Those are some mighty fine looking grasses quirky! Thanks for posting the photos ~ truly appreciated!!

Wow!

Your lawn must look like a emerald in a sea of endless sand...as I look at the color of the neighbor's grass compared to yours.

If I was Jim Cramer, the stock market guy...I'd say...BooYah!

I had toyed with the notion of killing my bermuda in the backyard and planting penncross. You have given my the kick to do it next fall. What type of bent did you use?

Booyah!
Thanks for the comments but I assure you the grass is doing all the work.
OKgrassguy, it's Penncross. Nice to have a type of grass worthy of being used on actual putting greens instead of some builder grade bermuda sod. Let me just say that I have no idea what this grass is going to do when soil temps heat up. The fact that everyone says it's high maintenance has me worried but even if it looked good until August then died, I'd totally do it over again. And the rest of the front yard too. That's being optimistic though. This grass is very shallow rooted and you don't have much warning when it's hungry or thirsty or too hot or has come down with a fungee. In my case it's surrounded by concrete which makes for warmer soil temps which is cause for concern in the summer.

Wow!

Your lawn must look like a emerald in a sea of endless sand...as I look at the color of the neighbor's grass compared to yours.

Oh yeah, on closer inspection it appears that IS grass in the neighbors' yards! :-)

(The bent looks absolutely splendid!)

Quirky,

I worked on a golf course as a college kid in the Summers in NC. We had bentgrass greens that were mowed daily, very short with Toro reel mowers. This was a pretty exclusive club. The greens were fast (10 -11 on the stemp meter) so they were cut close. On very hot days we had to cool off the hot spots with a hose to prevent those areas from burning up. We didn't want to irrigate the entire green just to cool off hot spots.

Anyway, you will probably be ok since your grass isn't cut nearly that short. Our fringes and approaches rarely developed hot spots because they weren't as short. But when it does get hot the grass will begin to turn a deep bluish color as it begins to wilt. If you see this you'll need to cool it off.

That's what the guy at Lesco said when I asked why this was considered high maintenance grass, that it's not nearly as short. The thing that troubles me the most is that the preventative fungicides they use on greens is very expensive and I'd have to get it from a lesco type of place. I'm not sure if the only consumer fungicide sold at retailers (Spectracide Immunox) will work. And I'm also not sure if it will be effective at any problems that come up. This wouldn't be a real accurate trial if I didn't use what's readily available to consumers though since the whole purpose of my trials is about performance as a home lawn with homeowner capabilities.

Quirky, I'll be watching your updates on this. I keep saying I want to do Colonial Bent in my front yard - slightly less maint. than what you've got but still fussier than your run-o-the-mill fescues and ryegrasses. We have a good climate for bent here in PNW.

A couple of questions if you will: What is the approximate sq. ft.? Do you have an inground irrigation system, or will you be bringing out the sprinkler? What's your mowing height, if indeed you've mowed yet? And whereabouts are you geographically?

Sq. footage is 246 sf
Irrigation is from impact sprinklers close to the house (not pictured) I have a thing for impact sprinklers. It's been very dry here so I've had to water a few times.
Mowing height is 0.625" and yes I've been mowing 3 times a week but cut it back to 2x a week (not really necessary at this point) The photos were taken after 4 days from the previous mowing. And it was first mowed Oct 17 when it was a few inches tall.
Geographically I'm 40mi N.NE. of Atlanta.

I too wanted to do colonial or perhaps velvet but couldn't get any. I'm not sure about the repairability of those but I had a 6"x10" area where the rear wheel on the mower I was using spun and tore out the grass and it is just about all filled in now.

Strangely I do have some powerful fans which is suggested for golf courses but once again for the sake of this trial I may just stick with the basics just to see what I can get by with.

I always wanted to see golf course grass used as a lawn. Thanks for sharing those photos.

Awesome!

I wanted to do the same, but I was told not to because bentgrasses produce seeds like son of gun and I will ruin my bluegrass and ryegrass.

I very much like turf grasses a lot, I wish I can grow them all except for Centepede, St. Augustine, and Bahiagrass - they are all cultured weeds IMO.

Anyway, awesome pictures.

Keep posting more...

Absolutely stunning! The color of that grass is incredible (and I wish I had that hue in my front yard).

Let me guess. Every now and again you'd remove a weak sprout and say loudly, "Say goodbye to your friend. He just couldn't make the cut." If you then place it on the sidewalk to fry in sight of the other grasses, that should take care of any growth issues. :-)

Quirky, how's the bentgrass holding up now that things are starting to heat up?

quirkyquercus, I see now why some people from 'up north' refer disdaimfully to a well kept lawn of St Augustine in FL zone 9 as "Crabgrass!"

LOL morpheus. Yeah see grass, this can happen to you if you don't shape up and grow some roots. I don't see why you can't grow this if you're in the mood to mow and water a lot.

Tak2w, after my last update the grass starting to look like it was dying on the side bordering the street. As if heat from the street was baking the grass. And I got all panicky and didn't know what to do but long story short is the grass looks like it's rebounding after some more careful watering. It's important to note though that even with a lot of brown spots it still is nicer looking the the neighboring bermuda at this point. The quality ratings I've seen all show a big dip in May and June then it picks up again in June which I don't understand but I'm hopeful that it's not the beginning of the end. I just sprinkled a little seed in some of the spots just to see if it will help with the appearance any.

I also have some colonial bent that I ordered and will be experimenting with that too.

So could you post some more pictures of the Bent?

Where exactly in GA are you?

A frind of mind lives in Alpharetta, just north of Atlanta - familiar?

I'm in Buford which is to the E.NE. of Alpharetta. I used to live there.

How's your bentgrass doing after all these hot days and no rain?

Could you post some pics?

Let's see some pics of the bentgrass! Also, do you mow with a reel or rotary mower?

I will have some new photos to post of the bent in a few weeks. I want to see how it does through July before saying anything. We're just now getting the brunt of the humidity. I use both a manual ALM 5 blade reel mower and a Snapper 19" rotary mower which cuts as low as half an inch. This was the only rotary mower on the market to cut at this height. Great mower. Unfortunately they discontinued it sometime last year.

Bump...

Lets see the pics quirky.

I'm afraid you've posted a little late. I've already sprayed roundup on the entire yard including that as I am replacing it with the A-4 variety. I will be doing at least half of the back yard with creeping bent so if everything goes as planned I will have some nice photos in autumn.

Quirky, you got A4 already? I was going to send you some, remember?

I'm also doing A4 on this area, but the superintendent at the golf course tells me that I will not have a full lawn until spring - accurate?

Yes I remember but I thought you had another variety than a-4. I figured I could always blend the two. I will have about 20 lbs of alliance blend PR that I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do with. After I bought it I decided I'd do the penncross in the backyard (seed I bought earlier in the year) and if worse came to worse I would use the PR behind the house so the rabbits have something to eat and leave me alone.