I don't know what the RPM is on my mower. Take it to a mower repair shop/dealer and have them check and adjust it for you. Perfect example: It was 3 weeks since my blade was sharpened/balanced. The first 4-5 mowing's were very clean cut. Then, about the 5th mowing it looked as if all my grass blades had been gnawed off. I checked the blade and it was still very sharp. I went back to the mower shop with the blade and explained the problem. The guy said your blade is fine, your mowers RPM's are probably low. I still didn't believe this was the case as my mower is less than a year old. So I brought the mower in and they did find that the RPM's were below normal. It took about 10min and cost $6.00 for them to test and make the adjustment. The mechanic recommenced you have it checked once a year. Hope this helps

Don't do any of those things. Let the grass that has germinated continue to grow. Cut back on the watering frequency but start increasing the volume per session. You want to slowly start transitioning to watering only once a week (and watering for a long enough time to put down 1 inch of water as measured by a rain gage or tuna can). Cut it when it's 3 inches tall to a height of 2 inches; make sure it (and the soil) is dry on that day! After the first cut, raise your mower blade height to the highest setting (ideally 3.5 to 4 inches). That is the height you want the fescue to be maintained at. Never cut off more than 1/3 off at once (so cut when it's about 5 inches tall). Because your lawn is new ... And because you made the big mistake of planting in the spring, you WILL get weed pressure. Resist the urge to apply any herbicide. Your grass will weaken as a result. Resist the urge, resist the urge, resist the urge. Fall is the ideal time to plant fescue, but what's done is done and you will be throwing money away by spraying herbicide. Resist the urge. On Memorial Day, think about putting down an application of lawn food. I wouldn't recommend any Turf Builder or other synthetic fertilizer until the fall, but organics are great. I like Milorganite personally because it's safe for kids/animals and won't burn the lawn. Give it another dose of organic lawn food on July 4th. Once the lawn your put down has established, you might be surprised how well the bare spots will fill in. (Even with fescue.) deep and infrequent watering + mowing high and often is the recipe for success. For any bare spots that you are still unhappy with come September, save yourself some trouble and just buy a jug of Scotts EZ Seed. It should match the Scotts tall fescue that you put down already. It's meant for patching and it's kind of goof proof.

Thanks for sharing this BP. I have been looking into a way to replace my tired, worn out, and crappy looking KBG with something much more suited to our climate. It seems work surrounding the native grass lawns focuses on buffalo and blue grama. Fine grasses (I use a lot of blue grama in my landscaping) but I have always thought that there had to be others. This whole area, as you said, was prairie with a seemingly endless array of choices. The first one the came to mind was western wheat, which grows extensively across the Front Range. The reason it came to mind is because it is a sod forming grass. But it's also very tall and coarse, regular mowing may help make it more "flat," but I have trouble imagining walking across a lawn of western wheat barefoot. Recently we seeded a lot of Canada rye at work, so I started looking into that, too. It's a bunchgrass though, and I'm unsure if consistent mowing forces tillering like it does with blue grama. It's also extremely tall and coarse. The absentee neighbor's lawn has been taken over by smooth brome. It looks gorgeous right now, but when it gets cut, its very "stemmy" rather than leafy. I am also not a huge fan of the fact smooth brome has overtaken most of what's left of the native xeric tallgrass prairie that we have here, forcing out the community of big and little bluestem, switch and Indian grass and turning it into a monoculture. USDA calls Indian grass a "rhizomatus bunchgrass" so mowing might encourage tillering with that. but once again, my main concern is the coarseness and that cutting taller grasses will lead to "stemminess", although, if done regularly, it might not. It's also warm-season however. Another thing is that some grasses don't respond as well to cutting as others. For example, not that it would otherwise make a good turfgrass, but you could not repeatedly mow down little bluestem through the growing season without killing it. I will be looking into the fesuces that you mentioned, they sound promising. Do you know how all these stand up to traffic?

I had a long response typed out to this and somehow, somewhere, it just vanished! Trying again..... You have options to removing a lawn without any chemicals. Which method you might choose will depend on how much effort you might care to devote to the project and how quickly you want the cleared area to be plantable. Dig out the lawn. Cheapest method but most labor intensive. Also one way to be assured to get the best results as you can (and should) be as thorough as possible. Takes as long as it takes for removal....you set the pace. Rent a sod cutter. Available at any equipment rental outlet and a relatively easy DIY project. Efficient and fast.......you will have a cleared, plantable area by the end of the day! Solarization. As has been previously stated, covering the entire area to be cleared of grass with plastic and leaving it in place will kill off the grass. But it will take 2-3 months, will probably require some follow up and your front garden will look like a bit like a construction zone or termite tenting in the interim. You want to use black plastic for this, not clear! Clear plastic is used in solarization to kill off pathogens via heat but needs to be done in midsummer when the most intense sunlight is available. And is less effective for killing plants....for the reasons floral mentioned. To kill off grass and other weeds, use black plastic. This prevents sunlight reaching them and prevents photosynthesis. Without photosynthesis, the plants are unable to nourish themselves and they will die. Not a fast process.....allow 2-3 months in summer; 4-6 weeks in winter. Smothering. Similar to covering with plastic, layering the area to be cleared with cardboard or layers of newspaper, wetting them thoroughly and then covering with a layer of compost or other mulch will smother the weeds/grasses and deprive them of both oxygen and sunlight and will prevent photosynthesis. Takes about 6 months for best efficacy but the process is fully biodegradable and you can plant in the interim by carefully cutting through the layers and inserting the plants. Will also improve the soil with the addition of the organic matter, so an added bonus! A few additional thoughts. If you leave parts of the lawn intact, make sure you leave adequate clearance around any plants so the grass does not immediately invade. Trying to prise grass roots out or separate from any plant roots they have invaded can be a time consuming and Herculean chore! Also, if the remaining grass/lawn is not mowed routinely, you run the risk of the front garden looking and becoming a giant weed patch! You could be subject to your neighbors' criticism :-) Both lawn and weed grasses are tenacious creatures and can have an ability to outcompete other, larger plants. If not fully removed first, they will come through any sort of groundcover and need to be carefully weeded out. Not all groundcovers will work equally as well and there is no such thing as an "all purpose" groundcover :-) They all have different growth habits and require different growing conditions. Your pachysandra for example wants shade only....it struggles and bleaches out in much sun. And finally, by removing the lawn, you are opting for a higher maintenance landscape. Almost anything you plant will require periodic maintenance to keep the property from turning feral and overgrown. Lawns tend to take some of the least amount of maintenance of any type pf planting, especially if you do not insist on it being pristine and weed free. Covering any open areas with rocks or gravel is also pretty low maintenance.....but not NO maintenance either!! And some terminology to help you through this process. A 'lawn' is a planted expanse of grass. And there are many types of lawn grass and where they are used for this purpose will depend on your location as to a suitable type. There are also many types of weed grasses. And you can also have a lawn that is comprised of something other than grass....like clover or thyme. 'Turf' is just another word for a lawn comprised of grasses. 'Sod' is the grass in its actively growing condition and this is what you can purchase in rolls to lay for an almost instant lawn. Or what you remove with the power equipment :-) Lawn grasses can also be planted from seeds and sometimes plugs or small starts. It depends on the type.