California native bentgrass or fine-leafed Fescue no-mow sod?
Melinda
6 years ago
I have a small area less than 400 square feet that is in my front yard behind a fence separating it from decorative grasses. I want a no-mow grass. The area has two birch trees that provide minimal shade. I am undecided whether to put in California native bentgrass, a blend of two fescues and a native grass, or fine-leafed Fescue that is also drought-resistant and no-mow, but which also tolerates partial shade (which I read as: needs more water). It's a small area so a little extra water isn't a deal breaker, but I'm wondering how the fine-leaf looks and if anyone has experience using it. Oh, and the fine-leaf Fescue is $.88/sq ft whereas the native bentgrass can be found at $1.75/sq ft here in San Jose, CA. Not quite all of the area below will be lawn.
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fine fescue versus tall fescue sod
Comments (4)I don't know what part of the country you live in. Fine fescues do not withstand heavy traffic. Mowing height is important if you are limited to only 4 hours per day of full sun. The recommended mowing height would be no lower than 3 inches as the longer the blade, the larger the leaf surface is that captures sunlight this will help the lawn do better. Watch the watering too much is not good. If you want a fine bladed lawn you can plant the fine bladed sod and later you can over seed with kentucky blue grass to help the lawn self mend, but you will have to wait 3 months before seeding as the sod grower used a post emergence weed control that will prevent seedlings from germinating. If later you do not like the fine bladed lawn you can overseed with the wider bladed fescue. There is a fescue you may want to look into, grown by pacific sod in california called medallion extreme....See MoreQuestions on mowing and weed killing after overseeding
Comments (5)I am by far not an expert grass guy but I can give you some insight into what I have learned after starting 3 large lawn areas under less than ideal conditions. It sounds like you have done a great job so far. IMHO I would mow your grass will be 2 feet tall if you wait for it all to germinate and be 3" tall. Sure your going to crush/damage/kill some seedlings but how many are you going to lose if they are deprived of sunshine? Plus you will be stressing your existing grass by chopping too much off. The clippings, if anything, will help retain moisture for them. I try not to step on or roll over known seeded areas, sounds like this might be hard for you. I agree with waiting 8-10 mowings to broadcast spray. I have killed seedlings by jumping the gun. I personally would wait till fall. You could spot spray and will only risk killing seedlings with the over spray or, thanks to a user here, use a small paint brush and paint each one. I over seed my lawns every spring and fall. I broadcast spray with killex the day before I am going to seed. Watch home depot and the like in late fall. They usually blow out seeds and other gardening stuff at pennies on the dollar. One thing that really helped me and my lawns was buying a soil test kit. I test my soil about 3 times a year (spring, mid summer, fall) to find out what it is lacking and buy fertilizer to balance it out. I didn't realize my soil was very alkaline and after dropping the PH my lawn is doing WAY better. Good luck SCG...See MoreHow to mow?
Comments (17)I wanted to come back to this thread and post some updates. First off a big thanks to kimmsr, dchall, maplerbirch, tomnorthnewjersey, -- > it is quite hard to get started with organic lawn care because no one is doing it in my area that I know of and all the usual experts like garden center, the gardening guys all think I am a crazy lady. The organic veg center people are more intent on having me get rid of the lawn and install a native ground covers or grow more vegetables or maybe a chicken coop. Lawn is not politically compatible it seems. So the time ou take to write and advice a stranger is much appreciated. I promise to learn and pay it forward. We have reduced watering to once a week for 45 minutes. We have sprinkles along the edge of the lawn and based on our 4 can experiment, 1in seemed to take about 45 mins. Have to redo this with more cans. We do not eat much canned goods so it a bit of a challenge to get the cans. I used measuring cups instead. The lawn seems fine except for 2 dead patches. I have a feeling the sprinklers are broken there. We are investigating. I have switched to a manual reel mower and that seems to be leaving the clippings behind cleanly. I tried 4in height and it seems to overgrow pretty fast. We mow about once a week. We have it at 3.5in. Let us see how this works. Btw, the mower I got was the Fiskars max momentum. I must say I prefer the lightness and maneuverability of my old Brill Lexus. This mower cuts nicely but is quite heavy. One or two overlong lades, I just sniped with my pruner. Incidentally the amount of small flying insects that used to swarm over the lawn is gone - may be because of the 90degree days we have had this week or because of the once a week watering. I don't know. The one remaining issue - why do I have tons of mushrooms popping up on the lawn ? They are small and white and I can easily pick a hundred everyday in a 1500 sq.ft area....See MoreHow to give new Tall Fescue sod the best care - Help!
Comments (17)That's getting a bit low for any real nitrogen uptake. It would do no harm to apply a "wineterizer" type fertilizer. Uncoated, fast release, a high percentage of WSN-water soluable nitrogen, but likely not much benefit. You have been given good advice on lime. You want calcitic lime not dolomitic. If you get pulverized or crushed, you want the highest mesh number you can get and as close to 100 calcium carbonate equivalent as you can find. If pulverized, you will want to use a drop spreader rather than a broadcast spreader. Some unsolicited advice: You do want to get the pH up into the 6s, but 5.9 isn't a major problem by any means. Your potassium on the otherhand is quite low. I'd give potassium priority this fall. It plays a major roll in root health and growth and putting it down now will give it time to move down into the soil and for the salts to wash out before next spring. Potassium and lime should not be applied at the same time. There should be 3-4 weeks between adding them if you decide to do both. You want to find 0-0-50- potassium sulfate SOP. Avoid muriate of potash 0-0-60....See More
Melinda
6 years agoThis is the area at 2:45 p.m. in early summer. I have the fine leaf no mow fescue on order. There's a lot of demand for it and the grower won't have any available until next week, so my front yard renovation will just have to wait for that last touch. I plan to give it extra water while it gets established.
dchall_san_antonio
6 years agoMelinda
6 years agoreeljake
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoMelinda
6 years agodchall_san_antonio
6 years ago
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