Question
i live in southern ontario in a home that has a 3 year old soded lawn. I just moved in so i have no way of knowing what was done in the past to the lawn but i was told the previous owner had not seeded or done anything. the lawn has a mixture of nice looking fine bladed grass (like the other lawns on the street) and thick wide blded grass as well. can i get rid of this thicker bladed stuff or am i stuck with it?
allso was wondering if you had any info on how to treat dog burns on the lawn?
thank you in advance,
carl

Answer
Hello Carl,

Tall Fescue is often confused with Crabgrass by many homeowners.  Fescue shares a lot of Crabgrass traits and it tends to be coarser than most other lawn turfs.  So when mixed with Bluegrass or other top drawer turf grasses, it sticks out like a sore thumb, in big, ugly clumps.  My guess is that your grass mixture includes Tall Fescue.

The only way I know of to get Tall Fescue to leave the party is to dig it out chunk by chunk.  Crabgrass on the other hand is an annual plant that only lives a single season.

Now, why would someone want to plant Tall Fescue in their lawn mix in the first place?

For one thing, Carl, Tall Fescue does not mind a little friendly foot traffic.  Children can play tag on it, the dogs can play frisbee, you can set up a badminton net and have a BBQ and the Tall Fescue will go with the flow.

You can't do that with Kentucky Bluegrass or fine Fescues or Ryegrass.  Maybe Zoysia... But that is its own set of problems.

Another thing people like about Tall Fescue is that it really sticks up for itself when faced with weed seeds.  This is one very tough grass.  It's lower maintenance than other, more refined grasses and it takes more drought, more heat, more aggravation.

No matter how unattractive you find it, Carl, Tall Fescue is favored by some people who like it so much they plant the entire lawn in TF.  It is not cheap grass.  They were not cutting corners when they added TF to the mix.

You can try mowing to the preferred height of the finer grass and yanking out the Fescue.  Other than that, some people tell me, That's what Round-Up is for.  And since I am anti-Round-Up (and what an understatement THAT is), I can't really say much else about it.  'cept good luck.

As for your dog problem, this is a dilemma that comes up from time to time.  People see neighborhood dogs invite themselves over and spray the property with their personal identification.

This problem is so big that it's been studied at the research level.  Fescue grass variety Kentucky 31 was ranked first; Ryegrass followed and Kentucky Bluegrass coming in last.  I've read a few studies that claim Zoysia is best equipped to handle this kind of strong acid.

If you check Seedland (www.seedland.com), you would get different advice: "In general grasses that spread by either rhizomes and/or stolons are the best choices as they tend to repair more easily."

Seedland recommends Kentucky Bluegrass as the grass of choice for dog owners.

But even the best performers unfortunately are not going to be damage-free.  

Dog urine is highly acidic and damage is going to occur no matter what you grow there. If you must let your dog out back, consider following him around with a hose and diluting the spot right after the dog has pee'd with a few seconds of water from the hose.

In theory at least, this would convert the waste into high nitrogen fertilizer that's good for the grass.

Here's one homeowner's way of dealing with it:

1. Pour water where they have urinated
2. Sprinkle plain sugar where the urine spot is. The sugar will add back to the grass what the urine has taken out.
3. Try to contain the dogs to a limited area to eliminate in.

Some products on the market claim to neutralize dog urine from the inside out.  There are conflicting opinions as to how effective they are.  Try the YellowGrass.com (www.yellowgrass.com) website and Sitstay.com.  If you decide to experiment with any of these, please let me know how it works out.