Fescue question...

[warreng88]

I am not sure where to put this but since fescue is shade grass and shade has everything to do with clouds and clouds sometimes have something to do with weather, I thought here...

So, in our front yard, we have a tree that was but a sapling when we bought the house seven years ago but has since grow much larger and provided much more shade. So, the grass that was in the sun is now mostly in the shade. I now have the task of planting shade grass. Does anyone have any experience with shade grass that has worked better than others and when to plant it? Thanks in advance.

[mkjeeves]

I have this printed out and hanging on the wall for reference. It might answer a few questions.

http://www.tulsamastergardeners.org/...aintenance.pdf

[warreng88]

I have this printed out and hanging on the wall for reference. It might answer a few questions.

http://www.tulsamastergardeners.org/...aintenance.pdf

That's what I was looking for, thanks. Do you have any recommendations on what to plant from where? I am thinking I should go to TLC or some other place not Lowe's or Home Depot to get a professional opinion.

[KenRagsdale]

"Crossfire" type fescue takes well to the heat, but "Kentucky Blue Grass" has a leaf more broad and sturdy. I've used a mix of the two with success. You are too late for this summer. The heat in July-August-first of September will burn your work. Broadcast the seed beginning mid-September through Mid-October. Water generously and provide topsoil if needed. Seedlings will take root over the fall and winter and be beautiful in the spring.

[rezman]

I'm no expert, but this has been my experience. The main difference between burmuda grass and fescue is that fescue is a single blade of grass per seed where burmuda travels and spreads off of one seed. Some fescues are annual so unless you want to reseed every years, a perenial rye grass blend is the way to go and will onl require occasional overseeing to keep it full looking. This also depends your soil, maintainance and watering. Fescue likes a lot of water or it will burn up in the summer. There are perenial blends that work well in the shade. You may call a reputable company like TLC and run it by them.

[mkjeeves]

That's what I was looking for, thanks. Do you have any recommendations on what to plant from where? I am thinking I should go to TLC or some other place not Lowe's or Home Depot to get a professional opinion.

I had a guy seed mine and I never really got a straight answer about the exact strain(s) that he used. The only answer he had was it was tall fescue from King Seed. But he did tell me he bought it at Ewing Irrigation in Edmond and I bought the fertilizer he recommended from them when I couldn't find it anywhere else. They are mostly a wholesaler for sprinkler and lawn products but they do sell retail. I plan to go back to them in the fall and get seeds when it's time to overseed.

[BBatesokc]

We buy our seed in South OKC from Eckroat Seed and have been very happy.

We are on about 2.5 acres that has some sun areas and lots of areas shaded by very mature Oak trees and others.

I rent a seeder and apply seed in the fall and spring (apply the seed 1st and then a couple of weeks later the pre-emergent).

The yard had been severely neglected when we bought the house and within one full season we had the front in very good shape.

We use the Endo-Shade blended seed at about $80/bag if I remember correctly and the seeder ran $45/day. Much cheaper than paying someone to do it and it only took us an afternoon.

Here is a pick from this weekend.... the grass didn't look half this good when we bought the house in early 2013. Plus it has been very hardy to lots of foot traffic.


image ru

[warreng88]

Mmmm, Roxy's...

Has anyone had troubles with shade grass and regular grass not doing well together? We have a lot of trees in our back yard but they are all along the premitter of the yard so the interior has regular grass, but just dirt on the outside since it is so shaded.

[OSUPeterson]

Mmmm, Roxy's...

Has anyone had troubles with shade grass and regular grass not doing well together? We have a lot of trees in our back yard but they are all along the premitter of the yard so the interior has regular grass, but just dirt on the outside since it is so shaded.

I just went to lowes and bought the scotts fescue mix seed to plant in a corner of our yard where we have 7 trees and it was all dirt. I roughed the dry dirt with a metal rake, laid the seed really thick (only one fescue seed will produce 1 blade) then watered it well for the following few days then continued with normal watering of the yard. To help protect the seed, lay straw or hay (whichever does not have all the wheat seeds in it. I had a large pile of leaves and pine needles that I thinly spread over the area. That helps keep birds and winds from disturbing the area.

The fescue seems to be fine where it meets my bermuda and they seem to blend together where they meet. The fescue will not grow well in the full sun and the bermuda will not grow in the shade, so they dont really over compete with each other.

[BBatesokc]

Has anyone had troubles with shade grass and regular grass not doing well together? We have a lot of trees in our back yard but they are all along the premitter of the yard so the interior has regular grass, but just dirt on the outside since it is so shaded.

We've used the 'all condition' blends in the past from places like Lowe's and Sam's - from reading the package its just a mix of all kinds of seed (shade and sun). Seems to do well if all you want is coverage and don't really care what kind of grass it is. The only thing I didn't like is much of those bags also contain non-seed 'garbage' that they market as mulch, fertilizer, blah, blah..... Just a waste of money IMO. Just give me seeds!

When we are doing fill in work I used a metal rake if there is existing sparse grass i want to keep. If there is no grass then I use a Garden Weasel Cultivator and then hand sprinkle bagged Garden Soil on top of the seed and then water good for several days. Seems to work well.

My biggest problem has been the timing of seeding/over seeding and applying pre-emergent. If the timing is wrong then the $80/bag seed and time spent are a compete waste.

[OSUPeterson]

I have read in the past that it is good to lay down seed in the winter before a big snow storm. I guess the melting snow will help keep the seed moist and help work it into the ground. Not sure how true it is though...

[ylouder]

I've successfully seeded a large wooded area with fescue and the biggest concern is not letting it dry out so the seeds can germinate (i ran sprinklers 5 times a day for 4 minutes each time) and making sure you are putting it down in spring or fall.

[mkjeeves]

I have about 60 trees. Here's before and after of part of my place. The before was in April of this year. We seeded it the first week of May. The after was about an hour ago.

[ylouder]

I don't know about you guys but I wouldn't recommend fescue in oklahoma unless you have a sprinkler system or are committed to religiously watering. Even hardy k31 will want to brown out when it's this hot.

[mkjeeves]

Twenty years of not watering, not fertilizing, not overseeding, not regular mowing and especially a few years of drought turned that bottom picture into the top picture. It wasn't quite as nice when we bought the place twenty years ago but it was close. I expect we can do better, at least drag it out longer with some better practices and occasional watering.

We at least had most of the dirt covered up with something green up until a few years ago.

[MadMonk]

I had a big shade tree that the bermuda was no longer thriving in so, as a "what the heck" attempt, I put down some fescue sod last fall that I found on sale at Home Depot. It was half brown, but I watered it in and kept it wet for a couple weeks and it did fine. It was the only green patch in my yard when the bermuda went dormant. It really looked good in the early spring. I'd take a pic, but we have since moved to a new place. The last time I drove by, it was doing very well. It was a mostly shady area, but got early morning and late afternoon sun.

Nice improvement, mkjeeves!

[BBatesokc]

I have about 60 trees. Here's before and after of part of my place. The before was in April of this year. We seeded it the first week of May. The after was about an hour ago.

Wow, that's looks really good. Our wasn't nearly that bad when we bought our place. The lot was covered mostly with grass, but lots of weeds and mostly bermuda.

Are you on a sprinkler system?

We are, and that's the only way its doing so well.

[mkjeeves]

Wow, that's looks really good. Our wasn't nearly that bad when we bought our place. The lot was covered mostly with grass, but lots of weeds and mostly bermuda.

Are you on a sprinkler system?

We are, and that's the only way its doing so well.

We were not when we moved in. We are now. It's been installed in stages. We were on a well when we bought the place. I put in a backflow preventer and a main water line from the backflow preventer at the back yard well location to the front yard myself when we first moved in, then decided the well pump didn't have the pressure and volume for a sprinkler system so we didn't water anything but the flowerbeds, which were watered by hand. The well collapsed maybe 15 years ago and we had two meters and two main lines installed, one for domestic and one for sprinkler, cheaper than drilling a new well. Still didn't water the yard, only the plants and flowerbeds. About five years ago we completely reworked the flowerbeds around the house and installed sprinkler to the flower beds. This year we had the whole yard covered before reseeding. The seeding was done by hydroseeding, spraying the seed on in a mix with water and wood pulp. It's about 1/3 the cost of sod but they don't do small batches like part of a yard or under one tree. I don't think we could have kept the seed wet if we didn't have a sprinkler or if we had not put in an extensive above ground temporary water system to keep the seed wet while it germinated and rooted. I've seen that done and did consider it. If I get to the point where watering is an issue to keep the yard alive and we want to keep watering, I'll have another well drilled and a larger pump installed, but when we checked last time, they wanted to install it in the front yard, and maybe take out some trees to get a drilling rig in. I don't really want to do that if I can keep from it.

Besides not watering and doing other things to keep the lawn healthy, somewhere after about the first five years of living there my ENT doc convinced me I needed to hire someone to take care of my lawn instead of paying him to treat sinus infections from allergies. So I did. We've been through 4 or 5 lawn care people. They start out doing a good job and then quickly start neglecting part of the job. Letting it get too tall and then cutting it too short, not cutting close to the fences and letting weeds come up.

I've taken that back over. My ENT died and I've got some great new allergy drugs. I've been enjoying it the last couple of months.

[ylouder]

how much and how often are you guys watering your fescue. like most of you i seeded with great success back in march but the last two weeks have been brutal and it wants to keep going dormant.

ive been watering about 3 times a week 15 minutes per zone - what schedule are you on?

[BBatesokc]

Mine is controlled by the temperature and it also has moisture sensors - so it varies week by week.

Under 'normal' summer conditions (82+ degrees) it waters twice a day, 9 zones, 15 minutes each. Waters around 5am and again around 7pm. Water flow is drastically different with each zone - some spray a lot while others only mist.

If the system detects significantly higher temps (100+) then it waters longer - 24 minutes.

If the system detects significant moisture (as in a good rain), then it does not water.

When temps drop below say 75 degrees then it only waters once a day (in the early morning).

I can adjust it, skip a zone, add more time, etc. from my phone as needed.

[mkjeeves]

What system do you have, Brian?

I have a Rainmachine but haven't installed it until I know more about how much water my lawn needs. It looks at NOAA weather for temp, humidity and rainfall and adjusts but you have to set a base level for your plant and soil types. It can be operated via smart phone or web too.

I'm still dialing in the amount I need for a base level. The first few weeks for germination I watered 5-6 times a day to keep the seed wet. Now I'm watering every other day, twice a day, about .2 inches per session, except when it rains. That puts me in the recommended 1-2" per week zone. I want to dial that back until I see how little the lawn needs and then work from there. I do have a rain sensor on my current controller and I had the system shut off manually for about a week last week following all the rains we had. I used some of these sprinkler gauges to help figure out how much time in each zone will produce an inch of water. I bought a dozen on ebay for a little more than a dollar each. Then set them out two or three per zone to get an average for the zone. My zones run from 10 minutes to 30 minutes to get .2 inches, depending on which zone, how many heads and what type of head. I understand that can vary with available city water pressure but I've measured them all three or four times and it's about the same every time.



http://www.ebay.com/itm/221045926963...84.m1439.l2649 They do combine shipping so it's not $3 shipping on each item, it's $3-4 for several.

[ylouder]

Crap...I was way under watering the fescue. I have 8 zones and my bermuda is doing great but the fescue(k31) is suffering. I'll update those zones to twice a day to help rebound them and then hopefully once a day for a longer duration than I originally had.

It just irk s me because my system isn't perfectly balanced and we have a 2hp well pump so on some of the small stations it cycles more than I care for and I hate putting that wear and tear on the pump.

[BBatesokc]

Just a Fescue update...... In preparation for fall and winter, we put down some Kentucky 31 from Eckroat Seed (cheaper than their Endo-Shade and supposedly hardier, but not as manicured looking).

After we put it down (in a criss-cross pattern) we also used some of their inter fertilizer and root promoter.

We are VERY pleased with the result. Areas we never had grass now have beautiful Fescue. Plus, this variety happens to look really good when you leave it long.

We will definitely hit the entire property with it again in the spring.

[OklahomaNick]

Glad I found this old thread because there is a lot of good info on here about the best grass & care needs for Oklahoma Weather.

I was curious if anyone had any luck with the Heartland Supreme Fescue grass..?
TLC pushes this stuff pretty hard and they say it was engineered at OSU for drought tolerant green grass year round.

[AP]

I actually have had that same question recently. I'm think of trying to convert my bermuda lawn to Fescue and was wondering a) how much effort it will take and b) if anything knows about Heartland Supreme.