It's a nice blend of fine fescues, but it's being sold for at least 2-3 times what the seeds would cost if you bought the individual seeds and blended them yourself.

Very interesting... So where would a regular consumer get the following fine fescues to blend themselves...

Sheeps Fescue
Lifine Slender Fescue
Navigator Creeping Red Fescue
Jasper II Creeping Red Fescue
Longfellow II Chewings Fescue
Heron Hard Fescue
Chariot Hard Fescue

I bought Sheep fescue and Creeping red fescue at Round Butte Seed last fall. It didn't specify Jasper for the creeping red, but that's what it was. I didn't look for the hard and Chewings fescues because they're really not a good choice here. I can poke around a bit and find some suppliers.

Where are you located? Sheep fescue is probably not all that good a choice for much of the country. That's another reason to make your own blend.

Also, depending on where you are, the cultivars they've listed may not be the best for your area. They're trying to put together an all around blend that can be sold anywhere, but a blend that is specific to your location would be even better.

Thank you BPGreen!

I am in Zone 6a, probably right on the edge of 5B. (I know my SIL an hour away is a 5B).

I like the idea with Eco Lawn that it roots deep and does not need frequent watering. I agree though, that some of the grasses in the blend are probably not benificial in my area!

Any help would be appreciated!

Zone 6B/5B doesn't tell me much. That only tells me what the coldest winter temperatures are in your area.

I need to know approximately where you live (state and really general area of the state, especially if it's a large state; city or metro area would be best or at least something like Southwest corner/middle/northeast corner etc of the state would be better than just the zone) and something about your soil conditions--sandy/loamy/clay, acidic/alkaline, etc.

Right now, for all I know, you could be my next door neighbor, living in desert conditions, with snows as late as mid May and as early as early October. Or you could be someplace with high humidity, rain all summer, rarely seeing snow after March or before late November.

I like the idea with Eco Lawn that it roots deep and does not need frequent watering.

Pardon me for being amused but every grass will grow deep roots if you water deeply and infrequently. Deep infrequent watering is standard advice on this forum.

Need to know where you live.

'every grass will grow deep roots if you water deeply and infrequently."

To an extent, yes, but some types of grass will grow deeper roots than others. KBG will grow roots deeper than most people realize, but tall fescues and most fine fescues will generally grow deeper roots than KBG.

Not all of those fine fescues deal with lack of water in the same way. Sheep fescue can get by on the least of any of those, but it probably has the shallowest roots. Instead, its roots grow very extensively laterally and it uses other mechanisms (very slow growth, very fine, waxy rolled leaves that prevent water loss, etc). It has shallower roots than KBG, but they're fine and there are a lot more of them (despite being shallower and finer, the total density of sheep fescue roots is greater than KBG roots.

Sorry about that, we are just north of Toronto, still in the GTA ;-)

Oh. I didn't realize you were in Canada. I think there are some issues with shipping seeds over the border.

The closest NTEP ratings I can find are for Ithaca, NY, so I'll use those to try to get you the best cultivars.

And I was wrong about sheep fescue. It's adapted to a much larger area than I realized. I don't think it's used for turf very often, though. I'm using it because it can survive on so little water.

Here is a link to a seed company in Canada. Toll Free: 800-661-4769

I don't know if they sell to the public, but they should be able to direct you to a retail outlet.

They don't have a lot of options for varieties, but the ratings that I could find were comparable to what is in EcoLawn. The only ones I might be concerned about are the Azay and Azay Blue. I think they're closer to blue than green, but the fact sheets on Pickseed's site say they can be used along with the others (and one or the other may be what is in EcoLawn).

I know we can get EcoLawn in Canada, you are right about trouble shipping seed, basically the company has to be approved, but EcoLawn is and we have a few distributors for it here...

I am very interested in just getting some seed though that is similar to Eco Lawn if it will work. I don't like the sounds of paying 2-3x more then the seed is worth!

Thanks for the website, it was very interesting and a great source for various types of grass seed and what they are like.

But, pickseed does not sell directly to the public, infact, they only deal with one other company, suregro, which also does not deal with the public, they sell to large accounts such as CIL, Home Depot, and other big box retailers... Both name brand seed and store brands... Seems that Pickseed and Suregro are behind most seed sourcing / production for all of at least Eastern Canada... Talk about a monopoly...

So, I am still left wondering where I may source individual varieties of grass seed at a reduced cost to just buying EcoLawn... I'll have to have a look around. But a bag of 100% Sheeps Fescue or Creeping Red Fescue for my own blending may be harder to come by then I hoped...

I'd also point out that you probably will want to keep the sheep fescue to a fairly low percentage if you make your own mix. If you can't find a place to get them individually and make your own, EcoLawn may be the way to go for you. If you have a small lawn, you might get hit with repackaging fees to get smaller bags of the individual varieties if you can find a source, so maybe EcoLawn wouldn't turn out to be such a bad choice in the end.

Our property is around 45 feet by 125... On yhat of course is the driveway and the house and of course my gardens;-)

The lawn is just about a write off... I will likely overseed this year due to cost, but next year I want to totally replace it...

A part of me is curious as to if this sort of low maintenance lawn seed could be a viable business...

I know someone is distributing eco lawn as a home based business in Hamilton, Ontario... Although I can see the big guys coming along and squashing the little guy soon... We have a store called Crappy Tire, Big box retail that is starting to advertise a similar type of lawn, just noticed it today actually...

You folks are funny - everyone is "assuming" that the source of EcoLawn must be a US company. Wrong! EcoLawn is from Wildflower Farms, which is from the town/hamlet of Warminster, near Orillia, ONT. It's about 75 mi North of Toronto.

Please note that when grown according to the specifications given by the company, you need to do a FULL OVERSEED every other year.

Oh Geez, that is hilarious!!!

I can actually go visit it myself! duh!! And here I thought I was going to have to worry about customs and a whole lot of other stuff to get my seed!!

Sorry. I should have been more clear. I knew all along that they were in Canada. I trying to find other options to save you some money making your own mixture. That was why I said maybe EcoLawn wouldn't turn out to be such a bad choice. I thought you knew that also, or I would have said that it might be a good choice because of location.

No need to be sorry BPgreen!

I am rather intrigued by the prospect of perhaps making my own blend... Just not sure where I would source all the different varieties, but it is an interesting idea! For now though, I think I am going to go with Eco Lawn... I am looking through some of their wild flower seeds right now too and I am getting rather excited ;-) They have some really neat ones ;-)

Actually, I'm glad I did some of the searching. I've been overseeding my back lawn with sheep fescue and fine fescue and discovered that I can get a mix for less than getting the individual varieties and mixing them myself.

Here is Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. With this Eco-Lawn, we wasted a lot of money and time, and failed. This grass appears to be extremely thin and weak. It cannot even tolerate Ottawa's summer heat. Think twice before you start to convert your lawn to this type.