Hi Chris,

First off, I'm not a turfgrass professional, just a serious amateur turfie, so any recommendations I make should play second fiddle to your state's experts at Rutgers.

If I'm reading your sun/shade descriptions properly, I would think you could go with 100 percent KBG in the front and backyards. The south side of the house might be a little iffy. If you want to go with the KBG, I suggest any of three time-tested cultivars that have been shown to be pretty decent shade performers: Brilliant, Apollo, and Unique. If you absolutely have to have really dark green, blend in some Moonlight.

As to the fine fescues, I'll stand behind my previous recommendations to the Yooper, but would strongly urge you to mix in some hard fescue too, since it can stand some pretty tough duty, and that might be helpful in your muggy NJ summers. My pick of that litter would be Spartan II and Berkshire. Regardless of what you might read into the NTEP data, both of them have really good color and turf quality. I've observed them closely in person at Michigan State University's plots, and I was impressed.

Now on a slightly different note, and one that ties-in with another current thread, I've never been a fan of mixes-combinations of two or more different grass species. This is not only because I like uniformity in turf, but also because the different species have different cultural requirements. KBG and fine fescue are good examples of this.

Remember I said I'm just a serious amateur? Well, Dr. Trey Rogers, in his recent book "Lawn Geek", says he usually recommends the standard three-way mix for northern lawns: KBG, perennial ryegrass, and fine fescue. Who am I to disagree with the "Sultan of Sod"?

Regarding your south side and its shade, last August I renovated a 1000 square foot portion of my backyard that gets maybe 2 hours of morning sun, followed by nearly total shade. I sowed a blend of Apollo and Princeton 105 KBG and, after a really slow start, it is looking pretty good now, in spite of the fact it apparently doesn't rain here anymore.

Sorry for the long post. If you'd like to discuss this further I'd be happy to oblige.

A.J.

Hi AJ,
First let me thank you for taking the time to reply to my inquiry.

I have been consulting with bestlawn for some KBG recommendations for the other areas of my front and back yard which get significantly more direct sunlight.

Currently, my focus is to develop a thick healthy green lawn in all areas with relatively uniform color. I'm less concerned with leaf or species uniformity. Unfortunately, we inherited a lawn that had not been taken of for many years. I like to think I have made some great strides in the last couple of years in the advancement in the overall condition of the lawn. This is not to say that I am done by any stretch of the imagination.

The one option I'm not really intrested in entertaining is the complete round-up and begin from scratch idea. I prefer to go the route of several seasons of overseeding to gradually introduce more desireable and quality lawn specicies.

Sorry for the rambling post.

-Chris

I'm going to do tiffany creeping red and also want to mix in some hard and possibly chewings. What do you recommend for me AJ? I was going to go with discovery but not so sure. Not a shady location. Looking for drought tolerance and best traffic tolerance possible with FF.

Correction oops: That should be florentine creeping red not tiffany. Tiffany is hard fescue. I think.

?

Hey Quirky,

Tiffany is a Chewings fescue. Discovery hard fescue would be fine if you've found a cheap source, but at the margin I think Spartan II, Berkshire, and Oxford hard fescues are better. Word is that hard fescue in general is pretty slow to fully establish, and can't handle much traffic. What is can do is handle frequent, severe droughts better than either strong creeping or Chewings. I've never planted any hard fescue, so my opinions are based on what I've read and what I've observed at my local NTEP plots.

You're as bad as I am, trying all sorts of grasses just to find out how they would perform in our respective lawns. When the aerators come by to core my lawn, they just chuckle to themselves.

A.J.

I noticed that about the CRF is that it took forever to establish. But I have to say that I am amazed that where it is in full sun locations, mixed in with bermuda even it is showing no signs of discomfort. I'm going through a low maintenance phase. I want the lawn to have that lush cool season appearance with less fertilizer and be more tolerant to drought. I would mix in maybe 5-10% colonial bent to help with traffic tolerance. But it's not like I'm in the UK. This could be tricky. Thanks for the opinions.

Hi AJ,
I have been doing some research on the NTEP 2006 data and would like to know if you have any experience with the following cultivars. They seem to do very well in my area in addition to the previous varieties:

Chewings: Zodiac
Creeping: Epic

Fortitude (Both a Chewings and a Creeping ?)

Thanks,
Chris

Bump