Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
You're wasting your time with the fescue now. Seriously. Unless you want $300 water bills. Plus when it gets into the 80's fescue stops growing all together and the roots won't grow into the soil...
Do it in the fall.
I agree. Wait until the fall. Although the fescue will come up it won't survive the summer due to the roots won't be deep enough.
About the pricing, that's a fantastic price especially with grading. I know I wouldn't bring my equipment to a site for that cheap.
I agree. Wait until the fall. Although the fescue will come up it won't survive the summer due to the roots won't be deep enough.
About the pricing, that's a fantastic price especially with grading. I know I wouldn't bring my equipment to a site for that cheap.
Hmmm in my backyard I just seeded with fescue about 3 weeks ago my grass is nearly 4" tall and very green...The area gets limited sun due to the woods we have on 3 sides of us...I dont plan on cutting it for a while but it does look ready...we will wait til the fall to fill in the spotty areas though. From my understanding...fescue will grow as tall as the roots can go deep...so a good 4'' base of topsoil will allow for the grass to achieve full height...we water twice a day and never in direct sunlight...nothing burns out grass faster than watering it in full sunlight...mornings and evenings suffice...
^You may be watering too much and making the yard susceptible to disease and fungus. Also, depending on the watering duration you may be watering too shallow. It's recommended to only water Fescue 1"/week. Take an old soup can and mark a line on it one inch from the bottom and place it in the yard when you water. Time it from when you turn the sprinkler on to when water reaches the 1" mark. That will tell you how long it takes your sprinkler to deliver an inch of water. After you determine the length of time pick a day first thing in the morning ~5-6am and only water once each week.
Hmmm in my backyard I just seeded with fescue about 3 weeks ago my grass is nearly 4" tall and very green...The area gets limited sun due to the woods we have on 3 sides of us...I dont plan on cutting it for a while but it does look ready...we will wait til the fall to fill in the spotty areas though. From my understanding...fescue will grow as tall as the roots can go deep...so a good 4'' base of topsoil will allow for the grass to achieve full height...we water twice a day and never in direct sunlight...nothing burns out grass faster than watering it in full sunlight...mornings and evenings suffice...
If you have shade new fescue will survive the summer if its direct sun like mine 10-12 hours a day it won't. I just don't have any trees (new subdivision, last time for that) to block out the sun unfortunately.
4" is great, fescue does great in NC, especially in partial shade.
Wait till it gets to 6" then cut it to 4", ie don't cut more than 1/3 off at a time.
I've seen fescue over 2' (that's feet) tall in certain areas before, that's pretty crazy!!
Good thread on this...I am amazed at how hearty fescue is...we laid out 10 cubic yards of topsoil. We had to landscape a portion of the backyard that was always pooling rainwater...It was right in the area of the walkway to the backdoor.If the fescue didnt thrive here we would just lose all this topsoil. But the fescue has taken hold and thats encouraging..
^You may be watering too much and making the yard susceptible to disease and fungus. Also, depending on the watering duration you may be watering too shallow. It's recommended to only water Fescue 1"/week. Take an old soup can and mark a line on it one inch from the bottom and place it in the yard when you water. Time it from when you turn the sprinkler on to when water reaches the 1" mark. That will tell you how long it takes your sprinkler to deliver an inch of water. After you determine the length of time pick a day first thing in the morning ~5-6am and only water once each week.
Hmmm an interesting point. I water the area with the hose. I never over saturate it. The initial instructions on the seed bag said to water,water,water it...But now that its established itself i have already cut back to once every other day. I dont see any evidence of fungi or mold and will be mindful of such. In fact that was the whole reason we did what we have...water pooling and not sloping away from the house and walkway. We also redesigned and built a new walk so that it would be higher.. the soil had to slope away. Now that the fescue has taken hold the soil wont erode away... when it rains the area in question will no longer become a swamp zone..... One pic...about 6 days ago...the grass has doubled in height since...
Last edited by TwoWheelMan; 05-15-2010 at 04:10 PM..
It sounds like a good quote. FWIW, to protect your investment I would consider waiting until the fall to do this project. Keeping $2K in newly planted fescue sod alive in June/July heat may be possible but it is definitely the hard way and unless you have 100% coverage with your irrigation system you will lose a certain % of the sod.
This sounds like a fantastic job to do in September!
Thanks for all the responses! The back yard gets a good deal of shade, so I don't think it would be that big of a deal, however I think that we'll wait until at least September though. NRG made made a good point and I would hate to spend that much money and then realize 20% of the sod was dead after a month because of water coverage.
I want a nice yard now, but I suppose I can wait 4 more months
You're wasting your time with the fescue now. Seriously. Unless you want $300 water bills. Plus when it gets into the 80's fescue stops growing all together and the roots won't grow into the soil...
When you say they will be using a tiller, is that one of the handheld tillers or a commercial grade one? We use a commercial grade soil cultivator with a landscape rake and leveler built in to it when we do sod jobs. It tears up all top vegetation, rakes out large debris, and really levels the ground nicely. It will be very hard to get things level with a hand tiller so you might want to clarify that with your sod person. The price is competitive if using a soil cultivator like I described - not so good if doing manually..
Also, definitely wait until after Labor Day to put fescue sod down - we refuse to put down fescue this late and any reputable landscaper should do the same, the July/August heat will kill a big portion of it no matter what you do.
Last thing is that there are differing grades of sod. If it is State Certified the sod farm is inspected twice annually, making sure the sod is true to type and weed free. I definitely recommend a better sod that has been certified.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
