hard fescue

By Jillian Turbeville

Consumers looking for lower-input lawns can struggle to find good grass seed options. Hard fescue is well suited for low-input turf, but relatively little of its seed is produced in the United States, with production concentrated in the Pacific Northwest. Expanding seed production into northern Minnesota could help increase domestic supply while creating a new opportunity for regional seed growers. My master’s research in Roseau, MN focused on this opportunity by exploring whether hard fescue could fit into regional seed production using establishment practices already familiar to growers.

By Gary Deters

By Jillian Turbeville

By Jillian Turbeville

Last year I had the privilege of traveling up to northern Minnesota, nearly ten miles south of the Canadian border, once every month between May and October. These road trips took me six hours from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities campus to the quaint town of Roseau. Best known for its snowmobile manufacturing and as a destination for hunting and fishing, Roseau stands out more uniquely to me for its agricultural aspects. As a graduate student, I am invested in learning about this unique ecoregion that provides ideal conditions for cool-season turfgrass seed production.

Learn more about our research! A new, open access article by Florence Sessoms, Dominic Petrella, Gary Deters, Jillian Turberville and Eric Watkins has been published in Crop Science. Their study examined turfgrass mixtures and how the mixtures performed after short drought and recovery periods.

Breuillin-Sessoms, F., Petrella, D., Deters, G., Turberville, J., & Watkins, E. (2025). Response of cool-season turfgrass monocultures and two-way mixtures to sequential acute drought periods. Crop Science, 65, e21385. doi.org/10.1002/csc2.21385

By Jillian Turbeville

When it comes to lawn management, droughts in the Midwest have become a topic of concern. Generally, homeowners will mow their lawn in a scheduled manner (once a week) or based on grass growth rate (⅓ rule), but should we mow based on how stressed the grasses are? Although this can be partially unrealistic, having a basic understanding of how your lawn responds to times of heat and drought in summer may help keep your grass greener for a longer period of time. 

By Jillian Turbeville