That is some fine fescue...

People often refer to Fine Fescue as if it's a single type of grass.  However, Fine Fescue actually encompasses several different species and subspecies including:  

• Hard Fescue
• Chewings Fescue
• Sheep Fescue
• Slender Creeping Red Fescue
• Strong Creeping Red Fescue

As with any grass, each of these has its strengths and weaknesses--while one may have good shade tolerance, it may have poor heat, drought or wear tolerance.  Additionally, there are differences in the density of these species.  

To be kind, all of this turf could be labeled as "finicky" when speaking in broad terms.  Surviving the temperature and precipitation extremes in our region just isn't easy.  We have seen it get both too thick (think, lost ball), and too thin (as in, dead) for many  reasons.  When you combine the grasses' susceptibility to abiotic stresses, along with weed pressure, disease and insect susceptibility, these areas are anything but low maintenance.

In recent years, we've renovated some areas (such as on #8, 13, and 16) using sod, with pretty good results.  The sod is a combination of 1/3 Hard, 1/3 Chewings, and 1/3 Creeping Red Fescue.  

However, Hard Fescue alone has rated very well in many of the categories these Fine Fescue grasses have been tested for.  Therefore, this fall, we opted to seed a handful of areas with straight Hard Fescue.  Thus far, the results are encouraging as the seed germinated quickly and looks like it will be in good shape to make it through the winter (if we ever have one). 

While this area to the right of #13 might not appear to be a super dense stand of turf, it's likely as thick as we'd want, since lost balls aren't the goal of these naturalized areas.  With a little patience, this will be looking good next spring.