I believe you are referring to Pennsylvania Blue Fescue, not even close to a West Coast grass. Since cool season grasses are not my expertise I will let others break the very bad news to you about over watering, watering at the wrong times, and that Fescue does not comeback. Good Luck and Fall is not that far off to start over.

LOL, looks like you broke the bad news just fine, Tex
So very sorry, Dianna, I'm not laughing at your predicament.
I was laughing at Texas-Weed.

But, you are in quite a predicament. If the grass is, in fact, blue fescue as he guessed, it doesn't live forever. And, as he mentioned, I don't understand that grass growing in California. It's a specialty type and mainly ornamental used primarily in northern and midwest regions, but never a common lawn grass.

Out of curiosity, what made you think you had to water every day? For two months? I'm asking because that will kill anything and if you are normally the family turf manager, I wonder that you guys ever had a lawn. I'm not being funny, I just can't help thinking there is more to the story.

Believe it or not, most of my neighbors used to water twice a day, until watering "restrictions" were imposed and they could "only" water once a day. The biggest problems most lawns in the area have is too much water (in a desert!).

I'm thinking probably everything went wrong. Allow me to tick off the list.
1. Watering too often.
2. Watering at the wrong time of day.
3. Mowing too low (no evidence but I'm guessing).
4. Too much fertilizer and it burned.
5. Wrong grass in wrong place.

With all the stress from these issues, the grass might even have a fungal disease that is taking it out day by day.

Where do you live? California is a big place. And if you live in a place that borders the coast (like LA or San Diego) please give more detail because both of those places extend almost into the desert, too.

Are you interested in trying an organic program? For some basic info on an inexpensive program, jump over to the Organic Gardening forum, find the FAQ, and scroll to the bottom of the list to find the Organic Lawns FAQ.

Good Morning:

Well we are in Fresno, CA. No rain at all, very dry and hot. The water evaporates here quickly. I only kept the watering at the same settings the previous owner had and the grass was fine as he left it. Only started adding x-tra water when I suspected burning and was trying to soak it to help deter from the fertilizer. the back yard is fine. We keep the grass pretty high, although I'm a lover of short height. I think we've been cutting at a level 6-7 on the mower and the highest is 8.

The front yard has practically no shade and the grass is subject to 90's in May, June and 100-105 in July, Aug. Sept. We do not start having rain until Nov and it will be sporadic from Nov. to March.

As I think I understand the grass. Its a one seed, one blade grass and if the root to the seed dies, it doesn't regenerate itself?

Around the sprinkler heads, the grass is tall and green but dies out starting around 3' out. We've checked, and checked, the coverage of the water and it is all overlapping with good output. Burning was my only thought, but not sure that was the problem.

The grasses available in our area for sod are all a fescue blend. You can buy hybrid bermuda, but thats about it.

Is is everyone opinion, we just have to wait till fall and overseed? Thanks.

Hi, Dianna,
I'm not personally very familiar with blue fescue and its specific requirements, but I can tell you no grass requires that much water. If you were to try to prevent fertilizer burn, you'd water a whole lot for a few days, and then lay off. Watering over an extended period drowns the grass because it can't get any oxygen. Similar to you and me, isn't it? I hate to say it would likely have recovered from the fertilizer damage, but the continuous watering is killing it.

Blue fescue seeds are not available, or rather they weren't a couple years ago. It normally reproduces from small portions of the plant, like sprigs or plugs or something like those. Any seeds that might be available would be vastly different in appearance from your existing lawn.

Yes, fall is the best time to renovate, but you can help it along in the meanwhile by treating it as if it is not damaged at all. Keep mowing high and provide only 1 inch of water per week, and that includes rainfall. And, irrigate in early morning before or while the grass is still dewy. It will dry naturally in the course of the day, just as dew naturally dissipates. In the hottest days of summer, look for signs of drought stress, such as laying down, wilting, loss of color (grayish, tired looking), not standing erect after walked on, and such as those. In those instances, give it a sprinkle for 5-10 minutes (since you have an inground sprinkler system), but this may not be necessary every day.

To fertilize with confidence, use Milorganite fertilizer. It will not burn your lawn if over-applied, that is unless you apply so much as to smother it (same as drowning effect), which isn't likely anyone would do. If the Milorganite brand is not available in your area, there is likely some other natural/organic fertilizer produced from sewer sludge by another maker. They work wonderfully.

As Dchall mentioned, the grass is now much more susceptible to disease in its current state. The potential mulitplies as temperatures rise. Keep an eye out for any fungus-looking areas and as the grass recovers and begins to turn green again, look for spotty brown areas or circles that don't seem to be coming back so readily.

Hope this was helpful and for specific requirements as well as renovation techniques for fall, consult your local University of California Cooperative Extension Service. They're a wealth of information.

I'm going to have a different guess on your lawn type. I bet the former owner was talking about Pennington the company. They shorten everything to "Pen" in their advertising campaigns - like penkoted seed etc. The brand is carried by all the major box stores, so he could have easily planted a Pennington Bluegrass mix.

What type and how much fertilize did your husband apply?

We put in the Scotts w/broadleaf killer. Not sure of the amount or settings, but what leads me to believe he applied too heavy is where the tractor stopped and then turned, definately, large sweeping dead area.

Do not like looking at the dead in the grass, thinking about raking & thatching some of it out.

What gets me about the water is the back yard is great and gets the same amount.

Around here, folks water every day! because the ground is so hard and dry. I'm sure we're getting alot of run off water, somewhere anyway.

I just moved from a smaller yard and had hybrid bermuda. We watered it daily. If you missed 1-2 days, it started curling and drying up quickly. Of course just in the hot months.

Ooops - sounds like fertilizer burn and possible burn from too much herbicide too. If the lawn didn't bounce back in a couple of weeks, it probably never will.

You really need to fix your watering habits. Just because your neighbors are doing it wrong doesn't mean you have to also. Watering every day encourages the roots to grow right at the surface. That leaves it vulnerable to all sorts of things, including drought, insect damage, etc and makes it less likely to recover from things like fertilizer burn etc. Shallow roots also mean that the plant will wilt and suffer very quickly if you stop watering - a classic Catch-22. THe solution is to slowly start backing away from the frequent shallow watering. eg if you water for 5 minutes per morning, swith to 10 minutes every other morning. Let the grass adapt for a bit. Then move to twice a week. In the cooler months, you should definitely shoot for once a week with 1" of water.

Time to give up folks, this one is convinced drowning thier grass is the right thing to do. When she said she watered her last lawn, Bermuda, every other day is a dead give away of a JUNKIE.

Trying to 'wash' the product from the lawn was the best you could do after the fertilizer/weedkiller combination was over applied. I do not know of anything you can do now to salvage the existing situation. I would shut down the irrigation and when conditions are dry enough, mulch the residue and try to 'compost' it right where it is. If the weather condition is as hot as it sounds, it can work. I'd apply an organic product like 'Milorganite' or similar material. Hopefully there is enough nitrogen still in the ground for the little creatures who are going to perform this biochemical transformation for you. A compost pile does its work in about 3 months. So treat the lawn like one. Provide water sparingly. There is a minefield of products out there to help this composting along. Choose carefully. Post the problem on the Organic forum. Composting needs organic matter, the correct bacteria, temperature and water. It might be best if you left the watering to someone else; someone with a very light hand. And I make that comment purely out of consideration for the pretty lawn which you want to have the next time around. It can be done and it is not difficult because plants do for us in spite of what we do to them.

dianna119, I forgot to mention that green grass around the sprinklers indicate that they may not be shutting down completely. Water might be oozing constantly.

Not quite ready to give up yet, Tex.

Dianna, you sound just like me when I first came to the Lawn Care Forum. I found this site looking for help with a new lawn I unknowingly drowned with water and was blaming my contractor because he told me to water every day. "Around here, folks water every day" is exactly what I told these guys, too. Because so many of them said much the same in the way of advice, I decided to try it and couldn't believe the results. What they were trying to explain finally clicked, so I began doing more research on the subject and found the professional turf sites, turfgrass research universities, the seed producers, advice columnists, everything and everywhere were saying the same things, which are the bottomline basics of lawn care. That all compelled me to do more research as well as conduct a few experiments of my own. I learned there is nothing more important to the health of your grass than proper watering and proper mowing. Believe me, I've studied a lot but that is little compared to some of these other folks on the forum. No one here would steer you wrong and if there is even the slightest information imparted incorrectly, someone will chime in to correct them and make sure you are provided enough information to work your lawn into the healthiest and most beautiful it can possibly be.

I want to explain a little more of what Billl is saying. While your grass in the back may seem to be okay, trust that it is not thriving and it is not healthy if being watered every day. Frequent watering does not allow the roots to grow as deeply as they are supposed to. The life and health of the plant is totally dependent on the root system, and fescue grass has an extensive root system. When watered properly (deeply), the roots are allowed to grow as deep as they should. Shallow roots are weak, thin, and flimsy. Green grass is not equal to healthy grass. Unless the grass is healthy, it cannot thrive and tiller as it should, it cannot fight off disease it inherently is normally able to resist or tolerate, it cannot knit and form a thick, lush sod to help prevent weeds, and it cannot even produce its true genetic green color.

What I neglected to suggest earlier, as Bill so aptly did, is to gradually back off watering rather than all at once. At this point, the grass is dependent on receiving it very often because you trained it to expect that. It doesn't need it though, and you can train the grass to be much less dependent on you for moisture and nutrients and to tell you when it wants water as I mentioned in the drought examples. Back off frequency while increasing the amount as Bill explained to work your way to just one inch just once a week. One inch of water will moisten the soil to a depth of 6-8 inches. Rather than sitting there in the upper layers of soil waiting to be fed, the roots will begin to grow downward looking for the moisture that one inch provided. See how it works? They will reach it and continue to grow beyond that point to receive the earth's water supply and natural nutrients for fertilizer. Then, you'll have a healthy root system. Just imagine yourself never being able to yawn or stretch out. Because you are located in a region of high temps, it may be necessary to irrigate more often as I mentioned earlier. That one inch can be stretched out over two or three days through the week to relieve heat stress.

About the only thing we cannot tell you is exactly what species of grass you have. Without the advantage of sight to examine the parts of the plant, we're just trying to guess based on the clues you give us. Based on those clues, the only thing we know for relatively certain is it is a cool season type. You can find out for sure though by taking samples to the extension service I linked you to above. They are the real experts and will tell you the exact same as we tell you here. For starters, you can take advantage of their many publications. Type "lawn care" in the search box.

I agree w/ bill.
I think it's a pennington seed co product not blue fescue for heavens sakes.

Orig poster, how about taking a photo of your lawn. Without seeing it and a closeup of the grass too, we're just taking shots in the dark.

Thanks for all the advice, I'm always willing to learn a new better way. If I get a chance this week-end, I'll try to get a pic and upload it. Thx.

Time to give up folks, this one is convinced drowning thier grass is the right thing to do. When she said she watered her last lawn, Bermuda, every other day is a dead give away of a JUNKIE.

There's always hope, texasweed. Post an intervention, I went from watering my grass every other day to once a week last year, and only once so far this season (when we had 14 days without rain--by day 11 it was wilting). I'm shooting for every ten days during the hottest part of summer, only if it wilts, and 1" at a time.

See, there is hope!