Landscapes - Low Maintenance Turf
Less mowing with fewer inputs in the form of nutrients, pesticides, and water. That’s the name of the game for grassed areas in future landscapes. An immense grass breeding effort is going into producing new cultivars and species to meet this challenge.
And as turf growers, the evaluation of new grass species and mixtures is an important brief for our R&D department. The need to reduce the carbon footprint of landscapes generally dictates that we explore grasses that can thrive under low maintenance regimes. This has led to the commercial production of our RTF turf, Crested Hairgrass turf, and 100% Fescue turf.
1. Crested Hairgrass Turf (Koeleria)
Crested Hairgrass produces an extremely dense turf, with a very slow growth rate. This, combined with its low nutrient requirement and low thatch production, means that Crested Hairgrass will make a major contribution to low maintenance landscapes.
We grow Crested Hairgrass turf on contract for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission for use on many of their sites around the UK. Having used Crested Hairgrass successfully to dramatically reduce mowing costs in Europe, the CWGC are now using it in this country in place of ryegrass.
What you first notice about Crested Hairgrass is its attractive colour which is maintained throughout the year. The grass is also very tolerant of drought and high pH.
Crested Hairgrass Turf is made up of 100% Barkoel crested hairgrass – Koeleria macrantha
2. 100% Fescue
100% Fescue turf contains different types of fescues, each of which complement the mixture in some way. For example, chewings fescue tends to be more disease resistant than slender creeping red fescue, and tend to green up faster in the spring. On the other hand, slender creeping red fescue is more drought tolerant and maintains colour and growth better in the autumn and early winter.
Hard fescue and sheeps fescue thrive in very dry and infertile conditions, and as such are well suited to low maintenance landscapes.
Most fescues are intolerant of heavy wear, and so they should only be considered for ornamental and low maintenance areas. Left un-mown the mass of flower heads produces swaths of purple during June and July. This attractive feature of fescues is used to great effect as a background to more formal large-scale landscaping.
Please call us on 01652 678 000 for more information on how and where to use 100% Fescue turf.
The typical seed mixture used in 100% Fescue turf is:
- 25% slender creeping red fescue - Festuca rubra litoralis
- 25% chewings fescue- Festuca rubra commutata
- 25% hard fescue – Festuca longifolia
- 25% sheeps fescue - Festuca ovina