If you’re going to RENOVATE, which is starting from scratch, NOW is the time to do it, because you need to kill off your existing lawn and weeds with Roundup®.  It’s best if you can make two applications of Roundup. If you’re going to OVERSEED, you’ve got a few weeks to prepare, but the EARLIER YOU START, THE BETTER YOUR RESULTS!   Basically, you overseed decent turf, and you renovate crappy turf.

 

Typically, we start re-seeding in early to mid-September, because grass seed will germinate rapidly with warm soils. Cool nights help keep the soil uniformly moist. But, the summer of 2010 has been a monumentally dreadful season for growing turf and ornamental plants.  If this cool weather (85F day / <60F night) hangs around, then screw the calendar!  Get ‘er done!  We’ve already started our commercial reseeding.  But if it gets hot and humid again, we’ll have to protect or turf “babies” with fungicides.

 

Why RENOVATE? If your lawn “sucks”, then it’s better to kill it off and start over. If you can see the soil on over 40% of the surface, your lawn sucks. Time to do something drastic.  If your yard is mostly weeds…your lawn sucks.  Kill it and start over.  Or, at least spray Roundup on the weedy patches.  Solid patches of turf that have survived this bitch-o-season need not be destroyed!  That’s tough turf! 

 

Why OVERSEED?  Adding new and improved varieties into an existing turf sward will allow you to improve your turf, more slowly than renovation, but it’s less destructive. Coupled with core aeration, renovation can enhance quality tremendously.  Core aeration literally pokes hundreds of thousands of holes in your soil.  Those holes increase the oxygen supply to the roots, which is critical because of our heavy clay soils.  In addition, the cores that are left on the soil surface actually melt down on top of “thatch.”  That soil is loaded with a microbial population that is hungry for thatch.  AND, the soil cores will actually crumble/smash down atop the seed that you’re spreading, helping that seed emerge faster. 

 

Can you use a “dethatching machine”?  You can use a “dethatcher” to work your lawn over. This is an old-fashioned machine that basically just beats the hell out of the turf. You need to set the spinning metal tines so that the only cut 1/8” deep groves in the soil. It works best if you scalp the grass first.  If you can set your mower at 1.5 inches, that’s scalping!  Especially if you’ve been cutting at 3.0 to 3.5 inches all summer.  Clean up the mess before you spread grass seed.  WARNING:  this method is labor intensive (but usually worth it).  Zoysiagrass swards benefit from this every 3 to 4 years or so.  We recommend that you core aerate, versus using the dethatcher.  Read on.

  

COMPLETE RENOVATION TIPS (For crappy lawns!):

1) Kill the lawn section with Roundup ASAP. Don’t mow before spraying! Roundup will work better with all the fresh, succulent tissues to absorb and translocate more herbicide to the roots. Don’t be a tight wad with the Roundup. Buy the concentrate and add 50% to double the dose on the label. Be sure you buy “plain” Roundup.  Don’t use the “extended” control or the “fast-acting” varieties!  Use a hose-end sprayer and be careful that you don’t create a lot of mist, which will float to your favorite ornamentals.

 

2) After four to seven days scalp the lawn with a mower.  Call the underground utility marking service on the same day you spray with Roundup.  Call 1-800-DIG-RITE.  It’s free and they want 10 days advance notice. You really want to cut the cable lines, especially your neighbors’ cable.  Mark your own hazards, too, like irrigation heads and underground doggie-shock lines.  Dog lines are usually deep enough to avoid damage, but that damn cable company is LUCKY to bury their lines 1 inch deep.  Those bastards!  If by chance your machinery cuts a cable line, don’t let them bully you into paying for repairs.  Them A-holes are supposed to put their cables ~6 inches deep…RIGHT!  Seriously, tell them you’ll call the Attorney General, if they try to screw you out of your money.

 

3)     WHAT TYPE OF GRASS SHOULD YOU USE?  For non-irrigated, sunny swards, turf-type fescue is the best type of seed to use.  About 35% of the swards in the transition will do best with this type of seed, especially for new subdivisions, lacking larges shade trees.  It is by far the best of the cool season species for full sun without irrigation.  But, the best turf for deep shade is a blend of three very shade tolerant, fine-bladed fescues:  meadow fescue, sheep’s fescue and creeping red fescue.  If you haven’t had much luck growing turf-type fescue in non-irrigated shade, try the 3-way fine fescue mix.  THE Turf Guys are promoting Winning Colors Plus, a blend of three VERY HIGH performing turf-types plus a medium green bluegrass, that’ll fill the divots and holes caused by disease, moles and voles!  A pure bluegrass sward is a thing of beauty…but bluegrass is picky.  If you don’t have an irrigation system, forget it.  Bluegrass doesn’t like FULL sun.  If you’ve got a yard that has 20 to 40 year old shade trees, that provide up to 6 hours of shade in each “ecosystem,” you can probably grow bluegrass.  The newer varieties are a hellofa lot tougher than they were just 15 years ago.  If you’re not sure, go with our Winning Colors Plus blend…turf-type PLUS bluegrass.  The bluegrass will grow where it’s happy, and the turf-type fescue varieties will grow where they’re happiest.  Talk about a win-win!

 

5)      Get a soil test if you’re having problems growing grass in the shade!  The proper pH (soil acidity), phosphorous and potassium levels may help you out…and most shady soils have acidic soil and low fertility.  Those tree roots are competing for more than sun and water.  Tree roots will scavenge all the P and K in the topsoil, causing low fertility.  THE Turf Guys offered you a free soil test–did you take us up on our offer?  NOPE!  YOU’RE A DOPE!

 

6) After you you scalp the dead leaves look and see how many new weeds have emerged within a week. More than likely you’re going to see how inept you were on your first pass at nuking the lawn – retreat with Roundup, if necessary. If you see tiny weeds sprouting and green tissue all around, retreat the entire area. Trust us, it’s worth the extra time, energy and money spent to start with a weed free area.

 

7) Five days after the second application, rent a “verti-slicer” or “slicer-seeder”. This machine cuts a grove into the soil, and then drops seed into the grove. Having good seed-to-soil contact will dramatically enhance germination and establishment. There is no need to set the blades any deeper than 1/8th inch deep!

 

If you can tend to all these tasks, and have the seed in the ground by mid-September, you will be rewarded with a fabulous lawn. It will be green and thin this fall, but lush and full by next May –- a real “award winning” situation.  We want you DONE by October 1st.  You’ve get a 95% chance of success if you’re complete by this date.  After October 15th, Bill and I don’t take any aeration & overseed or renovation requests.

 

 

OVERSEEDING TIPS (WHAT MOST OF YOU NEED TO DO):

1) New turf varieties are more disease and heat tolerant than older varieties.  That’s why you should overseed every couple of years.  But, the summer of 2010 hasn’t really given you a choice!

 

2) Cut your lawn successively lower from 3.5 inches down to 2 inches. Don’t do it all it once folks, because the resultant hay will interfere with your seeding.  If you can bag, we recommend that you cut it every day, lowering the deck on the mower over 2 to 3 cuttings.

 

3) Rent a core aerator, which pulls a plug of soil, approximately ½” wide by 2 to 3” deep.

 

4) Get your BROADCAST SPREADER out of the garage (if you’re still using that rusted-out, nasty-ass old drop spreader, get rid of it), set the opening around ½ to 5/8ths inches for turf type fescue, ¼ inch for bluegrass. Spread 25% of your total seed on the turf BEFORE you make your first pass with the aerator.  Concentrate on the really barren areas with the first pass of seed.

 

5) Make 1-2 passes with the aerator.

 

6) Spread another 25% of your seed.

 

7) Make another two passes with the aerator, perpendicular or diagonally to the first pass.  All the plugs that you pull out of the ground are valuable!  They’re covering up seed, in addition to providing more air to the grass roots.

 

Spread the last 50% of your seed.  If you followed directions, you made at least two passes in good turf, and as many as 4 to 5 passes in your problem areas.  All the seed that falls into the bored holes, and all the seed that ends up under a “melted” core, will germinate rapidly.

 

10) Leave the soil cores where they are – the microbes in the soil help break down the thatch. The bored holes enhance water penetration into your soil. 

 

11) This method is the BEST, but if you’re short on time and labor, just aerate the crap out of the yard (as many times as you can), and follow it up with no less than 4 lbs/M of turf-type fescue seed.  This method is perfectly suitable, and will save you a lot of time.

 

If you know your ACTUAL SWARD SIZE, and you have a decent spreader, you can safely apply “regular” fertilizer, at a maximum of 1.0 lb N/M.  Our 25% N covers 12.5M.  You don’t really need a ”starter formulation”, which is nothing more than a lower nitrogen-higher-phosphorous formulation of fertilizer.  Most of us have HIGH soil phosphorous, anyway.  In our blast of the week of August-16, we advised you to go ahead and apply your N before seeding.   

  

Crucial to your success is seeding at the right rate. For NEW SEEDING or RENNOVATION with turf-type fescue and shade fescue use 8 to 10 lbs of seed per 1,000 sq ft, and 3 lbs bluegrass.  For OVERSEEDING use 4-5 lbs of turf-type fescue per M, 5 lbs of shade fescue blend, and 1.0 to 1.5 lbs/M of bluegrass.