SD I called Lesco and they gave me a few recommendations. They told me the TMP is their best selling seed - and that is what they sell to most of the landscape companies. They also suggested a Transition Blend after I told them about my concerns on the rocky soil. One of the guys said that if TB won't grow - then nothing will. If I went with the TB, then I would have to mix in some rye. I saw on another post that you used the Lesco TB. I too will not have a sprinkler system. What do you think about the TB vs. the TMP? Have you since switched to TMP? Lesco also mentioned a seed called Fawn and said that this is close to K-31 if I want that type of grass. They said it is a very wide blade fescue. I am not sure I want to go down the K-31 route based on what I have read on this forum. It seems there are other alternatives that would do just as well in my soil and area, but yield a nicer lawn. For the spring planting - If I go with the TB, then I would probably add in 30% annual rye and 20% PR to make my own "contractor mix" but with the better TTTF from the TB. If I go with the TMP, I would probably add in a little AR in since I have these "dirt police" that I have to deal with and 20% PR might not be enough. Any info you can give me on the pros/cons of the two types of TF mentioned above would be very helpful and appreciated. Thanks

I took this seriously! And probably because I decided when I moved to my new husband and home 2 years ago, that if what's happy in my yard is crabgrass and Bermuda grass, then that's what I like, too. He had told me he and his former wife (deceased) had spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars on hauling in dirt for the rocky lawn, and many more $$ and time seeding and re-seeding lawn grasses; there is a slight slope to this rock-based 1-plus acre of lawn and sometimes heavy rain in the spring and early summer, which seemed to always wash the seeded grass to the far corners. . . the yard is dappled shade in most parts, but in the sunny spots, everything fries. My first summer was last year, and by July, my lawn had filled in and looked beautiful--the crabgrass and Bermuda grass were going crazy. I told him that since my priorities are the vegetable and flower gardens, if we could mow and have it look good, I didn't care WHAT green stuff was in the lawn. I am a big proponent of whatever works well in the yard is what I'll try to go with--and the crabgrass and Bermuda grass love the yard.

Good info. Be sure you have no leaks in your sprinkler system and that the sprinklers are throwing the water and not dribbling. The 90 degree F temp was too high to use any chemicals. That's why the fungicide didn't work. Read the label and you'll find you are very limited as to the times of year they claim it works. In Texas that time of year is about Valentine's Day. The rest of the time it is too rainy or too hot. Since 2002 I have been very happy using ordinary corn meal to kill disease in my lawn. Cracked corn works fine, too. Corn gluten meal is a similar sounding material but costs a lot more and does not seem to take care of the disease. Ordinary corn meal is what I'm talking about. Apply at 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet and water it down (not in). Just wash it off the grass and you're done. Reapply in 3 weeks and any disease should be gone in a month. The corn is a biological approach that brings in microbes that feed on the disease microbes. This time if year you should be watering no more than once a month in northern Utah. That should be a deep watering of about an inch. When you get an inch of rain, then you don't need to water. I hate rain birds. The only advantage they have is being able to throw water upwind. My absolute favorite sprinkler is the oscillator. The new turbo oscillator sprinklers are great. I have five of them at two houses and will be getting a sixth next spring. They apply water very evenly and very slowly to allow it to soak in without runoff. For a rectangular yard like yours, they would be perfect. Mow at about 3.5 inches when you mow. If you want to use Scott's chemical fertilizers, follow the directions for timing. I think you went a little heavy in the past 6 weeks. If you want to apply organic fertilizers that frequently, GO FOR IT. You cannot over apply organics, and they just make the soil better and better. Generally lawns need nitrogen once in the spring and twice in the fall. The twice in the fall come once after the summer heat breaks and again right before dormancy. Your timing in the past 6 weeks seems too close together but it might have been exactly right. Just seems close together. One of the lawn gurus on another forum has tried to overdose with organic fertilizer. He's applied up to 50 pound per 1,000 square feet per week for every week of the growing season. The only thing that happened is his KBG lawn remained green deep into December and greened up again in January. From that experiment I say you cannot overdose with organics. Try that with chemicals and you'll sterilize your soil for years. If you want to take your lawn to the next level (once you have control over it), get a soil test at Logan Labs in Ohio. Their $20 test is much better than most university or county extension service tests costing up to 5x more.

Thanks maifleur, I got a good one one for you - That loose stem I was mentioning was bothering me so I went out and gave it a second look. I thought it looked weird, about the size of my little finger but no sign of buds. I then realized what I suspected - it's actually a root which is attached to the side of the root stock which somehow got turned around so it was facing upwards! I pulled out the whole bareroot as I only planted it a few days ago. Turned out it's not loose just a little twisted so I turned it downwards and replanted. So your dummie comment is particularly appropriate! The limited instructions I got with the bareroot are as follows -"Our Japanese tree peonies are grafted on herbaceous peony roots. Planting a Japanese tree peony is similar to planting an herbaceous peony. Japanese tree peonies need to be planted deeper to stimulate the growth of tree peony roots. The grafting point should be 4-5 inches below the soil surface." The graft point as they say is not always totally clear and putting the point at which the stems reach the rootstock at 4 inches under would nearly bury a bud so I sort of averaged the middle of the rootstock which is only a few inches long at 4" deep. Hopefully I'm about right. I'll take a look at the book. I nearly always try to buy a book for the particular high value plants I'm using and I actually have Alice hardings "The Peony" and Martin Pages "The gardeners Guide to Growing...". Both of these are horrible IMO. Not one drawing of a planted rootstock and only a few pages on cultivation and site selection/preparation. Same thing with John Feltwells book on Clematis. Is the gardening trade unduly afflicted with poor writers?