How a cool season lawn behaves in spring and summer is determined in large part by how you cared for it in fall. That said, lawns need some fertilizer even during summer. Milorganite is great for spring/summer IMHO. I would avoid the temptation to try to resurrect your lawn to try to get it looking great. When did you last apply fertilizer?

mishmash

I applied Milorganite at the bag rate on June 21st.

Would you put down another application of Milorganite now?

And would continue (increase) watering or stop watering?

I am not trying to make the lawn look great now, but I am trying to maintain what I have now until the cooler weather starts.

One of my concerns now is I am finding dead or dormant grass laying on top of the lawn after I make a pass with my mower.

I applied Milorganite July 4th. My lawn is looking great but I have had rain and my lawn is made up of improved TTTF/KBG/PRG. If I didn't have rain, I would be content to riding it out with a lawn that was going dormant. I do not get significant losses letting it do so normally and it is back to looking good in the fall. If I were you, I'd put down another Milorganite application mid-August as the summer heat starts to remit, and then synthetic fertilizer applications for the rest of fall.

gle-

Can you post some recent pics of how your lawn looks?

We had about an inch of rain today with temps in the low 60s. Cool and cloudy tomorrow, nice day on Wednesday and a chance for showers on Thursday night or Friday.

Backyard today.

Grass around sprinkler head

Front yard today

50% dormant fescue, KBG blend lawn

Is it tall fescue or fine fescue?

+1. From the one closer sprinkler head pic, your grass doesn't have the look of tttf or kbg IMHO...more like fine fescue. In full sun, FF looks terrible in the summer.

My neighbors across the street who waters everyday for 20 minutes per zone at 4am and again at 7pm looks really nice (I'll post a picture tonight). Based on everything I've read on this forum, I've learned you never water at night. I have modified my watering schedule. I water the front yard for 20 minutes at 4am everyday and for any additional 10 minutes on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.

If it is in fact FF; what are my alternatives short of a complete rehab?

Thanks

If it is in fact FF; what are my alternatives short of a complete rehab?

There are none. It's going to go brown in the summer in full sun, no matter how you water. And, in order to kill it it has to be actively growing, which means you can't kill it until it greens up in the fall.

I can't over-seed with a different blend of grass?

No, the newly seeded grass is not going to able to compete for resources and survive in a mature healthy turf like that. Some of it will take and then you're going to have a bigger mess, clumps of grass of different color and texture growing at a different rate.

@mishmosh

How would you rate PRG for recovery from dormancy? Does it come back 100%? That would be an interesting option for me in the transition zone if I could let it go around July and have it come back in September.

prg sucks. i have improved varieties that i needed a quick lawn after finishing a patio project. trying to transition it over to tttf/kbg but winter was mild so i didn't get thinning. doesn't handle heat as nearly as well as kbg and tttf in my opinion. doesn't look or feel as nice as kbg. i wouldn't recommend it for you

Thank you.

I actually just cut my PRG down to 2" to stress it. Hoping it will thin out that way. Midnight does very well in our heat (only 8-15 days over 90 degrees in most summers) as long as it gets enough water.

The photos are of my neighbors front yard. He waters everyday for 20 minutes per zone at 4am and again at 7pm. Can anyone ID his grass type?

Front Yard

Grass Close-up

Thanks

Looks like yours... fine fescues--only green. So 40 minutes per zone a day? I'd hate to see his water bill!

Joe,

check out the pictures of my lawn vs my neighbors.

What water can do.... lol

But like mishmash says "hate to see that water bill"

gle, is that fungus? I thought you has a fungus going on? or am I confused w another poster?? all that brown is dormancy? Thought you has a lot of Rain?

lisa,

you have it right

what i thought was fungus may have been FF going dormant.

a web search i found said FF likes 1"inch pf water per/wk at 1/2" twice weekly.

i am going to give it a try

i"ll post my results

thanks

I realized my phone said has a lot Lmao :x Have to Love that!