What kind of grass do you plan to grow? I think some people in VA plant cool season grass and some plant warm season grass.

If you're going to grow a cool season grass like Kentucky Bluegrass (KBG), Turf Type Tall Fescue (TTTF) or Perennial Rye (PR), you should not wait until spring to plant. If you do, the grass will have a difficult time surviving the summer heat.

If you're planning to grow a warm season grass like Bermuda, St Augustine or Zoysia, I think you want to plant in late spring.

Well, because of the part shade thing I was thinking of a fescue mix. We had zoysia at our old place and it was a stuggle to keep it out of the beds in the sunny part of the lawn, but it didn't really grow in the shadier part. What would be best to plant?

Thanks,
Catherine

If you're looking for a lower maintenance type of grass, you might want to consider a fescue for this area. There are some varieties that will actually do very well in shady areas. (I think Creeping Red fescue, but don't hold me to that). We're getting late in the season to get grass going, but if this fall is like last year, you've got a pretty good shot if you seed in the next week or two.

Thank you for the fescue suggestion.

We won't be able to try to establish the new lawn until after the brush is cleared. So, late October is the soonest we can try on that. I think it is probably not worth trying on the renovation of the existing lawn until then either, because the person doing the brush clearing will have to walk on, drag brush across, etc the existing lawn to clear the brush. Is late Oct too late to try to seed grass in Northern VA?

Thanks,
Catherine

Do you know when you usually get your first frost? I've read that you should try for 6 weeks before first frost, but I think that was when KBG was being used. Since fescue sprouts much faster, you can probably get by with a shorter window, but it would be best to try for 4 weeks before the first frost.

If you miss that window, I'm not sure if it gets and stays cold enough in your area for dormant seeding to work. Dormant seeding is where you wait until it is too cold for the seed to germinate, then seed it so that it germinates with the spring moisture and warmth. But I'm afraid that in your area, you may be too likely to get premature germination followed by another frost.

If you seed in the spring, you'll probably lose some in the summer due to the heat, so you may need to overseed in the fall.

According to my quick googling, typical first frost around here is mid-Nov. Sounds like we'd really be pushing it to try to seed this fall. . . . Perhaps we need to seed in the Spring and plan to overseed again next fall.

Thanks,
Catherine

Dormant seeding probably shouldn't be done around here until December or January. Fall here is all over the place. It can be in the 40's for a couple days, then in the 70's for a few days. You just never know. After living in this area for 25 years, I have memories of more than a few Thanksgivings in shorts and t-shirts.

I agree that dormant seeding would be problematic here. I even remember some darn warm February days a couple of years ago.

Thanks!
Catherine

I have dealt with a lot of English Ivy removal here in Falls Church. Here's what I would suggest.

Instead of the Round Up treatment, have your guy come out and rip out all the ivy in the area where you want to seed at the same time they were going to apply the round up. Have some good seed, compost and some starter fertilizer ready, and sow a mix of fescues that same day. If you plant Turf Type perennial rye (see other thread for pros and cons of that) it should come up well before the first frost.

As for the rest of the ivy, in my experience Round Up will not kill ivy in two weeks, and you are going to be ripping it out anyway, so just skip the round up and just have him rip it out.

How big an area are we talking about, anyway?

Instereting about the ivy. Everyone else I've talked with has said round-up is the only thing they've found to have much impact on ivy. The whole area to be cleared is about 10 x 75 feet. But the ivy is not covering all of that, maybe 1/4 of it.

Thanks,
Catherine

Here is a suggestion that may help. Normally, our Virgina soils are acidic. I would get a soil test done for your lawn and for this fall concentrate on adding any lime or fertilizer. I will tell you unless you want to do a lot of watering that starting new grass is not the best idea (gee, wonder how I know) with the rain deficit we've had this summer and fall. If you can core aerate or add compost, so much the better, but not a big deal either. Plan your garden beds and get those ready for the hostas. If you happen to run across clearance prices at the big box stores on fescue or shady mix you could throw that seed down this winter and I think you'd be surprised at how much comes up in the spring. Even with the delayed DST this year I think we've only got about 4-6 weeks left of good growing season. I'd concentrate on the soil this fall and next spring in preparation for lawn renovation next fall. Hope this helps.

Thanks. I think the soil test idea is good one.

Catherine