You mow as soon as it need mowed. The taller the Rye gets, the more nutrients, water and sunlight it robs from the Fescue seedlings which have not germinated yet.

You'd be best off to dig the live sycamore while it's dormant in the earliest part of spring, when the soil is workable. You do need to fix the roots. It's really that simple. Get a tarp to work on, shake off and remove as much soil from the rootball with your hands, and then loosen all the roots. Any that are so messed up that you cannot straighten out, or, that are "J" shaped and head back into the inner of the rooball, clip them off with your pruners. Once you have all the untangling complete, build a cone in the middle of your planting hole so when you rest the tree on it, it's at the level you want the tree to be after you backfill the soil. With your hands, hold the roots in place straight (do each one individually if necessary) and pack soil against (it/them) to hold them in place while continuing to do so until all the roots are headed in the right direction. Believe me, this is the only way to plant a woody-plant. Then mulch, & water it very deeply once or twice a week for the remainder of the year and during year two, continue to do so. Year three it should be ok, but if no rain for 2-3 weeks, water it deeply. Year 4, it's on its' own unless you don't see rain for 3-4 weeks. I hope this information helps. Dax

'Little Nicky,' 'Little Bunny' and the blood grass need to be cut back to a few inches, now. The Pampas Grass, if it really is Pampas Grass (Cortaderia selloana), should be evergreen in your zone, so it may be dead. I'd cut it back as well, and hope for the best.

I assume you mean warm season grasses, since cool season grasses will have already bloomed. The foliage will continue to grow on trimmed warm season grasses, but it will have squared-off ends, which will be browned where they were cut. If you don't take more than 50% of the foliage length, chances are the plant will still bloom, and the blooms will be at their normal height, although the foliage will be shorter. I've cut many Miscanthus clumps halfway down, divided and re-planted them in late spring to early summer. They look awful the year it was done, and you can't tell anything happened in the next year. This doesn't apply to early summer blooming warm season grasses. Chances are, you'll trim off the flowering stalks on them. They still might throw up a few blossoms, but nothing like normal.