Where do you live?

I hope the seed works okay for you. I would have done regular seed and set everything up on timers so it all gets watered frequently.

In general you want to keep the soil moist basically all the time before its germinated. 3 or even 4 times a day for 10 or maybe 15 minutes, would probably do - depending on the conditions. If it's dry, hot and windy it will take more frequency, if it's cool, etc. it will be less (i.e. overnight).

Google a product called "Greenview Grass Accelerator" available at Lowes. A mulch that uses small paper pellets that expand and hold water. Great product to help keep soil moist, and no cleanup or weed problems like straw.

Doesn't look like you put any hay over the seeds? This is a must..And the seeds need to sat pretty wet at all times untill they germinate

Before you put hay on the seeds, there is a difference between hay and straw. Straw is what is left over after you remove the forage value of hay. Hay is full of seeds which become weeds. What you want is straw...if you want anything at all. In my opinion straw is not needed. Rolling the seed down is much more important than straw.

What does the bag/box say about watering? The coated seeds might have different requirements than uncoated seed. I would think 3-4x per day would still be needed.

Thanks, everyone! I think we had an internet miracle. This morning I went out to run the sprinklers and discovered a light haze of green everywhere :) It's not mold or pollen, it's tiny little hairs of grass. Even better news, it's raining this morning!

re: Bag instructions ...
The bag said that with the special coating you can even miss a day of watering and it will germinate. Not that I believe that. The main reason we picked this kind of seed was that apparently birds don't like to eat it. So far that has been true, I have not seen any birds snacking on seed.

re: Straw, no straw, mulch pellets ...
I looked at the straw mats they sell at the big box stores, they are super expensive if you're covering 1/2 acre. The mulch pellets were at least as much as another round of seed and I was concerned the dog would try to eat them, so I went with raking the seed in lightly (using the back of the rake) and hoped for the best.

But - we want to start a fresh lawn in the front yard this fall (you know, at the right time to plant) and will use the mulch then. The dog isn't usually in the front yard. And when he is, he's too busy terrorizing the chipmunks that live near some bushes to think about eating mulch.

re: timers - I couldn't find a timer that would run 6 hoses in sequence. Our water pressure only handles 2 impact sprinklers in series and we have 10 sprinklers (2 are on their own hoses b/c of where they are). We bought a ton of the super-cheap 50' hoses for this year (and next). I figure after 2 years they will fall apart but we needed 15 of them to have enough hose to reach everything.

Thank you for your responses, I am definitely doing the front yard the smart way. If it weren't for the dog (and the mud in the fall/winter) I would have waited for the backyard as well.

Last note - DH convinced me to buy an electric tiller from Lowes as part of the project & that thing is awesome! I wouldn't have expected it to do much of anything but it really can churn through soil & make it nice & fluffy, even where the bulldozer tracks were. A rented tiller is faster, but if anyone is ever looking for a way to till an area over several nights or weekends then this thing might do the trick (under $200, too). It can also slice hoses like butter.

I don't want to be a bummer, and your results may differ from mine. It sounds like you are doing what I did about a month ago. I live in NJ, and the weather even happened to cool down at the right time to help me during the germination. I seeded with a tall fescue mix by Pennington. I did get a green lawn, but it's half grass, half weeds. I rented a tiller as well and tilled in lime before seeding and graded nice and flat. I used newly installed sprinklers timed to water 4 times/ day for a very short time(about 5 minutes each zone) which certainly kept the seed moist. The problem is that this is weed season. I'm learning how it's their time to prosper, not cool season grasses. I'm reading about how they like the higher soil temperatures, which cool grasses don't. So I just think the weed competition is too great for the grass seed at this time of year. I'm wondering if besides water, there's a way to cool the temperature of the soil. My grass/weed ratio increased where there was some shade.

I'm looking forward to weeding and overseeding in the fall. I realize that I should have gone with sod. I wish you luck, or at least perspective. Just don't expect perfect results. You may have some more work to do once it's grown. I look forward to seeing and reading about the results. I'm becoming fascinated by this process. I even bought a book the other day called "Weeds of the Northeast". Plants are interesting creatures.

Jeff

Hi Jeff, thanks for the insight! I think we will have some weeds, I'm sure some seeds came in with the fill. Since this is the backyard I'm not as concerned about weeds - I'm one of those who thinks that if it's green & I can mow it, it counts as grass. That doesn't extend to dandelions, of course.

Most of our yard is half-shade except for two triangular patches that get full sun. One of those areas will be converted to a vegetable garden eventually (a rectangular one that fits inside the triangle of sun).

But your comments about weed germination temps vs grass germination temps have solidified my resolve to do the front yard in the FALL, not now.

Sod isn't an option for us, too much area to cover. The backyard is 1/2 acre. Even hydroseeding was pretty pricey compared to seed, hoses, and sprinklers.

Next year, when the fescue is stronger, you can always try one of those weed-n-feed products to minimize the weeds in your yard. I think those work b/c our neighbor used one and after all his crab grass was dead he realized he had about 6 blades of good grass (I'm exaggerating, but he did have some pretty bald spots in his lawn).

Yes, like Jeff said, it will take some TLC later to get your lawn up to par. However, if that's not a concern then it will likely turn out fine. Only problem is crabgrass dies sooner then all the other grass.

Good luck! I'm trying to avoid using a weed killing chemical, but I may have to. One thing that I hope you don't find growing in your new lawn is barnyardgrass. What a pain in the grass! To avoid seedling damage I couldn't walk on the lawn to pull the barnyard grass out, and it was killing me just standing by watching it grow to nearly 2 feet in some places. And it took over a lot of the lawn.