what city and state are you in?

Can't believe I am going to type this...

But you could just put down rye grass seed. It germinates in about seven days. If you have a way of getting it adequate moisture during that time, you could have a pretty signficant lawn by move-in day.

No real need to use straw either.

Landscaping could have been included in the cost of the house had you thought about it ahead of time. Probably all the wedding plans got into your way (snicker).

Secondly, hay at 3 tons per acre is crazy. I wonder who the genius was that came up with that. No matter what you do or don't do, if you don't water it you will have bare ground or weeds for the season anyway. Are they going to come out and force you to water, too? Did they use the word, 'hay?' You gotta wonder. Hay is full of seeds. Straw is what they meant, but I disagree that you need it at all.

If this is new construction, you really cannot afford not to have it done professionally. You need to have the drainage fixed as well as the surface prepared. This is done in one step with a tractor and box blade. It will take about an hour for a real pro. It will take you weeks to try and do it yourself and you won't get it right.

I suggest you call several landscapers and tell them what you need. The will give you an estimate that includes either bringing in more topsoil or removing excess topsoil, fixing the drainage, preparing the surface, throwing the seed, rolling it down, and strawing. If any of them suggests using something besides a tractor (large rear wheel and small front wheel), pass on them. They will take a week to do an hour's job. If any of them don't suggest rolling the seed, pass on them. Rolling is THE most important part, more important than the straw.

All of them will go cheap on the seed. With seed you actually do get what you pay for. You must INSIST on seed with 0.00 Other Crop and 0.00 Weed. There will also be Inert Ingredients. Don't worry about that. It usually refers to a clay coating on the seed to protect it. You can't get high quality seed at Wal-Mart, but it is not hard to find at a real nursery. The problem is that some of the really aggressive crop and weed grasses have seed that look like dust. They show up as very very small percentages in the seed.

They might suggest you get a sprinkler system installed while they are out there doing it. If money is an issue, forget about that for now. Just get a hose and sprinkler. I like Sears' hoses because they are guaranteed for life (some of them). Any time my dog chews up the hose I get a new one for free. I also like the sweep type sprinklers. They seem to put out the most reliable pattern of water. If you live where the wind blows all the time, a sweep type won't work, but for most it will.

I know this is not what you wanted to read. Something else you don't want to read is that you are going to have a yard full of crabgrass by August. That is because you are seeding in the spring instead of the fall. Plan now to go through all this again in the fall to really have a great, weed free, lawn for next season.

Once the grass is growing, come back here before you mow it and get some more tips and hints.

I'm in PA, in the Coatesville area (Western Chester County).

I wish I could just seed...apparently their concern is with erosion, so I need to install the matting to keep everything in place. The ironic thing is that I could have planted grass seed like you are suggesting a few weeks ago and everything would have been established by now. But, no, they want it done their way. Building this house has been the worst experience in my life...roadblocks and an incompetent township at every turn. I don't even think they will allow hydroseeding which can be done in a matter of hours. Can these mats be purchased anywhere and installed by yours truly?

Yeah, we should have thought about this prior to closing on the construction loan, but I guess I just assume a "turnkey" builder would have taken care of this. And, believe it or not, the wedding is June 7th, so doing both of these at the same time was just insane on our parts. And expensive.

The amount doesn't surprise me since everyone I've dealt with in this township is clueless. They have the power now to have things done their way and they are going to take advantage of that power. We got in trouble earlier for supposedly removing too many trees, so we have to replace them as well before taking occupancy. I have half a mind to cut all the rest of the trees down and let my grass die after moving in just out of spite. Joking, of course ;)
Did they use the word, 'hay?' You gotta wonder. Hay is full of seeds. Straw is what they meant, but I disagree that you need it at all.

The term they used was "hay mulch". I assumed straw too but who am I to question them? Glad to see I'm not the only one who thinks they are nuts. The final grading is all done, but the topsoil is pretty rocky. I have a landscaper coming out on Monday to look things over before giving me an estimate. I really, really hope it's not too high. Hydroseeding will probably cost about $2000 (email quote, not very accurate).

Thanks for the advice on the seed...I'll be sure to ask about that. There's no way I'm putting sprinklers in, so hand watering is what's going to happen. The front yard isn't too big, but the rear is pretty long, mostly taken up by the basin. There will be some trees out there too, so I dunno how much grass will really grow in the future anyway.

Since I'm doing this now instead of the fall, do you think I could just go cheap on this now and have it done right in the fall, or will that just end up costing me more? And is the matting something I can buy and install myself if I decide to forgo the rock hound? Thanks!

Your surface must be in much better condition than I am imagining. I worked in new construction in college and it was nowhere ready to plant grass on until the finish grader came in. When you look at the house at the soil level, you should see a sill plate exactly four inches up from the top of the soil all around the house. Is that what you see? Four inches is a magic number. More than 4 inches is okay but less is inviolable with FHA and the bank. Usually they build the house with that specific 4-inch feature in mind.

No, I don't see that at all. The soil contains a lot of shale and tree roots since the lot was totally wooded before we started construction.

There's no way I'm putting sprinklers in, so hand watering is what's going to happen.

NOOOOOoooooo! You cannot hand water a lawn. You need a sprinkler of some kind. Do you have 1-3 hours per week to stand out there and water? Of course not! You've got a wedding to plan!!

if you want fast grass at low cost, get some rye grass and plant it. water it until it comes up. then you still will have a couple weeks before move in, so get them to see if you need to mulch still or not. they may not require it if you cna show them a fairly established lawn. then later when you have both the time and the money, kill off the rye and plant your real lawn. i know, i know, i know, rye is nto the grass for a long term lawn, but it IS great to establish a lawn to meet certain local hooligan's desires.

as stated, pick up a couple sprinklers and hoses. also, you may want to pick up a couple of hose timers. for 30.00 or so, they can automatically cut the hoses on and off each day or every few days. this will save you having to go cut them on then come back a few hours later to cut them back off.

OK, I can get sprinklers I suppose, but not a subsurface sprinkler system just yet. I have a couple of outdoor hose bibs I can use to hook up some kind of sprinkler.

I'm not sure the township will go for just planting seed. I believe the plan laid out by the engineers is pretty specific as to what they want and I don't see them deviating. And even if I could seed I don't know that the topsoil is even suitable at this point. This is killing me, financially and mentally.

What does having a seeded lawn before moving in have to do with you being allowed an occupancy permit? If the lawn dies or looks like hell, what happens then?

I don't see why they wouldn't allow hydroseeding, and that would personally be my choice. Besides sod, which is far too expensive, it's a much better option than just bare seeding.

The township/county has the power to withhold the occupancy permit until things are to their liking and they are taking advantage of that power. Basically, if they want it I have to do it. Once we move in we can do whatever we want. There are big concern over runoff and erosion I guess. It's really annoying.

It's really annoying.

It sure is. After thinking about it, go for the annual ryegrass and beat 'em at their own game. Then seed a nice lawn this fall with the grasses you want. The ryegrass will be in lousy shape by that time, particularly if you treat it badly. At least it'll act as a bit of a cover crop and green manure to give you some organics in the soil.

Sidenote: No, this isn't the typical advice I'd give, but this is a clear case where time and a stupid rule are both against the poster.

Okay clearly your construction zone does not look like most new construction. All the construction zones I've seen looked like hills and craters and needed to be leveled simply to walk on.

I like the rye grass idea, too. It is going to be crabgrass no matter what you do at this time of the year. Just get something cheap to make the boss happy and redo it after the honeymoon (in the fall). This is exactly why communism never really worked.

A couple of things could go wrong with this plan. You could accidentally get bermuda or bentgrass growing.

Ohhhhh, oh, oh, oh! Wait a minute. Here's another idea. Buy the minimal amount of seed to make them happy. If they are not looking, don't use any seed at all. Then apply STRAW at a rate of 3 tons per 1,000 square feet (instead of per acre). This should prevent weeds and will give you a deep mulching effect for the next several months until you can get to seeding properly. See if that flies with the stormtroops down at the township. If not, then back to the rye. Be sure to find pure rye with no "weed" or "other crop" seed in it. Those terms are used on the guaranteed analysis part of the seed bag. Look for 0.00 of both. You'll pay more but it is worth it.

Yep, if the straw idea works that's a great idea.

Fortunately, any Bermuda will usually die during our winters and it doesn't have an advantage here, so it's easy to outcompete with almost anything else. Bentgrass is another story, but it doesn't do well when not watered and left to go through a hot PA July.

I'd still go with good annual ryegrass, though, to minimize the Poa trivialis in the mix. That stuff's eternal around here.

Of course, ANNUAL rye! Well, duh! I wasn't thinking of that. Both of those grasses are annual in my neighborhood, heh, heh, so perennial is used a lot around here as "winter rye."

Will annual rye sprout for you in the spring?

Will annual rye sprout for you in the spring?

In five to seven days at decent temperatures, yes. The OP should have a visible lawn in 2 weeks and a decent looking one in a month or less.

Unwatered and unfed, it should start to fade in July and be really bad in August, just in time to add the permanent lawn. Assuming a typical summer...if it rains a lot, it could be quite thick, but a shot of Round Up will go a long way.

Seven333,

We're almost neighbors!

I live south of you in Chester County, down near the borders with Maryland and Lancaster County (Lots of Amish buggy traffic in my neighborhood!)

My father-in-law lives in the Coatesville area too (geographically, he is closer to Downingtown) and he tells me that the rules, regulations and taxes there are nuts.

I'll restate what I previously wrote and agree with Morph and David that Rye is your best bet. I can't believe they'd gig you on not putting down straw, if you already have a lawn come move in day.

seven

i feel your pain - I am going through this very issue right now. We call them the "dirt police" and I hate them. In my county, we had to post a bond for erosion and sediment control. I have been in the house for 4 months - still don't have the bond back. But I think i am close to getting it back thanks to this forum.

In order for us to get the CO - we had to have seed and straw down. That was done last fall - but we were coming off a horrible drought. Some of the grass took - but we had a lot of bald spots. The dirt police allowed us to occupy - but kept the bond until we met their standards (which they do not have written down anywhere - very frustrating).

3 weeks ago, i aerated and seeded with a fescue & perrenial rye mix. I also seeded with annual rye in places where we were having erosion "issues" as they saw it - minor runoff the way i saw it (I live on the side of a mountain - water has to run downhill).

The annual rye pops up very quickly with just a little water. It is cheap seed - I bought 50 pounds at Lesco for 30 dollars. In all the spots where the dirt police were picking on, I put down quite a bit of the AR. It has filled in nicely and in a few weeks I will call the DP's back and hopefully that will be the end of them.

The dirt police recommended that we use Kentucky 31 grass which they like for controlling erosion (the sell it at home depot). It grows very fast and is drought resistant. I opted to not use it since it is an unattractive grass, I would have to kill it before replanting, and I had some fescue grass growing already so I did not want a hodge podge. However, if you need a lawn fast and your dirt police won't accept all rye grass you might want to think about the Kentucky 31.

Our dirt police told us that they will allow a mix of rye and other grasses but will flunk us if we only have rye growing. They know it will die (after all - they are the dirt police!) I recommend calling your local DP department and make sure that they will accept all rye grass. If yes, then go with the rye since it is cheap and fast. If not, think about the kentucky 31 as an alternative and only use the minimum required to get in. Then start over in the fall.

For those who don't have to deal with dirt police, consider yourself lucky. It is a horrible feeling when all you want to do is move on and these gestapo have so much control over your life. It is added pressure when you need to create a lawn and you have limited funds and time to do so.

Good luck.

Wow, great advice everyone! I just found out that hydroseeding will be acceptable instead of straw and matting, so that's a minor victory. I'm now trying to find out why they just won't accept seeding with something like rye or another fast growing variety. Part of me wants to just do this without their permission, but like sniffdog said the dirt police wield a lot of power in Chester County before you take occupancy. In fact, we needed to get permission from them before removing any trees in out tree-filled lot before construction started. We didn't know we had to do this and have gotten in pretty big trouble and now we have to replace the "missing" trees even though there is no evidence of what was actually removed. It's very frustrating...we just want to move in and get ready for the wedding. I still need to get all the rocks removed from the soil or I don't think anything will really grow.

Seven333,

That is just crazy about the Dirt Police.

I moved into new construction in November 2003 in Southwest Chester County.

Clearly, nothing was growing in my front yard the rest of that Fall or Winter. In fact, my neighbor's called my front yard "The Beach" until I was able to get something growing in June of 2004.

It could be that my town is more laid back about this. The builder, of course, put down seed a week before move in day. But nothing was growing and the town didn't seem to care.

Of course, that could have been because the builder's family has lived in this area for about 300 years and is related to most of the township officials. (I'm not kidding about that).

This has been the biggest headache just reading.
Wouldn't want to be you. Hope it all works out.
Sure wish you could get a temporary lawn now so you could do it right in fall.

Do you have an "As Seen On TV" store in the area? If so:

ULTRA LAWN

{{gwi:87645}}

I know, I know, bad joke! I'm just thinking of more options.

I had a relative run into a similar problem. Obviously, some local governments go overboard, but the general idea is that you need some sort of erosion control established. The rule is written with big builders in mind, but it applies to everyone.

Frankly, I suggest you seed and put out the straw. Seed is fairly cheap and you are going to have to get that anyway. I'm no straw expert, but you can get bales at any box store. I would estimate they weigh 40 lbs. If you put out 1-2 bales per 1000 sq ft, that is in the ballpark of 1 ton per acre. You can probably get them cheaper if you buy in bulk from a landscaper or mulch company.

This is something that could tie you up for months and months. It is probably worth the couple hundred bucks for straw to get the matter settled and behind you.

They key is that you need to get the dirt police to define what success is. In my case, there were no published rules with specifics on how tall the grass had to be, how may blades per square foot or the acceptable type of grass. But clearly the inspectors have a standard in mind when they do their evaluations.

I got fed up when I failed my first bond release inspection, so I went to the top of the erosion control department and had the deputy director come out to my lot and tell me exactly what we needed to do. Once I had success defined, then I followed through with what they wanted to see. We will be calling that same person back out to look at the lot before we call in the second bond release inspection. We actually had to pay an additional $500 to get our bond released - and that fee covers 2 inspections. If you fail both, you need to cough up another $500. What a racket.

Hydroseeding sounds great but I thought that was expensive? I know that to seed and straw my 1.5 acre of cleared area, the excavator charged me $1500 which I thought wasn't bad considering how expensive good grass seed is. I seem to recall that hydroseeding that same area would have cost around $5000.

You might want to weigh both options. Having the straw to protect the grass and hold in moisture during the summer is a good idea.

Hydroseeding is more expensive than seed/straw/matting? I was lead to believe it was the other way. Anyone know for sure? Thanks.

There's no way I'm putting sprinklers in, so hand watering is what's going to happen.

LOL... it takes me about 90 minutes of my time every morning of hand watering to put down a 1/4" of water on my 2000 sq. ft. front lawn that I seeded three weeks ago with the Galaxy Plus KBG (Kentucky Bluegrass) blend.

I'd much rather use a hose-sprinkler system but the shape of my property is very odd being on the round end of a cul-de-sac and I haven't figured out an orientation yet that doesn't put at least 1/3rd of the water on the street instead of the lawn. Besides, I'm more paranoid about over/under watering sections than being late in the morning.

Now that it's coming in a little fuller now, I might be able to do a switch over soon - especially considering that starting next sunday I need to change the watering plan again.

Speaking of which, bestlawn, where is the link to that watering schedule you put out every other day... ;-p I can't ever find it when I look for it and every time I think I have it bookmarked I can't find that either, heh.