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So I have to make this decision asap, and I really, really hate brown zoysia yards in the winter. I also will not, at least initially, have an irrigation system for our new house.
For those of you who have fescue, which is what I'd like to put down, how much watering do you really do? Our yard will have some full sun in the front but some partial shade in the back. I don't want to do fescue and then go broke or crazy with watering in the summer!
I have lived in Raleigh for over 30 years and have always had a beautiful fescue lawn. Fescue has always been a battle but doable and the beautiful spring lawn was worth it for many, many years. However with the recent (5-7 years) swings in weather that creates such drouth I would never opt for a fescue lawn again. Go with the most drouth resistant grass you can. You will be much happier in the long run.
I switched to zoysia 2 years ago and have been very happy. I've owned homes/yards for 18 years now, and barely even bothered fighting the fescue fight but prefer the zoysia. The only fescue yards in my neighborhood that look good more than 4 months a year are those where a whole lot of work is put into them constantly. Zoysia is fine and low-maintenance 8 months a year.
I have had fescue and St Augustine (warm season grass ) both
The St Augustine looked bad 1/2 the year and ended up taken over with weeds.
I think it needed more fertilizer & weed control than our fescue even needed..
So I have to make this decision asap, and I really, really hate brown zoysia yards in the winter. I also will not, at least initially, have an irrigation system for our new house.
For those of you who have fescue, which is what I'd like to put down, how much watering do you really do? Our yard will have some full sun in the front but some partial shade in the back. I don't want to do fescue and then go broke or crazy with watering in the summer!
Decision made. Fescue it is. Although, you could paint the brown grass...
Zoysia also requires feeding and water. It is just more drought tolerant, and more resistant to weeds.
And fescue will possibly do better in shade.
Make sure zoysia is even the best warm season grass - we were going to put down zoysia and our sod guy said Bermuda was best for our sunlight conditions. After the two weeks after it first was installed, I don't think we've watered it even once.
But if you can't stand brown grass, you don't have much choice. Enjoy those water bills though.
You might also want to consider what your neighbor's have because of invasion issues. When we moved in, I was fine with our fescue (since that is what we are used to, being from a cooler climate) and wasn't bothered too much by the occasional brown spot. But over the course of 2 years, our lawn started to worse and worse - there were always brown/dead spots in both the front (full sun) and back (90% shade during most of the day). We ended up with 3 kinds of grasses: fescue, which was there then common Bermuda (likely from the neighbors across the street) and either Centipede or St. Augustine (from our next door neighbor) so the lawn was always half-dead! It looked terrible and we never liked to be in it.
Decided to finally redo the lawn this year and got zoysia installed. Huge relief to hav ethe lawn look uniform! And even though it's nice and brown now, it was quite pretty from Aug (installation) to late November. Everyone now assures me that the zoysia will be low maintenance, require little to no water and will not be invaded! It felt really great on the feet too and I'm looking forward to being out in the yard now!
Our other neighbor has beautiful fescue but he has an irrigation system that runs daily during the warm months. But even so, he still gets some dead areas that he has re-sodded each fall. His is the greenest lawn on our street during the winter months but has plenty of competition in the summer months.
Take your pick:
Brown grass in summer = fescue
Brown grass in winter = zoysia (and other warm season grasses)
This.
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