new home new lawn .. advice?

12 years ago

HI i recently just bought a beautiful new home in a subdivision where everyones lawn is picture perfect. this is my first home so i have no idea about lawn care i have a few questions..

first off i live in westchester NY .. 40 mins out of the City

and im stuck between certain blends of grass between the magnificent 3, galaxy and the galaxy plus i really dont know the difference between any of them. is their even a major difference ?? I usually just go to home depot and pick up a bag of scotts. but apparently i found on this forum that the 3 i just mentioned are much better.. I know i want a sod looking darkest green grass so what would you recommend and are these ok for the place i am living in.. i get plenty of sunlight

next my front lawn is .7 acres how many lbs of seeds would i need?

ive been comparing prices based on the websites i found on previous posts on this forum and superseedstore seems very expensive.. should i buy with them? and i found that rose agri seed is way cheeper.. are they also sell sod quality seeds i called today.. no answer

is their another distributor you could recommend that lives up to seedsuperstore quality but cheeper?

last questions.. i know this sounds pathetic but how do you plant grass seeds i thought you just put it in a seeder.. and push it around until your whole lawn is covered and it just grows but someone told me you only do that if their isn't already a lawn existent.. and i would have to pull up all the grass on my lawn and start over with dirt.. i was thinking maybe i can aerate my lawn and seed it like that....

suggestions??

as you can see i have no idea what to do

thank you soo much in advance for your help

Comments (2)

tiemco
12 years ago
OK, so you have 30,000 square feet. KBG is generally seeded at 3 lbs./1000 sq. ft for new lawns, half that for an overseed. So you are looking at 90 lbs for a new lawn, 45 for an overseed. I think it needs to be said, 30,000 sq. ft. is a big job, even for someone who knows what they are doing. Unless you have a sprinkler system, keeping your seeds moist for about a month is also going to be a big job. It requires 3-4 short daily waterings, unless it is of course raining. Were you planning on renovating (killing everything with round up and seeding) or merely overseeding? Seed Super Store is pricey, but the more you buy, the cheaper it gets. There are plenty of other good seed sellers on the internet that offer better prices. Pawnee Butte, AVSeeds, Williams Seed, Rose Agri Seed, Outside Pride, The Hogan Company, etc. Planting grass seed isn't rocket science, but it is a little more involved than just spreading the seeds. I won't get into in now, as I don't know if you are planning on overseeding or renovating. Also you should know the best time to plant grass seed isn't now, it's around Sept. 1 in your location.
dchall_san_antonio
12 years ago
I agree with tiemco. If you already have something green, I would nurse it through this season and when the summer heat breaks, do the reseeding.

With seed you get what you pay for. Good seed costs more because it does not have any weed or 'other crop' seed mixed in with it. Some weed seed is the size of dust so just having 0.01% of it in a bag can lead to immediate weed problems.

Where did you read about those grass seed names? Have we discussed grass seed by name in the past few years? The people who really knew grass seed left this forum. Anyway those do not sound familiar.

I would suggest you hang out here for the next few months learning how to care for your lawn. Practice what you read and in the fall do the seed or renovation. Renovation involves killing your current lawn and starting over. That is a big job and usually only undertaken by those wanting a perfect lawn.
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SD I called Lesco and they gave me a few recommendations. They told me the TMP is their best selling seed - and that is what they sell to most of the landscape companies. They also suggested a Transition Blend after I told them about my concerns on the rocky soil. One of the guys said that if TB won't grow - then nothing will. If I went with the TB, then I would have to mix in some rye. I saw on another post that you used the Lesco TB. I too will not have a sprinkler system. What do you think about the TB vs. the TMP? Have you since switched to TMP? Lesco also mentioned a seed called Fawn and said that this is close to K-31 if I want that type of grass. They said it is a very wide blade fescue. I am not sure I want to go down the K-31 route based on what I have read on this forum. It seems there are other alternatives that would do just as well in my soil and area, but yield a nicer lawn. For the spring planting - If I go with the TB, then I would probably add in 30% annual rye and 20% PR to make my own "contractor mix" but with the better TTTF from the TB. If I go with the TMP, I would probably add in a little AR in since I have these "dirt police" that I have to deal with and 20% PR might not be enough. Any info you can give me on the pros/cons of the two types of TF mentioned above would be very helpful and appreciated. Thanks
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G'Day! For lawn info, i'd start by reading past postings at: http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/lawns/ the lawn care forum. i noticed you list tractors as a favorite topic. Depending on what land you have besides the lawn, you may want to use a tractor-pulled mower, like we use for our pastures. If so, draw the edges of your garden beds and such to suit the curves your tractor and mower can fit. If not, with under an acre to cut, and flat at that, you really could do it with a reel mower - the old fasioned mowers you used to be able to hire a local teenager to do the lawn with for $10--. You'll probably end up with a power mower and an edger/weedeater/weedwhip. If you can, edge your flower beds and such with bricks laid side by side, not end to end; this will provide a wide enough margine you can mow right along and not worry about massacaring the "floppage" (overhanging part of plants.) You may also want to wrap the base of small trees with trunk tape before you accidently scar the bark. A ring of mulch provides a nice mowing-safety margin for trees too, but don't build a "volcano;" mulch should be only 1/2" next to the trunch base, thickening to 1" a foot away and 2" two foot away. Mulch too thick right be the trunck can rot the trunck bark above the root line (trunk and root barks are very different), and shelters wee critters than nibble bark in winter. 'Fraid i know nothing about caring for lawns exept to be sure to get the roots of any weeds. A lot of folk around here disapprove of chemlawn. All that stuff that gets sprayed goes in to the water table, and we who don't live in town pump it back up from our wells. Not so great for folk or our livestock. A perfect lawn is a very unnatural environment. Sure you don't want ot rip the whole thing up and make it all into garden? To each his own. You've got a couple month left to plan. Have fun! -vlad Here is a link that might be useful: GardenWeb Lawn Care Forum
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new home new lawn .. advice?

Comments (2)

tiemco

dchall_san_antonio

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