Shade Fine Fescue pix (otherwise know as grass porn)...

[jglongisland]

Lets face, we can't get enough photos. This is like the catalogues that come (my wife calls them flower porn).

Anyhow, here are the latest pictures of my fine fescue lawn up north in zone 4b. Supposed to get some snow tomorrow night. I mulch mowed the leaves in (took about 2 passes), winterized, limed, etc. etc. My dad is up there, he'll mulch the leaves one more time, after that they have to get blown.

I should have taken pictures this morning; less than 24 hours after mulching all those leaves in it looked like I hadn't done a thing.

I lost 50-60% of the lawn due to the rains this summer and the fact that the guy who seeded it for me did so at a rate of about 16 lbs/thousand instead of the recommended 4 lbs/thousand.

I reseeded a number of times this summer, the last time I used Pennington seed blankets. We had one storm in late August after I got great germination where the rain came down at 24 inches/hour at its peak (I think we had 6 inches of rain that day.

The good news is that we had 3 inches of rain this week and I didn't have any soft spots this weekend, nor did I have puddling. I think I have a good base going into the winter.

The best area (good sun, very little water problems ).














This area kept getting washed out, you could raft down it at times.















Another shot of the best turf:


A lake shot (the reason we drive 360 miles to get here):



Finally, a beaver's work in progress:

[clay&crabgrass]

the new pole in the yard is the "grass cams"? what was the seed mix again? lot of work. looks good.

[jglongisland]

Its a bit of everything, Oxford and Spartan II Hard Fescue, Zodiac, Intrigue and Longfellow II Chewings, JasperII and Garnet Creeping Red, and lastly a touch of America KBG.

I have a bunch of Speco cameras around the place, I can literally watch the grass grow (or this year watch it wash away).

[eriocaulon]

Wow. Really didn't know LI had places like that. That's kind of like a dream home. Congrats.

Considering the shade you have to work with, those are good results. Surprised you don't have more weeds in the more sparse areas.

[jglongisland]

That's not LI, its in the mountains of Maine (actually just on the east edge of the White Mountains on the NH border). Its a vacation place.

I agree on the weeds. The rains wiped out everything. I have spot treated some of the broadleafs with WBG. I think most weeds like sun.

[andy10917]

Very nice, Jon - especially considering conditions. But I'm not sure that ANY of the pictures anyone posts here reach the level of "porn". But the spouse doesn't kill you for looking at grass - just shakes her head sadly.

[GaryCinChicago]

A lake shot (the reason we drive 360 miles to get here):

Thanks for the new desk top, Jon!

[Ohio2112]

The grass looks nice but that view of the lake is like a little slice of heaven.

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[jglongisland]

Here are some updated pictures. For various reasons we haven't been up here since January and this was only a 24 hour solo trip with out the family. I brought along my new KBG shade mix which is Brilliant, America, Bewitched, Moonlight SLT, Blue Velvet & NuGlade. Last year my fine fescue mix had 10% America and I was pleasantly surprised how much of the America established and is doing pretty well, particularly in some of the tougher areas. Finding it in fine fescue is pretty easy, the blade looks like a plank next to the fine fescue when you look close. I have plenty Fine Fescue left (although I'm not sure how well it ages, for now I want to see how much KBG I can get established. I also did a another soil test; I'm pretty sure some of the loam I brought in last year was super acidic. I did lime quite heavily last fast and had my dad do it again this spring.

I was even lucky enough to get .30 inches of gentle rain which started two hours after I was done seeding and top dressing.

My parents are up here for the summer, my mom promised she would stop by everyday to water over the next two weeks. Since its pretty shade with a high clay content in the loam it does hold water well and doesn't dry out so fast. I ran out of Peat and used ProMix (expensive stuff, but that's what I had) in some of the areas that get more sun, it will be interesting to see if that affects establishment at all.

[gryd]

So that's what you needed the KBG shade mix for. Are you overseeding the area?

[GaryCinChicago]

Considering the shade, a few of those shots are outstanding!

And PS, thanks for another desktop picture!

[jglongisland]

So that's what you needed the KBG shade mix for. Are you overseeding the area?

It was an overseed. Mix was for this area as well as a shady section of my lawn on Long Island.

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[gryd]

Good luck Jon! Your fine fescue in Maine looks great!

[Wally]

Was that "beaver" shot the porn?

[jglongisland]

Hey, I had a real beaver totally take down a tree up there.

[rcnaylor]

Well, I have the othe side of the coin. I put in some shade type grasses, mostly fine fescue, in some shady areas last fall.

It was really looking good and all was well until our warm dry weather hit a couple of weeks ago. I usually water about twice a weak when it gets like that and the ttf and kbg do ok (bounce back strong as soon as cooler weather gets back) but, the fine fescue is looking b-a-d. I'll see if I can find some before pics and take some "after" pics this evening.

I think watering it more might help, but, if it is going to take a lot of water, I doubt I really want it long term here anyway.

Of course, this isn't Maine or Long Island. I had some doubts about trying it as a shade area replacement. But, I think its going to give me a clear answer this year... 'not here'. At least not long term.

[bpgreen]

Fine fecue can put up with a lot of shade and with little water, but it suffers from heat. It's pretty tough, though, so it'll probably bounce back from dormancy once it cools a bit.

I had some sheep fescue that went dormant for about two months last year and snapped back as soon as it got a little cooler. It rained in June, I watered twice in July and once in August (no rain) and it was fine in September. This year, it did a bit better and didn't go dormant until late July.

[rcnaylor]

thanks for the heads up BP. It'll be the fall before I make any decisions on these areas in full.

I'm thinking of starting a little patch of warm weather shade tolerant grass to see how it'll do.