow in 4 days sometimes in April or May when it gets going really good.
Actually go here TurfFiles - Turfgrass Information for North Carolina and they can tell you all about any grass that will grow in NC. NC State has an extensive turfgrass education program, both instruction and research. There is a link to various maintenance calendars also. Here is one for Fescue/Bluegrass TurfFiles:Maintenance Calendars
Interestingly, I have a fescue lawn few trees and don't really have issues with it dying. It will get thin and a bit worn in places in the hottest part of the summer, but will come back in the fall or if it rains a few days and cools down. I do have irrigation, but try not to put too much water on it in the drought times.
My experience has been much the same. Last year I rarely even turned my irrigation system on.
Do most people maintain their own lawns or is it more common to have a landscaper?
Obviously it will vary by income - higher income households are more likely to use a lawn service.
I would say in my neighborhood something less than half of homes have a lawn service that does the "mow, blow and go" service. A smaller percentage use a lawn service to provide periodic treatments (fertilizer, weed control, lime) and fall aerating.
All you need to do:lime, aerate, overseed in the fall.lime, weed killing fertilizer in the spring.Given the hot summers you will typically have to overseed every year with fescue because there will be some die off but those two steps above will get you a beautiful lawn 9 months out of the year for around 200 bucks total a year.
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