Yes TF is a "bunch type" grass, like perennial rye. For whatever reason, people have this notion that TF will get clumpy instantaneously, when in reality this happens when areas of your grass are killed by drought or disease. Also, TF has rhizome activity, and a mature stand of TF has spreading ability outside of just tillering. A properly cared for yard with minimal summer die off will remain tight and carpet-like without overseeding. A newly seeded yard, if done properly, will be fairly thick by winter as it tillers out, and next spring it should be thick and dense. If you have bare areas after seeding, then those will be bare for a while unless it is a very small area, like the size of a divot. I have not over seeded my TTTF lawn for 3 years since I renovated, as it is still thick and dense.

Then my plan will work. I brought in top soil, spread fertilized, planted grass seed and lightly spread straw. That was a little over two weeks ago. It has come in great.

Today I went out and carefully raked the dirt where I had missed seeding the first time and reseeded.

I hope by spring I have good grass on a slope that was quartz and red clay.

Thanks for the information.

A seed of fescue will start out a a thin single blade. After a month or two, that blade will get like 10x thicker (I'm just guessing. I haven't actually measured) and will grow tillers. By the spring, that single thin blade will probably be about 10 thick blades. As each plant gets thicker, they appear to be clumped together and look like one continuous plant.

A fescue blade will typically live about 50 days and the plant will continually spread out. As the plant gets older, it becomes less productive and thins out. This is why fescue lawns need to overseeded. Maybe not for the first few years, but if you have an older lawn, it needs to be continually reseeded or else it will thin out.

Whenever I've seeded a large area, it never fills in completely the next year. Probably for various reasons, there ends up being a few sporadic bare areas that need to be seeded again in the fall.

I put down some scotts southern blend this fall. it germinated in like 5 days and germinated like crazy. I was very impressed. Much better than the scotts water saver brand that's covered in mulch.