Fine fescues are......fine in texture. They tend to lie down when they get long which some people like because they don't immediately look like they need to be mowed.

As for color, that would depend on the cultivar. Look for a fine fescue blend where the cultivars are specifically described as having a dark green color if that is what you want.

As I posted in other one of your threads, fine fescues are the most shade tolerant grasses. The fine fescues include red, Chewings, hard and sheep fescue. Chewings is the most shade tolerant, hard is the most heat and drought tolerant and red is there because it has rhizomes and can self-repair unlike the others which are all bunch grasses. Not sure about sheep. Most blends include at least red, Chewings and hard as they all have their strengths and weaknesses.

As you have also noticed, some shade mixes have TTTF, KBG and PRG as well. TTTF has some shade tolerance, but it's at the sunny end of the part sun/part shade spectrum. It is included because it is more heat tolerant than fine fescue. For the love of puppies, I can't figure out why there is PRG and KBG in shade mixes as neither of these grasses is shade tolerant. In fact, I don't see any appeal to PRG (a water hungry, nitrogen hungry bunch grass) except that it is quick to germinate and develop, so it gives impatient consumers instant albeit fleeting gratification.

Do you have experience with sheep fescue? I ask because it's your screen name.

 

Slow or no growing is pretty much what you need in those areas where nothing else will grow. Hard fescue is excellent because it can go all summer pretty much in full shade without thinning as long as it has some light in the fall and spring to store up energy.

Anyway I like the fine fescue blend from Seed Superstore, they have a no mow blend also that I think is all hard fescue that is outstanding. Your local seed suppler probably has some similar mixes as well for a better price if you check if you need like 50 pounds or more.

 

Whoa, this is old...

What did you end up doing?

 

Whoa, this is old...

Yep, I'm the thread dredger. :mrgreen:

 

Whoa, this is old...

What did you end up doing?

TL/DR:

Preferred Seed Cornell Mix
SeedSuperStore Sunny Mix
Barenbrug Turf Blue Pro
Barenbrug Turf Blue HGT w/ RPR w/ Yellow Jacket
United Seeds Sure Shot R w/ PRG
Barenbrug Turf Blue Pro w/ Yellow Jacket

Junk-mixes for spiking spot-repairs and boosting ultra-super-shady areas under large hardwoods:

Scott's Midwest Mix (I was amazed at Lowe's to see this contains Beyond, Bewitched, and SPF 30... not bad!)
Jonathan Greene Black Beauty Dense Shade

For my major renovation I set aside ideas about fine fescue after many of the expert/tier-III (or is it I?) lawn folks said fine fescue isn't visually appealing (which just corroborated and added to my series of frustrations with it).

Anyway, I went with the following (this is 100% honest; this summer with things being what they are lawn care has become a hobby and a way to get outside... my point being I'll acknowledge this isn't practical):

Tenacity bombing commenced late July, and finished late August.

Seeded Preferred Seed's Cornell Mix after dethatching. Then I took string trimmer to the bentgrass to get down do bare dirt.

Broadcast seeded SSS Sunny Mix, then broadcast seeded Barenbrug Turf Blue Pro naked seed.

Spread peat moss and 60 bags of lawn soil (which gave but a humble dusting)

Barenbrug Turf Blue HGT w/ RPR w/ Yellow Jacket arrived, so I broadcast that. One of the hurricaines made its way up the country and flooded the yard.

Grass started growing! (no sarcasm, I was happy grass grew)... came up white and lime green.

United Seeds Shure Shot KBG/PRG came, so I broadcast that.

White grass gradually went away, and lime green grass the color of the field at the Steeler's stadium is the color of all the newly-planted grass to this point.

Felt upset about the color, so after some research into turf color, I concluded that both Barenbrug products I applied had cultivars of KBG with poor color ratings, so I got another 10 lb bag of SSS Sunny and overseeded with that. And then I overseeded the non-renovated areas with a bag of Barenbrug Turf Blue Pro w/ Yellow Jacket to try to lighten those areas up since the Barenbrug bluegrass is a pastel lime green

Applied Tenacity; all of the remaining 1/2 bottle onto my 20,000 sq ft lawn... primarily to try and mop up any bentgrass that might still be alive and creeping around.

Now many of the new areas (and some of the old) have many white blades... there is one very very dark, very deep deep green grass type I have on my lawn that didn't discolor from any of the Tenacity apps.

 

Do you have experience with sheep fescue? I ask because it's your screen name.

Not... quite.... many years ago when I was little our lawn care company kept writing on our work tickets/receipts that "fescue was overtaking the lawn!"

Yeah, they weren't joking... for years to specific areas had basically no-grow fine fescue. Some of it is so fine and weird looking that at one point somehow I determined it was sheep fescue, and at some other point (before that) there was a "dense shade" mix I used whose seed label state sheep fescue in it, and using that product created these patches of this stuff that is so fine it almost looks like sheep's wool, and figured it must have been the sheep fescue.

As for my screenname, I chose sheepfescue just b/c I think it's a funny name for grass.

 

Do you have experience with sheep fescue? I ask because it's your screen name.

Yeah, they weren't joking... for years to specific areas had basically no-grow fine fescue.

Oh my, the bane of a lawn care company - a maintenance-free grass! Oh the humanity!! :shocked:

 

Preferred Seed Cornell Mix
SeedSuperStore Sunny Mix
Barenbrug Turf Blue Pro
Barenbrug Turf Blue HGT w/ RPR w/ Yellow Jacket
United Seeds Sure Shot R w/ PRG
Barenbrug Turf Blue Pro w/ Yellow Jacket

Junk-mixes for spiking spot-repairs and boosting ultra-super-shady areas under large hardwoods:

Scott's Midwest Mix (I was amazed at Lowe's to see this contains Beyond, Bewitched, and SPF 30... not bad!)
Jonathan Greene Black Beauty Dense Shade

I have no idea with any of these mixes/blends are, except for the Black Beauty Dense Shade (which has TTTF, TTPR, KBG, CRF, CF...I have a bag), the HGT blend (KBG), and the Midwest Mix you mentioned (does it have just the Beyond, Betwitched, and SPF 30? We don't have midwest mix around here...but you occasionally see Northeast mix, which I believe has a lot of PR (currently Apple 3GL, Fastball whatever, etc...if it's the mix I'm thinking of...but it also has KBG and FF). Believe it or not, Scotts also has a Pennsylvania mix. No idea what that is. I'm not a fan of KBG/FF/PR mixes. No idea what the others you listed have (Cornell and Sunny mixes) but I can look it up.

How did you seed so many times without overdoing it?

As far as Sheep Fescue, I hear it's a type of Hard Fescue, but is more blue than green apparently. Not something I want to try, but I did try Hard Fescue recently and it seems like really good stuff. It's dark green. Might be the most underrated fine fescue out there. Took forever to germinate, etc, though. Supposed to be pretty durable once established. I think I cut it once since planted in the Spring...it hasn't really grown enough to be cut, but seems to be holding on (the area is full of tree roots). Now I just need to get it to thicken up a bit (in the Spring). I think Hard Fescue and TTTF mixed could probably make a good low-input, environmentally friendly lawn...at least someday once the state-of-the-art TTTF gets a little finer in texture and offers more spread for recuperation.