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| Photo Credit: Lee Ivy |
| Before planting any fescue seed, till your soil and add any amendments needed according to your soil-test report. |
It’s hard to believe fall has just arrived. With the heat of late summer officially on its way out (we hope), it’s time to start thinking about lawn growing – establishing and renovating our cool-season lawns – which is exactly what my husband and I did a few years ago.
When we bought our house, our yard was a blank slate. (Boy was it ever blank!) And our grass was in bad shape, to boot. We had a centipedegrass lawn that looked more like a college student’s weed collection. Fortunately, we knew what we wanted, how to get there and when to do it. We chose to plant fescue – one of the most common cool-season grasses in North Carolina. For those interested in planting a new fescue lawn or renovating an old one, here’s the scoop: Fescue is best planted in fall because it thrives in cool weather. An efficient and less expensive way to establish a fescue lawn is by seed (compared with laying sod). While there are many options when it comes to selecting grass seed, knowing what to look for (and what not to look for) in your seed selection will make a big difference in the long-term success of your lawn. Planting grass seed starts with buying the right kind. For a fescue lawn, make sure to buy a blend that contains three or four varieties of tall fescue to ensure a healthy stand. Examine the seed tag on the bag. The combination of “weed seed” and “other crop” should total less than 1 percent. If any noxious weeds are listed, don’t buy that bag! You want as much pure seed as possible. You’ll pay more per bag, but you’ll also end up with a yard that has fewer weeds from the get-go – which means a healthier lawn.
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