If you're not going to be able to provide water with sprinklers, it doesn't make any sense to water if there's no rain. However, it also doesn't make sense to seed if it's going to freeze before your new grass can survive the winter. The suggestion I've seed is to seed at least 6 weeks before the average first frost. If I remember correctly, there are a lot of places in the Philly area that are pretty moderate, but there are also some spots that get cold sooner, and it all depends on where you are in relation to the river, how far from the ocean, etc.

If you have a late enough average first frost, you may still have some time. If not, you may want to consider a dormant seeding, especially if you won't be able to water several times a day until the grass germinates.

To dormant seed, you wait until it's cold enough that the seed won't germinate, then put the seed down. The melting snow and freeze/thaw cycles will draw the seeds into contact with the soil. Then in the spring when it warms up enough the seeds will germinate with the moisture that is there from the snows and spring rains.

You'll lose some to birds and insects and maybe to premature germination followed quickly by a cold snap, but you'll lose less than you would if you seed too close to the beginning of winter, and you'll probably have better survival in the heat of the summer than if you wait for a spring seeding because the grass will have a bit of a headstart.

You aren't necessarily wasting your time, but your first frost date is around October 20th--ten days behind mine. Four weeks remain until frost if it's an average year (and it certainly hasn't been).

If you seed, you'll have heavier losses than you would have if you had done it early in September. Much heavier losses. Also, Bpgreen's completely right and you have to water it twice a day (at least). Our weather (we're not that different) is sitting in the low 80's with absolutely no appreciable rain in sight.

That isn't going to work for seeding.

Dormant seeding is your best bet, and that doesn't have to be slit-seeded in.

Just remember those are _averages_ and mother nature can throw some curve balls.

Just as a "for instance", my first average freeze date here is Oct 31. Most years I do my reseeding the last week of Aug the fist week of Sept. This year it was staying on the warm side so I held off until Sept 16 - and it is supposed to run 5 to 10 degrees above normal for the next 15 days even at that. Of course, after that it may turn around and have an early hard cold spell once the high pressure creating the heat moves on.

The point is... who knows?! :)

Sometimes you can get away with planting late, and sometimes the average isn't even good enough.

Keeps gardening quite an adventure all in all.

I am in the same boat...been waiting for lawn guy to come aerate...but too darn dry...and looks like no rain till next week. So who knows when he will be out to aerate...so I guess I will dormant seed.

If you dormant seed, deos the principle of scalping the lawn before seeding still apply?

It's probably not as necessary to scalp when dormant seeding. I'd probably still mow fairly low, but probably wouldn't scalp.

But do you have an irrigation system? Dormant seeding won't make watering unnecessary. If you seed, you will need water.

Has anyone here ever gone the dormant seeding route? I am skeptical that it would work.

http://grounds-mag.com/mag/grounds_maintenance_seeding_during_dormancy/

Here a link for review..

"But do you have an irrigation system? Dormant seeding won't make watering unnecessary. If you seed, you will need water."

Actually, one reason some people dormant seed is to avoid needing to water. This assumes that there will be winter snow and/or spring moisture. Usually, there is enough moisture from the snow and rain that additional watering isn't necessary.

I've never killed the existing lawn and tried it as the article above seems to be recommending, but I've overseeded an existing lawn with some success. I've got an irrigation system, but the air is so dry here that it's difficult to keep the surface moist. Since we get almost all of our precipitation between mid October and mid May, dormant seeding is about the only chance I have to benefit from natural precipitation.

I'm planning to dormant seed late winter/early spring to help fill in the spots that never seem to get enough from the sprinklers. Since I'm overseeding with native grasses, once I get them established, I won't need to worry so much about whether they get any water.

also Philly burbs,North Wales area, and waqs hoping to aerate next week and throw some seed down also..The weather has been extremely dry,and having 1 1/2 acres of lawn, irrigation is not likley without rainfall...Dormant seeding is likley what i'll do...When is the best time to do so? early winter/late fall?? late winter? should i aerate anyway? thanks

I've been doing some more reading on it recently, and I think the best time to dormant seed is probably late winter to early spring.

The weather's been frustrating for sure.

My problem, like many others, is that I have enough lawn spread out over enough area where watering and water pressure is a problem. We're on a well and spots of my yard are 200 feet from the spigot. I can't even operate 2 sprinklers on a 50 foot hose.

I appreciate all the replies and the advice on dormant seeding, but I think I'll go ahead and take my chances with a Sep 29th seeding and cross my fingers. Maybe I'll try to set up a make-shift above-ground sprinkler system. I guess I may get lucky and have a late frost and enough seedlings survive that maybe a little spring overseeding can take care of the rest.

Temps are still in the low 80's here and we got about 1/4" of rain since early September. Ughh.

troman, you may want to try hooking up your hose directly to the blue pressure tank in your basement for better pressure. It's worked well for me, much better pressure vs. the outside faucet.

As this thread is sort of turning into a plumbing discussion, if you don't know what sort of piping you have, pressure can easily be a problem. Low pressure in my father-in-law's house a number of years ago led two of my brothers-in-law to do a lot of replumbing, before actually investigating the cause of the low pressure. Much to their surprise, the water pressure remained low. When we arrived for the weekend, we ended up examining the plumbing back to the source. Between the water softener and pressure tank, some previous occupant of the house had installed a short necked-down pipe that may have had an I.D. of 3/8"...not counting some scale. Needless to say, tearing this and its associated unions out and installing pipe of the proper diameter cured the problem.