I have never been, nor do I intend to be overly picky about my lawn but while we were up north for a few growing seasons, my lawn was taken over by a moss which, this year, was a brownish rusty color and not firmly rooted to the ground. So I dug as much of the moss up as I could, planted tall fescue, and covered that with straw while it germinated. As a test, I did one quarter of my lawn a few weeks ago, and it grew into a rich dark green lawn, with grass that had a very hardy look about it. So I did another quarter of the yard today, which nearly finishes the project since parts of the lawn are taken up by raised gardens or trees. I might pick up another small bag and finish it up completely later this week. That was more work than I wanted to do though, but pretty much everything is more work than I want to do these days.
When I lived in the country in Idaho, I had to put in a lawn, since the property was a dozed over landing for an earlier logging operation. Everything was either bare ground, or thistles and weeds. I got a pasture mix, which had several kinds of grasses (including several fescues) and clovers mixed in it, and planted that. The clover is a legume, so it added nitrogen to the sandy soil, and helped the grass tto look nicer. It ended up being a mixture of grass and clover, which was very soft to walk on barefooted, and the horses loved being able to graze in the yard. Even the deer loved it ! I kept the water so that the deer could also drink from the stock tank, since there was no other water closeby for them to get a drink from. We almost always had deer out in the yard or close by, and they even got used to my little dogs, whoalways barked at the deer. Once your grass gets a good start on your property up north, you should have beautiful grass and it will go to seed and spread as well.
I cannot relate to that tall fescue, this is the first time I've heard it so I have to check with Google. The pic looked like a variety of reed that is not a common grass lawn here. What's popular here is the bermuda grass which we have in the front sidewalk and blue grass that is planted in the backyard. But anyway, maybe that tall fescue can be mowed? Some years ago, we saw the frog grass in my sister's house. I liked it for its large round leaves that looked cute for a lawn. We bought half a sack for planting material which we planted in the front yard. We didn't know that frog grass is prolific and it had overtaken almost all the plants in the backyard including the lime and the ginger. My husband said that his edible plants may be smothered by the frog grass so he is removing those near the root area of the plants. Recently, my husband has the desire to remove the frog grass because it keeps so much moisture that may breed bacteria. I don't know, still no final decision on that.
Yes, it's mowed like any other lawn grass. Last year, I patched a few areas of the lawn with another kind of grass, I forget which, that was very thin and wussy, and it didn't survive the winter. Tall fescue is not necessarily any taller than any other grass, since that depends on how often it's mowed, but that's the name of the mixture of grasses. It produces a thicker, hardier looking grass, and I particularly like the rich, dark green color of it.
That sounds like a nice blend. I have mainly crab grass and other weeds here. I have clover, and love that, but unfortunately most of the weed killers kill clover. I'd rather that stay, the deer like it, and stop by to munch on it when they come down the street. I'll have to look into that. I've considered doing away with everything out there and starting fresh.
I have some grass seed that I have been scattering around because I don't have a spreader. I know you are technically supposed to plant in the Fall, but I didn't do it then. It is some unknown brand of Scott seed that is supposed to be for patching and for use in bare spots. I have had some luck with it. I had a spot where my lawn mower was stored and covered during the winter..because we are too lazy too declutter the shed and park it in there. It took nicely there. I have used it in some other bare places..and some seems to be growing and others not.
I've always had better luck seeding in the spring and allowing the new grass to become established and firm enough to withstand the winters. I don't have a spreader either but then, I live on only a half acre, most of which is taken up by my house.