Fescue Help

Tired in Raleigh – posted 23 May 2005 15:34

C3/4 acrean anyone help me? I have been trying VERY hard to establish a nice fescue lawn in Raleigh NC. I am about 20 miles south of city and own approximately 3/4 acre (about 1/2 is lawn) We sodded the back last year and that is fine. We were trying to save money and hydroseeded the front. Unfortunately, the company is new and although they are willing to bend over backwards to work on the lawn, I still don’t know what to do with it. The hydroseed did not go down even and where there was no seed, the weeds took over. Now I have a yard that is 1/2 baby grass and 1/2 weeds of all kinds. They are going to re-apply again, but I don’t know how to deal with the weeds that are already there while I am trying to grow new grass from seed. This is just a mess. Do you have any thoughts?

Buck – posted 23 May 2005 18:38

This is no time to be trying to get fescue established in Raleigh. Conditions are not at all favorable as the heat will kill it off before the roots have a chance to get established. Fescue is a cool season turf, just kind of hangs on throughout the summer. Fall is when to seed, probably September or so, in order to develop a root system prior to the heat. I think you likely have to live with what you have for the next 3-4 months. You can seed from now until then and not have very much germination.

Surprised that the company doing the work does not know this. Check out http://www.turffiles.ncsu.edu/Home/Default.aspxa great resource from NCSU, right in your own backyard.