# Overseeding with bentgrass instead of fighting it?



## sheepfescue (Jul 29, 2019)

Half of my lawn basically has 50-100% coverage of creeping bentgrass (happens to be the southern half, if that's relevant).

It looks like a puffy, elegant blanket. The areas with bentgrass are so thick that weeds don't grow, and those areas never have ongoing problems like the areas without bentgrass. Even if the areas of bentgrass are prone to random and precipitous patches of dead turf, it recovers within a week and is a brilliant emerald green that is appealing. (I'll admit I do have a problem with *patches* of bentgrass in the lawn).

I'm growing tired of limited success with "northern mixes," so I'm wondering if overseeding the entire lawn with bentgrass will make the whole lawn uniform in appearance?

I feel like getting rid of the bentgrass would be too big of an undertaking to do it properly, and if the whole lawn was like the areas with bentgrass, it would be a zero-maintenance lawn that would look nice, and have very few weeds, and never need new seed or repair because it would repair itself.

I suppose I'm just wondering if anyone out there has overseeded their lawn with bentgrass, and what the results were like?

My soil pH is 7.4, high in Ca, medium Mg, low in PO4 and K. My soil results sheet recommends KBG, but to the best of my knowledge there is not one blade of KBG on my whole lawn (it is FF, PRG, and bentgrass). A while back I did an experiment in a small plot, and I'm fairly certain KBG refuses to grow on my lawn... my point being over the years millions of KBG seeds have been cast on my lawn with zero germination and/or establishment.


----------



## Stuofsci02 (Sep 9, 2018)

KBG is very hard to seed into an existing lawn. For the same reason you mentioned that weeds don't grow, neither will the KBG.

If you want to have a full KBG lawn you probably need to renovate, which or course will kill off the bentgrass. Since you have a lot of bent grass you should count on multiple apps of roundup if you chose to go that route.

Golf course greens are bent grass, so you could do full bent grass too, but you would probably want to renovate to do that too. Bent grass likes to be cut short, so keep that in mind. Personally I would not do it, but it is up to you..


----------



## FuzzeWuzze (Aug 25, 2017)

Someone did a bentgrass renovation here last year i believe, i cant remember their name. But hopefully someone can chime in.

I will say i believe good bentgrass isnt cheap, not something you would want to just throw in a overseed, more likely go full renovation to get all bent.


----------



## rob13psu (May 20, 2018)

Check out @Shindoman renovation. I believe he is doing bent.

Shindoman Lawn Journal


----------



## sheepfescue (Jul 29, 2019)

Thanks for replies. I'll took into the thread on the bentgrass renovation.

As the crow flies I live less than 1-mile and within a "horseshoe"-shaped golf course area (a country club, so presumably they don't cheap out on seed). I'm thinking this is partially why the stuff gets/got into my lawn in the first place... and at least is a little bit factoring in to toying with the idea of a bentgrass renovation. The golf course is quite shady, with massive trees, and I know they are constantly repairing areas of turf beyond what I'd consider normal for any golf course.

Not that bird's aren't anywhere, but the number of birds, chipmunks, and squirrels in the area is extreme, so bringing seed from the golf course is probably a daily occurrence (or at least daily when BG seed is cast on the golf course).


----------



## Shindoman (Apr 22, 2018)

I'm doing a renovation but with a Fine Fescue, Colonial Bent blend. Colonial is an upright growing bent, not a creeping type. Bent and Fescue seem to be the dominant grasses in our micro climate. All the very old lawns in Vancouver are FF/Bent. I've been trying to transition for the last 2 years but it would take forever to eliminate the undesirable grasses so I killed it all. I considered creeping Bent but my local turf expert said you HAVE to cut every day. Prone to 
Disease and thatch buildup. You would be basically maintaining a golf green. 
Good luck.


----------

