Drought-Tolerate Bluegrass?

I want to over-seed my lawn in the near future. I would like to know which grass seeds should I use.

Currently, the bluegrass in my lawn is doing OK, and I probably don't want to replace it. But it is kind of thinning out in some areas. I believe this has something to do with the fact that I don't water enough and bluegrass needs a lot of water. Unfortunately, we have occasional water shortage problem in where I live (Northern New Jersey). According to locals, we have watering-ban every three to four years. Seem like I should choose a grass seeds that is drought tolerate.

But I am under the impression that bluegrass doesn't work well with other grasses such as fescus because bluegrass will crowd out other grasses when the condition is good for bluegrass. I may have to stick with bluegrass or something that can grow with bluegrass.

My questions are:

- Is there any drought-tolerate bluegrass, or bluegrass that is "sort-of" drought-tolerate to some degree?

- Any other better choice? (No, I am not going to replace the entire lawn at this point)

Thanks in advance for any suggestion.

Jay Chan

Reply to
Jay Chan
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I live about 8 miles from the Kentucky border and bluegrass doesn't even do well here. Most people are switching to petite fescue around here. It requires less water and has some natural resistance to insect pest. I over seeded for a few consecutive years in the fall and it made a big difference. My lawn retains its green color when most of my neighbor's lawns have gone dormant from the heat. You might want to check out this site for more information:

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Reply to
Vox Humana

In my personal experience, blue does not thin due to low water, but it just goes dormant. As soon as it cools off and moisture returns, it greens up and is again thick. I my experience other factors cause it to thin, like too little sun, bad drainage and other soil problems.

Reply to
Joseph Meehan

Here is some info on drought tolerant grasses:

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Reply to
Sed5555

the fact that bluegrass doesn't suit well in your area gives the fine fescue a chance to establish and win out over the bluegrass.

But I doubt that fine fescue will work in my lawn. I live in bluegrass territory. I am under the impression that bluegrass will crowd out fine fescue in my area if I don't remove bluegrass first (and I don't want to take this dramatic step yet).

Thanks though.

Jay Chan

Reply to
Jay Chan

My lawn only has a thin layer of top soil. This may explain the reason why some area of my lawn is thinning out. I am under the impression that the thin top soil doesn't hold water well, and the bluegrass consequently doesn't get enough water. Therefore, I regard my grass-is-thinning problem as a lack-of-water problem instead of lack-of-good-top-soil problem. I don't know...

I doubt this has to do with lack-of-sun-light. The areas that are thinning tend to correlate with having a lot of sun exposure, instead of lack of sun exposure. I am working on the assumption that plenty-of-sun-exposure combining with lack of watering may be the cause of thinning-lawn. But I can be wrong; the reason is that there are also other factors that may be causing the problem (such as soil compaction caused by heavy snow piled up along driveway and walkway).

If what you said is correct, I should overseed with bluegrass for now. If the local government impose watering-ban, I will just have to let the bluegrass to go dormant, and wait for it to return when they lift the watering-ban. This sounds like a plan to me. Thanks.

Jay Chan

Reply to
Jay Chan

The article said that bluegrass can tolerate drought by going dormant, and it can survive and recover when water becomes available. This sounds good to me. This means I don't need to worry about long term impact of short term summer drought on my bluegrass lawn as long as I will have rain fall later on. And that was basically what the other newsgroup member has already told me here.

I have already found a site that rates bluegrass on their ability to withstand drought (among many other ratings) -- something called national... grass... association or something like that. Now I just have to locate a source where I can order the bluegrass that has good drought rating. Jay Chan

Reply to
Jay Chan

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