Winter can be hard on lawns, especially on popular warm-season varieties such as Buffalos, Kikuyus and Couchs. Cooler climate areas like the Adelaide Hills might find their lawn doesn’t really thrive in these cooler conditions, having a shorter growing season and loss of colour through winter.
This situation is exactly where our winter-active lawn RTF Tall Fescue shines!
Rhizomatous Tall Fescue is a self-repairing grass that produces a thick, even, soft lawn and thrives in cold climate regions.
Benefits of RTF Tall Fescue
- Stays green all year round
- Thick, lush and soft to touch
- Thrives in cooler conditions - Frost tolerant
- Shade tolerant up to 70% (only requires 3 hours direct sunlight)
- Actively growing all year
- Backed by LSA 10 year warranty
Self - repairing
More than 10 years ago, turf scientists developed RTF Fescue Grass as a superior tall fescue variety with rhizome—rich plants, whose rhizome roots fill in bare spots in a thinning lawn.
A rhizome is a horizontal plant stem most often found underground, which are valued because they send out new roots and shoots, allowing new plants to propagate at a distance from the original plant.
This means RTF Tall Fescue can handle some traffic and repair if it gets damaged. We think it’s well suited to homes with light traffic (small dogs and young kids). With this in mind, if you have a high traffic area (large dogs, active kids) we would recommend to go with a more rapidly-repairing warm season variety such as Eureka Kikuyu, TifTuf Bermuda or Sir Walter DNA Certified.
Heat tolerant
Tall Fescue grass is also more drought tolerant than most other species due to its deep roots. RTF Fescue is one of the deepest rooting cool season grasses available, with roots travel down to 2 metres tapping into water normally not available. Whilst it does not to have the drought tolerance of warm season varieties such as TifTuf Bermuda and Sir Walter Buffalo, it is more drought tolerant than most cool season grasses.
Lawn Solutions Australia has observed how cool season grasses like Tall Fescue would maintain turf quality under drought conditions, and evaluated them after reducing water by 15% and 30%, way below what is considered ideal to maintain quality. RTF Fescue Grass performed better than any other cool season grass during the hottest months of the year, and better than Kentucky and Texas Bluegrass, perennial ryegrass and other tall fescues highly ranked by the National Turfgrass Evaluation Program.
It is this tolerance to reduced watering that also enables RTF Fescue to tolerate heat more than other cool season grasses.
Beware of Rhizomatous Tall Fescue Grass imitators
Since that breakthrough discovery, the Barenbrug Research Program is continuously developing new Rhizomatous Tall Fescue Grass varieties. Lawn Solutions Australia constantly monitors and only uses the latest and most advanced types from this research program.
Other companies have tried to imitate Barenburg’s grasses, but university and independent testing has proven that Barenburg’s is a cut above the competition, being the one grasses to exhibit significant rhizomes and rhizomatous activity.
Backed by a 10 Year Warranty
Any purchase of RTF Fescue Grass, no matter how big or small, is issued with a Lawn Solutions Australia Product Warranty Certificate. This confirms you are receiving genuine RTF Fescue Grass.
If you’re still unsure which variety would best suit your home, don’t hesitate to get in touch with one of our lawn consultants on 08 8577 8826 or email lawn@theturffarm.com.au.
