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Our backyard is still in a very bad shape...clay, weeds, rocks, erosion problems, mud...Planned to fix it last year, but haven't done anything for the past 11 months.
We'd like to have fescue in the backyard. We built some flower beds/shrubs in order to decrease the lawn size. Do you think laying sod would be a dumb decision now (Durham's water restrictions allow us to water We and Sat 5:00am-8:00am or 5:00pm-8:00pm)? The tall fescue sod that was laid in the front yard by the builder was already established when we moved in and still look "green" even without watering for a year...
Or would it be complete waste of money?
I'd really appreciate your advice. Thank you!
Fescue should be planted in the fall. IMO it would be a waste of money to install it now. With water restrictions it won't make it through the summer heat.
If you can only water 2x per week, any sod that you lay now will likely not make it if you have to depend on irrigation to water it. It can be a crap shoot relying on mother nature to provide your water.
Another poster mentioned less maintenance on warm season turf. This is not true. Aside from centipede, all the rest of the warm season grasses require weekly mowing at a minimum. If you fertilize it much and want to keep it looking good, you will have to mow bermuda AND zoysia 2x a week until the heat of the summer slows its growth a little.
Another poster mentioned less maintenance on warm season turf. This is not true. Aside from centipede, all the rest of the warm season grasses require weekly mowing at a minimum. If you fertilize it much and want to keep it looking good, you will have to mow bermuda AND zoysia 2x a week until the heat of the summer slows its growth a little.
That was me, and this is not true. We have zoysia and we absolutely do NOT have to mow 2X a week. We have fescue in the back, and that is going nuts right now, and should be mowed that often. We're doing it once a week, and it's still tall. Our zoysia out front looks beautiful, we have not fertilized it, and it currently requires mowing about every other week. Last summer we mowed it less than that and it looked great.
Also, you certainly can sod now--it does not have to be done in the fall. We just sodded a decent area in back with fescue. Actually our landscaper did, and he said it would work well, just that seeding right now would not as too many weeds would come up. It's been almost 2 weeks since we sodded and it looks great. The water restrictions could be a problem, but it's not a spring/fall thing....it's a water thing. You can hold a hose and irrigate that way whenever you want, so if it's a small area, that's an option. If not, it might be risky. We took the risk, understanding we might have to redo it in the fall. Luckily it has been raining and/or cloudy a lot in the last 2 weeks, so between that and sprinkling 2x/week, it has taken very nicely.
That was me, and this is not true. We have zoysia and we absolutely do NOT have to mow 2X a week. We have fescue in the back, and that is going nuts right now, and should be mowed that often. We're doing it once a week, and it's still tall. Our zoysia out front looks beautiful, we have not fertilized it, and it currently requires mowing about every other week. Last summer we mowed it less than that and it looked great.
Also, you certainly can sod now--it does not have to be done in the fall. We just sodded a decent area in back with fescue. Actually our landscaper did, and he said it would work well, just that seeding right now would not as too many weeds would come up. It's been almost 2 weeks since we sodded and it looks great. The water restrictions could be a problem, but it's not a spring/fall thing....it's a water thing. You can hold a hose and irrigate that way whenever you want, so if it's a small area, that's an option. If not, it might be risky. We took the risk, understanding we might have to redo it in the fall. Luckily it has been raining and/or cloudy a lot in the last 2 weeks, so between that and sprinkling 2x/week, it has taken very nicely.
I'm sticking with Cary native's advice. He's spot on. I listened to him last year and my yard already looks 150% better because of it. I would never put fescue sod down now in the spring. Some people might have limited success if it keeps raining and /or your sod is located in an area that gets good afternoon shade, but the majority of sod jobs done now will be in grass heaven come July. That is good money down the drain. Your fescue has a much better chance of lasting for the long haul if you install in it in the fall when it has several months of cooler weather to grow a strong and healthy root system. Some people don’t have much of a choice, they bought new construction and don’t want to spend all summer looking at red clay. I don’t blame them for trying, but if I had a choice I would definitely wait until September. Sure you can do it now, it is a free country, but it isn't the best plan if you are looking for success.
Frog- you are correct ....partially.
Right now fescue is really happy. We are getting rain (for now) and it has been cool-what fescue really likes. For the same reasons, warm season grasses are still a little sleepy, this year. Last year at this time most warm season turf was already growing like crazy.
I stated in my previous post that you would need to mow warm season turf 2x a week if you fertilized it much. You stated that you did not fertilize and that will make a big difference. Alot of people want their grass (warm or cool season) to look like a golf course all the time, so they fertilize it or they pay someone to fertilize it. That being said, with nitrogen and some water you will have to mow frequently to keep warm season turf at its optimal height (1/2"-1 1/2").
For the record, I do not advocate overwatering of any turf. It has been a constant battle over the years to get customers to water only when necessary, which is much less than most people have been willing to believe. With the restrictions of late, some of our customers are seeing the light. They just can't believe that their lawn can look good on "so little "water. Having said that, new sod NEEDS to be watered almost daily.A little less as long as it's cool, more as it gets hot. Who knows, we very well could have a pretty wet summer this year. Welcome to N.C.!
Thank you for your advise, I really appreciate it. I understand the risk of laying fescue sod now, but I'm just tired of our backyard.
I was mostly curious if somebody had success laying fescue sod in the spring (with water restrictions). Perhaps I'm just hoping that sod in the backyard will survive....as the frontyard's sod did while being without irrigation for a year.
We really would like to do "something" with our yard - it seems that our backyard was collecting dirt from the neighborhood (house built the last), we cleaned as much as we could, but there are still rocks that prevent us from mowing what's growing there now - few nice patches of fescue, among clay, weeds, rocks and dirt. It also needs some grading, as there are erosion problems - seeding won't really work for now.
The backyard is not very small, it has around 3250 sq.ft
I put fescue sod down in April, and It looks awsome now. Started rooting in less than a week. I have a small yard (2000sqft) so I think fescue sod will be easier to manage than if I had a larger yard. I killed everything off and used a sod cutter to take off the top layer 2 inches of my yard and brought in a compost mix, and tilled about 6 inch deep. It seems a lot of builders lay the sod right on the hard clay and rocks. I removed about 2 tons of gravel from my yard. If you take care of your fescue right you can lay it in the spring. My neighboors have fescue and it did ok during the drought. I think if you have a big yard choose zoysia or centipede, my dad has zoysia ( he used plugs) and it and it is choking out the bermuda. It is very soft and green. Only thing is its very thick so keep your blades sharp. In the end it depends on what type of grass you like and the end result depends on how much you keep after it. I ended up using fescue because all the neighboors have it, and the wife wants year round green.
My neighbor just replaced his whole yard w/ zoysia a few weeks ago. It looks great and he is very happy. He hardly has to mow or water it.
Last fall we used the fescue sod in our backyard. It looks great w/ all the rain but we are having to mow 2x week now. It won't look as well when the weather gets warmer and especially if we don't get as much rain.
The fescue in my yard is doing incredible. I top-dressed, aerated and seeded in the fall just before the water restrictions went into effect in Cary. Fescue that survived the drought had to go extra deep with the roots to stay alive. So now with the combination of all that and all the rain it is amazingly healthy and lush. I mow at my mowers highest setting to allow the grass blades to be as long as possible and block out weeds.
I'm having zoysia sod put down in my small front yard next week. It seems like the most sensible thing to do since I hope to put my house on the market in the coming months. I have *no* grass at all, just extra-ugly weeds. If I was staying in the house I might have waited until fall and gone with fescue - although I'm not sure I'd do the work (and pay the water bill) to keep it looking good year after year.
I think it's getting a little late for laying new fescue sod though - no matter how much rain & cool weather we've had up until now.
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which sod
