how to get a thicker and greener lawn

johnaw

15 years ago

I am going to sow my lawn and would like to know what would be the best grass seed to use?

It is in full sun and clay soil.

What type of seed should I use?

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Comments (5)

johnaw
Original Author
15 years ago
I forgot what would be the best time to do this? Sow Grass Seed.
bergenjersey
15 years ago
Best time to do this is probably mid to late august. That will give your grass start to come in before the frost.

Until then, do a soil test to see if you need to amend your soil. Check for compaction and aerate just be fore you overseed if necessary.

As for which seed, that's going to depend on the grass you currently have for the most part if you're overseeding. If you're starting from scratch it's different.

Some good places to buy and get information on different types of grass are Rose Agriseed and Pawnee Butte Seed

A good watering schedule (deep and infrequent), along with proper feeding and good mowing practices (mulch mow, keep grass long, never mow more than 1/3 the length) will help you get a thick green lawn.
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The part of Oak Park I live in is not the high crime rate, low property value area. But lets stick to the lawn care please. On on overseeding, so I need to rake out or dig out the brown spots before laying down the overseed to the existing lawn? Also, as of today, I am starting to see tiny new lawn sticking out, so I guess the seeds (or at least some of them) did germinate properly. It's probably helping that I have a shade tree over the entire lawn so it doesn't get as hot or as dry when it's 90 outside. And I didn't see any suggestions on how to get rid of those weeds I pictured. What kind of plant is that and can I put something down that targets that plant?
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If you showed them a picture of that and they told you it was Marathon, I would take that as a clue and never visit them again. This is a coarse bladed grass with a light green color. Marathon is a fine bladed grass with a deep green color. From here that appears to be St Augustine. It is very shade tolerant, in fact it almost needs a little shade to really thrive. You cannot get St Augustine seed. It spreads about 10 feet per year, so you don't really need seed once you have a little bit of it. Before I can tune up your practices, I need to know what you've been doing. There's no sense spending a lot of time telling you things you already know. Where do you live? (SoCal is a diverse place ranging from Indio to Lake Arrowhead to Palmdale to San Clemente. And don't say, LA, because nobody lives in LA. You have to be pretty specific due to temperatures, humidities, and wind. West Covina is different from Pomona believe it or not. Can you post a picture of the entire lawn showing the thin spots? How have you been watering (duration and frequency)? Most noobs get this very wrong - and so do a lot of old timers. If you have fertilized since you moved in, what did you use and how often? Have you used any herbicide, insecticide, or fungicide? If so, when and what? Would you characterize your soil as hard? ...and I mean when it is wet.
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I believe we have primarily kentucky blue grass. The grass in our back yard is in better shape than the grass in my front yard. I have been doing a lot of work on the grass in the front yard. I run an organic lawn care program. To do so, first you stop using chemicals on your lawn. I fertilize several times a year with organic lawn food like soybean meal, alfalfa meal, etc. Yes, I am out there pushing a spreader. I also applied corn gluten meal to the front bed as a preemergent this spring. You have to apply it before the forsythia bloom in order for it to be effective, and you want to apply it when there are going to be five dry days in a row. Last summer I had tons of weeds (I think prostrate knotweed) in my front bed, and I spent hours upon hours hand pulling it to try to prevent it from going to seed. I also have been treating both lawns twice a year with milky spore to try to prevent japanese beetles. Last fall, I had skunks digging in the grass for grubs, so on the advice of the garden center, I applied Milorganite and Molemax, which seemed to be effective in getting rid of the skunks. I also use my weed hound every spring especially but all summer too to get rid of dandelions and other weeds. I don't envision getting rid of any more of the front lawn. I also have the lawn service remove the grass cuttings in the spring instead of leaving them on the grass because of the weed seeds. For the back yard, the grass is in better shape so I am just fertilizing and applying milky spore back there. I may do the corn gluten meal next spring, too. Right now we have a big swingset with rubber tire mulch under it. I figure we'll have it for another four years. Then I want to take it out and turn it into a beautiful potager. I do worry a bit about what chemicals may have leached out of the rubber tire mulch and into the soil, but I'm sure I will use raised beds with fresh garden soil, and really, it's probably no more chemicals than what you buy at the grocery store. The only exception to my organic lawn care program is that I have a patch of evil creeping charlie that I am trying to eradicate. I read the the best time to do it is in the fall when the leaves are sending nutrients down to the roots, so I sprayed them with Weed B Gone max last year and I will do so again this fall.
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@gle2011: I think shallow is relative. Some grasses have roots 2 and 3 ft deep. If you mow your KBG at 4" the roots will be about 4". If you mow it at 2" your roots will be about 2". I think the idea is to maximize the root depth by mowing high and encouraging the roots to reach down where the water is, not curl up and form a thatch mat while looking for shallow water. I think your site is vague about how dry the surface might become before needing more water. A lot of us have looked around and see our neighbors watering every day, doing everything wrong, yet having none of that brown straw mixed in with the green blades. If the search feature of this forum weren't so pathetic, I might be able to find my post on this subject. If I recall correctly, morpheus said that you might have to give up a little green in the summer heat but you gain resistance to many other problems. Personally, I have yet to see one of these neighbors' lawns crash and burn due to poor watering. On the other hand, I lost a few patches to fungus while doing everything "right"! I'm going to water an inch once a week whether it needs it or not next season to observe any difference.
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bergenjersey
15 years ago
I screwed up the html. Seedland.com is another place to look for seeds.
rcnaylor
15 years ago
Seed in the fall.

In the mean time, use the search function here to learn the many tricks of the trade contained in this forum's Frequently asked questions and archives.

There is so much that will make your new project easier and more successful you can't even believe it. But, you have to do a crash course on lawn growing 101 if you want to have that greener thicker lawn you say you want.

The good news its mostly knowing and following some simple basics CONSISTENTLY.

Good luck.
markinspringborooh
15 years ago
I agree with the two previous entries.

But also...I suggest using the aerator as a 'tool' merely to 'lift' soil up to the surface, maybe as many as two passes over a moist lawn, after it's been mowed short (to reduce interference w/ equipment & increase user visability).

And then....once all of the soil cores all over the lawn have dried to a large extent, use a genuine SLICE SEEDER to cut vertically into the soil, and drop the grass seed into those cuts, while at the same time pulverizing all of those aforementioned soil cores.
I myself like to implement the use of endomycorrhyzae spores when I 'dissect' lawns like this...but doing so pretty much neccessitates the lawn-owner to a PERMANENT shift toward ALL ORGANICS in terms of turf food & weed control, or else the beneficial spores will likely die for the lack of protein that needs to be spoonfed to them, in the manner that corn meal (etc) does.

A good, successful seed job is all about SEED TO SOIL CONTACT, first and foremost !

Generally, other considerations to think about, are erosion potential (both wind and water), weed invasiveness potential, moisture loss potential, and the length of time to mature before freeze / frost cycles begin.

how to get a thicker and greener lawn

Comments (5)

johnaw
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how to get a thicker and greener lawn

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johnawOriginal Author

bergenjersey

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johnaw
Original Author