Love Your Lawn!

In this article, Dave Swift, golf course superintendent for the Minnehaha Country Club, gives the river conscious lawn enthusiast tips for creating a lush, golf course quality lawn! Swift discusses the benefits of switching from a Kentucky bluegrass blend to fescues, which are much more suited to South Dakota. Click the read more button to unveil Swift's suggestions for a stellar lawn! Visit Nyberg's Ace to purchase seeds!What is Fescue?As a golf course superintendent who works along the Big Sioux River, I feel it is time to share something extremely important.  My concern for water quality in lakes and rivers is as high as my passion for a perfectly maintained golf course.  Precise pesticide and fertilizer applications are important to me as my goal is to eliminate any negative runoff into the Big Sioux River system.  Additionally, many of our other sustainable efforts revolve around implementing drought tolerant grasses to reduce the need for irrigation.We often discuss and make decisions to ensure that the golf course acts as a filter for the ground water instead of contributing to any negative runoff.  Due to the success of sustainability efforts and university research in the golf industry, I feel that we are missing a huge opportunity to include average home owner.Enter the use of fescues.  Since the golf course construction boom 20 years ago, golf courses have been successful in using turf type tall fescue and fine fescues in different areas to fill the voids created from excessive shade, traffic or the lack of irrigation.  These two completely different cool season turf grasses with the same last name are confusing and underused on the average lawn throughout the Midwest.  Let me explain.The typical home lawn in Sioux Falls was probably established from the use of Kentucky bluegrass, perennial ryegrass and some fine fescue mixes of grass seed or Kentucky bluegrass sod.  This is a fine choice for most lawns and these grasses are very hearty for our area.  However, in order to keep this grass green and weed free, we must apply several applications of fertilizer and frequently irrigate this grass throughout the summer months.  Years after establishment, trees throughout the lawn continue to grow and create shade problems that inhibit bluegrass from becoming the thick lawn it once was.  Additionally, salt accumulation along sidewalks and boulevards tends to thin out Kentucky bluegrass allowing weeds or bare soil to dominate the stand.  Additional inputs such as more grass seed, pesticides and fertilizer are applied to bring back the turf and the cycle continues, not to mention fertilizer all over the street.Fescues used as turf grass for lawns are divided into two sub generic types based on leaf texture: the coarse fescues (tall fescue) and the fine fescues (creeping red, chewings, sheep and hard fescue).  Although common in many grass mixes, they still do not get the love they deserve.  The tall fescues, until recently, did not blend well in a bluegrass lawn as it had too thick of a grass blade and often segregated into small patches.  Over the last 15 years, newer tall fescue cultivars have been developed with a much finer leaf blade than the past and are known as “turf type tall fescues”.  The fine fescues have always been around in most seed mixes and are fine bladed, but slow to establish and usually taken over by the bluegrass under high fertility and moisture.Both tall and fine fescue are extremely drought tolerant and have a much higher salt tolerance than Kentucky bluegrass and perennial ryegrass.  Due to the leaf thickness (texture), each fescue will blend extremely well when solely mixed with Kentucky bluegrass, but not together as each one represents both ends of the texture spectrum.Turf Type Tall Fescue (Great Choice as a Boulevard Grass)

• Turf Type Tall fescues grow rapidly under full sun or partial shade
• Extremely wear tolerant, has the ability to withstand heavy traffic
• Grows well in very poor soil
• Best performer under salt stress (boulevards, edges of sidewalks)
• Newer turf type tall fescues mix well with Kentucky bluegrass
• Extreme drought tolerance (often green throughout the summer under no irrigation)
• Low fertilization requirements

Fine Fescues (Shade Grass)

• Extremely drought tolerant
• High shade tolerance
• Low fertilization requirements
• Slow grower, eliminating the need for mowing frequency
• Twice the salt tolerance of Kentucky bluegrass
• Excellent choice when mixed with Kentucky bluegrass

These grasses are completely different in appearance due to color and texture, but mix well individually with bluegrassAs excited as I am about using each fescue in certain problem areas, it is very important that fine fescue and tall fescue are not mixed together for aesthetic reasons.  However, each do have a place in our lawns when mixed individually with Kentucky bluegrass.Boulevard Grass Seed MixDue to the salt accumulation along city streets, sidewalks and driveways, turf type tall fescue is an excellent choice when mixed with Kentucky bluegrass.  Proven mixes contain around 90% turf type tall fescue and 10% Kentucky bluegrass by weight.  Typically boulevards have poor soil and damaged turf from excessive salt use in the winter.  This seed mix is an excellent choice to seed boulevards as long as there is enough slope to keep water and ice accumulation at a minimum.  Establishment of turf type tall fescue is quick as this grass is a fast grower.Shade Grass Seed MixDue to shade problems in lawns, any of the fine fescues in a mix with Kentucky bluegrass will perform.  Ideally, the mix will contain >80% fine fescue with a majority of the fescue being creeping red fescue.  Fine fescues have a low requirement for irrigation and fertility.  Under high irrigation and fertility, these grasses tend to thin out and get overgrown by the bluegrasses.  Establishment can take longer and higher success is usually related to less fertility, traffic and irrigation and a higher height of cut.  Along boulevards, fine fescues can be used in heavy shade as it has nearly double the salt tolerance of bluegrasses.  Establishment is slow with this grass, but once established it can be an excellent choice.Please consider the use of fescues in your problem areas to increase the aesthetics of your yard.  When established you can have thick grass without the need for excessive fertilizer and irrigation.  Extra fertilizer and sediment runoff from our streets and yards contributes to the pollution of our river.  Friends of the Big Sioux River have been working together with Nyberg’s Ace Hardware to make sure that we can soon provide these grasses to the homeowner.  Together, we can change the way we maintain our yards and have a clean river!Dave SwiftGolf Course SuperintendentFriends of the Big Sioux River