Fescue to the Rescue!

As I sit down at my desk to write this, I look out the window and see both standing water and patches of snow. April can be such a cruel month. The day before, I'd started selectively doing just a bit of yard clean-up as temperatures were in the 50s. Though two thirds of my lawns are still in that very squishy, soaking wet phase of spring, I've got some areas that I can actually start raking. Well, it's the very next day — spitting snow, breezy and only in the mid-30s. Just outside the window of my study is a side lawn where my partner and I had a pool installed last year. We never got the chance to go for a swim since it wasn't completed until late October so we're looking forward to the coming summer. There's a problem, though. As great as that pool looks, the lawn surrounding it has disappeared. What's left after the excavator exited the premises is rocky mud. The excavator driver did his best to smooth the surface (The artistry of an experienced excavator operator is truly amazing!) But still, it's probably an eighth of an acre that is just brown mud and rocks at this point. What to do?! I'm still mulling the solution. Do I hire someone to come in and re-establish my lawn? Can I do it myself? I decided to fire up good old Google for some hints. It's still getting pretty cold at night here in Dublin, so I wanted to find out what type of grass seed was the most cold-tolerant. The handful of articles I skimmed all suggested fescue and specifically, tall fescue for cold-weather planting. My soil here in Dublin is clay, clay and more clay. It's also on the acidic side. On the edges of the "lawn" are hemlock and deciduous trees and moss is very happy to grow throughout the plot. So, when I looked up the best type of grass for clay soil, once again, good old fescue to the rescue. In an uncredited article, "The Best Grass for Clay Soil" at Good Idea Gardening (www.goodideagardening.com), tall fescue was at the top of their list followed by fine fescue, perennial ryegrass and Kentucky bluegrass. Speaking of perennial grass, be sure to check the breakdown of ingredients in any bag of grass seed you buy. So often we tend to just grab "shady mix" or "sun mix" or a variety aimed at fast patching our lawn. You really want to make sure the seed is all or mostly made up of perennial grasses. Any quick-grow variety is probably going to have annual grass seed in the mix. That's ok if you're just wanting to quickly patch your lawn for an event like a wedding but as the name suggests, all that annual grass just dies at the end of the season. My final question for Google was what type of grass seed is best for shady areas? And, guess what was at the top of the list again? Fescue! Specifically fine fescue was highlighted as well as Zoysia grass. I've only vaguely heard about Zoysia primarily as a "prestige" warm-weather grass so another time I'll research it a bit more. Back to fescue, this workhorse grass is also one of the highest recommended for areas that receive a lot of foot or animal traffic. I feel pretty confident that in my situation, fescue is the way to go, and I lean towards a 50/50 mix of tall fescue and fine fescue. Heck, maybe I'll sneak in a little red fescue while I'm at it. There's even more fescues to be found if you're determined: hard fescue, sheep fescue and Chewing's fescue. The three most important elements to help you decide what type of grass is best for your own lawn are soil type (pH and nutrient density), sun exposure and moisture level. There's a grass seed just waiting to give you a lush lawn. And, if a few weeds sneak in, let them! I say as long as it's green let it grow!