Aeration and overseeding is the best thing you can do for your lawn, but, not right now. Wait till late September, more rain cooler temps, allow new seed to germinate and grow better. Instead of a fungicide, let the disease kill the poorer types of grass, then in Sept. seed your lawn with a more durable seed, the same day as you core aerate.
Best type of seed to use is Turf Type Tall Fescue. TTTF is a little bit thicker than most grasses, but much more durable. If you look at Steveny's picture you can see two thicknesses of grass, the thinner is Perenial Rye grass, a good grass, soft and nice looking, but not durable in the summer. The thicker grass is the TTTF, **notice the dead grass is all thin Rye grass.
If you live near a "Lesco/John Deere Landscapes" this would be the place to get grass seed.
Man, you are an encyclopedia on this topic!
"reel mower" is what I meant by rotary mower. Not much I can do about the shade unfortunately. It's kind of nice too in that we don't have to deck the kids out in sunscreen and hats when they want to play during the day.
There's a John Deere place listed about 11 miles from us. Do you think it's too late in the year at this point to bother planting more grass this year? (New England).
If we do plant more grass, any thoughts on how long to keep the kids off of it before it's rooted and safe to go on? Can we just plant it over the grass that's already there?
What about raking? Is it damaging to the grass to rake it after mowing (with a reel mower)?
If you just throw the seed down on undisturbed soil, less than 10% will germinate.
Wow! Thanks!
I was told if I don't spray it now it will take over my whole lawn! My neighbors is WAY worse than mine and covers about 25% of his now.
put down 1000% more seed and no need for raking.:biggrin::biggrin:
Lol
Do you want a job?
I could use more rocket surgeons like you.:biggrin:
Hey ,this is fun!One more question:redface: Are aeration and thatching mutualy exclusive or complimentary? Do I need to do both?
Ha, heathbar0 is the most popular guy on the forum today!!!
That's funny.
It's called a Garden Weasel, and I own 3! So I am considered 1 step below Hank Hill. My Nsx has no bearing, pick ups are king here.
When I send my employees to core aerate and seed, they all go out with garden weasels in order to get areas where our aerators don't reach.
Yes, that would be an excellent tool to use before you seed.
Just for reference, the wife planted the grass in early April I believe. He's the lawn on 5/26
I don't know as much about warm season grass as I do transition grass, but, from what I know the best way to fix St. Augustine, is to sod. St. augustine is cheap in the sod form. If you wand to seed in the interum, you can use Rye grass to fill in until the St. Augustine fills in. As you probably know, St. Augustine is very invasive(growing into your landscape beds) if you fertilize and aerate these areas, they should fill in eventually, without having to deal with sod. I think insects are your biggest problem. I would suggest contacting your local University extension, thay are usually your best free advice.Man, some great questions and answers here.
I'm in Texas so we have hot summers with very little rain (and when it rains, it REALLY rains). I've got St. Augustine right now but it's definitely patchy on the front lawn. I've been told that to do St. Augustine properly, you need to lay sod, not seed. Any truth to that? Seems to me that, at some point, someone had to use seeds.
My lawn WAS well established but the prior owners left the house sitting for nearly nine months and the lawn was a mess when I got the house. I've managed to get many of the patches to recover in part but I'm getting new spots that are very bare.
I've fertilized the lawn but I have not aerated and I have been watering regularly. I don't think watering at night/evening is an issue here since it stays at about 75*F or higher at nights, so water still evaporates overnight fairly quickly.
Suggestions welcome!
Awesome thread. Especially b/c I need some help! How in the hell do I kill this stuff:
Weed
Tree Sapling?
I'm mowing at 3.5" every week and the above weeds and tree sapling? seems to outgrow the grass by a significant margin. I started pulling them by hand but those damned tree saplings are tough - rarely get the whole things out.
Here's the front a day after mowing:
Front Yard
You can see some of the weeds already growing back.
Just for reference, the wife planted the grass in early April I believe.
I don't know as much about warm season grass as I do transition grass, but, from what I know the best way to fix St. Augustine, is to sod. St. augustine is cheap in the sod form. If you wand to seed in the interum, you can use Rye grass to fill in until the St. Augustine fills in. As you probably know, St. Augustine is very invasive(growing into your landscape beds) if you fertilize and aerate these areas, they should fill in eventually, without having to deal with sod. I think insects are your biggest problem. I would suggest contacting your local University extension, thay are usually your best free advice.
Watering:
Its not the temprature as much as the humidity.
Do you have an irrigation system?
Just for reference, the wife planted the grass in early April I believe. He's the lawn on 5/26
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The lawn 2 months later on 7/27 (it's raining out when this was taken)
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