Pics please. This definitely wasn't a very nice winter for new grasses. On the up side, snow mold damage will reverse for the most part, although it's most damaging on newer or weaker grasses.

If you do get a soil test, use Logan Labs. They're great at giving a comprehensive report for $25.

Thanks, I'll add some pictures tomorrow and take samples for a soil test.

What kind of grass do you have?

I actually don't know what kind of grass it is. It was hydroseeded in late August then overseeded by my landscape company in October, but neither of them told me what seed they were using. I'm assuming it's rye or fescue or a mix? Here are some pictures:

The light areas are mostly matted down dead grass, not soil.

Here's an overview for context. It doesn't look as bad from this angle (but it is!) The worst part is up towards the porch.

Believe it or not, this was all nice and green, though a bit thin, in the fall.

I'll try to send off for the soil test after the weekend, so it will be a while before I have the results. Do you think overseeding now will do any good? Otherwise do I just have to have a lawn that looks awful until I can seed in the fall? Thanks!!

It looks like standard tri-mix lawn.

Seeding now is an exercise in frustration and annoyance when summer hits and it dies, so don't bother. Wait until mid-August and seed at that point.

I think we can get this to improve. Let's check your soil test as it'll be back before or around the time the lawn should be fed anyway. Depending on results, we'll help you select the right feeding for it in late May.

Thank you! I'll see if I can take the samples and get them sent out this week.

If you did get a tri-mix with Kentucky bluegrass, those dead spots are just the KBG which has not awakened yet. Most KBG normally turns brown in the winter. Since you're organic, you can put something down now if you want. For northern lawns morph likes to wait on organics until early May. Down south I start in Feb, but lots of things are different here.

Thanks, dchall. I'll ask the landscaper and see if he knows what was in the mix. I was also wondering whether I should rake it now to loosen up the matted patches and give it some breathing room? Let me know what you think. Thanks!

It's really, really late for Kentucky bluegrass to still be asleep in the Boston area. Poke around in there and see if you see green, living crowns of grass. If not, it's not asleep. It's dead.

I was in a similar situation a few years back: had the lawn hydroseeded with a tri-mix in late summer/early fall (also in Boston area)...the grass the following spring was underwhelming. Not dead, just not very vigorous, not growing much compared to the more mature laws in neighborhood. And also lots of weeds growing. Starting in May I fertilized frequently with BayState fertilizer (virtually all slow release nitrogen) and by the late summer my lawn looked much better. I attribute this to a first year lawn maybe needing more nitrogen than a more mature lawn. I don't fertilize much during the spring now, but I'm glad I did that first year.

>>> I attribute this to a first year lawn maybe needing more nitrogen than a
more mature lawn. I don't fertilize much during the spring now, but I'm
glad I did that first year.

Not sure if others will agree with me, but light frequent feedings in the first Spring following a Fall lawn seeding can actually be beneficial/advisable for the still rather immature turf. It's the one exception to the rule that you don't fertilize before June 1.

Thanks for all your input. I'm glad to hear this may be fairly typical first year lawn behavior and that it should improve with feeding. I took a closer look, and there are definitely some sparse green blades in the patches that look completely dead in the pictures. And, while there are bare patches between the green parts, they're not as big as they look in the pics. So, it sounds like I should start with some high-nitrogen fertilizer - would Milorganite be a good choice? I may not get a chance to fertilize for about a week so if I get my soil sample off soon maybe I'll have the results back by then. Thanks again!

Out here in central California we are dealing with a serious drought. Many lawns have brown spots similar to yours. A quick fix that we offer at miragelawnpainting.com is lawn painting service. You may be surprised how great it looks and lasts. Golf courses and professional sports team's grounds crews have been using this trick for years. Your lawn comes out looking perfectly green and you still conserve our vital natural resource. Check if there are any lawn painting services in your area. If you are in Fresno, CA or surrounding areas check us out at miragelawnpainting.com. Good luck with your lawn!

I have absolutely no objection to Milorganite (5-2-0) at any time under any circumstances regardless of anything else we're doing, so fire at will with that stuff. And yes, young lawns actually do benefit from some rule-breaking, although I'd feed in May and June and lay off in July and just water.

Never apply synthetic fertilizers during April, June, July, or August. You're just asking for trouble.

Although Boston's not nearly as steamy as some other areas, let's not stress it. Pick up with the Milo (or other organic) feeding again in August and hit it hard the first fall.

Baystate (4-3-0) is another great alternative and very much like Milorganite. With 2% iron, it's a weaker iron source than Milorganite, but if the price is better that fact doesn't bother me. I do note from the brochure that the average is actually 3.8% iron, comparable to Milo, but only 2% is absolutely guaranteed.

The recommended application rate of Baystate is pretty much the same as Milorganite (slightly higher than Milo, actually, for the 40 pound bag, identical for the 50 pound bag).

So if Baystate is available, and cheaper, use that instead.

That's good to know about Baystate. I'll see what I can find and keep you posted on my progress. Thanks!

Hi all, I am finally back with an update on my lawn and soil test results. I would really appreciate your advice on what to do next. First, I asked my landscaper what kind of grass was used, and he said that the mix had a lot of KBG with some annual grasses to "get it to pop quick." We put down Milorganite at the bag rate on May 24th. We then did some watering that week since it had been extremely dry and there was one area of the lawn in particular that was going totally brown. Luckily, it's been raining quite a bit the last 3 days, so everything should be greening back up now!

Here are the results from Logan labs:

Let me know what you think! Thanks!

Annual grasses are usually annual rye, which means yeah, it pops quick but doesn't live long. It generally dies during summer as annual rye is a winter annual, not a warm-season one. But that grass seed was really, really cheap for the landscaper... Some overseeding with a good KBG mix will probably be required in mid-August.

Overall, your soil results are very nice! There's some tuning and corrections to make, but nothing terribly severe. In the future, you can fold the front and back together into a single test as the corrections below will fix the minor differential.

EC Around 7.5: Sandy soil with silt, most likely. It's a nice soil for a lawn.

pH 6.6 average: Always the symptom, never the disease. In this case, it isn't even a symptom, this is pretty close to optimal.

Sulfur 25-ish: Normal, with some margin for playing in this soil. That's good, we're going to play with it a little.

Phosphorus 250+: Well over optimal, which isn't a problem. You have plenty to guard against usage and leaching, and don't require any.

Calcium 65%-ish: Very close to optimal. The soil shows a very minor shortage, so I did recommend a bit of calcium in the recommendations. Purchase Encap, Pennington Fast Acting, or Mag-I-Cal calcitic limes--the cheap stuff has too much magnesium, takes forever to work, and requires orders of magnitude more product for the same effect.

Magnesium 18%-ish: A bit high, although not a problem. We don't want to add any magnesium to this soil, however, and avoiding any magnesium sources (cheap lime, Epsom salt) is a very good idea. Soil levels this high might make the soil a bit tight, but shouldn't be extreme.

Potassium 3.1%/1.3%: Low in the back, normal in the front. This is the one correction that (mostly) goes on the back, although the front could use a minor kick. You'll want potassium sulfate (sulfate of potash), which most garden shops and landscape places can order for you. You can get it online, but it's kind of expensive with shipping.

Minor Elements: Boron is perfect. I'd love to know where that much copper and zinc are coming from...but it isn't a problem. Manganese is a little high, but again, not a problem. Iron is mentioned below.

Iron 176/125: Entirely normal levels and not deficient, but not going to produce the best color in a lawn with bluegrass. Whenever you like, apply Milorganite at bag rate to slowly raise this and quickly boost color in the lawn. Eventually, it'll become unnecessary to use the Milo as iron levels will be high enough on their own.

Recommendations:

June 1 (Now, pretty much): Apply 1 pound of Encap, Mag-I-Cal, or Pennington fast acting lime per thousand square feet.

June 15 (two weeks post liming): Apply 1 pound of potassium sulfate per thousand square feet to the front, 3 pounds per thousand to the back.

September 15: Apply 1 pound of Encap, Mag-I-Cal, or Pennington fast acting lime per thousand square feet.

October 1: Apply 1 pound of potassium sulfate per thousand square feet to the front, 3 pounds per thousand to the back.

Thanks so much morpheus! What do you know - I thought it would be really bad, but it's not too bad at all. I think we can handle that schedule.

The lawn is looking better, especially with all the rain we've had this week. There are still some bare spots, but it's fuller than it was. I am kind of annoyed that the landscaper used annual seed instead of perennial. That seems like cutting corners. I'm assuming I should overseed in mid-late August. You mentioned using a good KBG mix - can you recommend a particular brand/mix?

Also, earlier comments mentioned first-year lawns might need additional feeding. Should I follow the Aug 1/Sept 1/Oct 1 schedule with Milorganite, or does it need more than that? (I haven't found Baystate yet.) Thanks so much for your help!

This soil test is actually phenomenally good for a new lawn. Even the organic matter (which I forgot to mention above) is in good range. Minor calcium shortages and midrange potassium shortages are no major problem, although the potassium is limiting the quality of the lawn a bit.

Patchiness, particularly on builder's lawns, is pretty normal. And yes, he did cut corners on the seed. Annual rye is pretty much the cheapest stuff out there, mostly because it's easy to produce and only intended as temporary cover. I sometimes recommend it for new construction where the lawn planting is in spring, with the intention that it'll be killed out in late July and the formal lawn planted in August. But in most cases you don't have to kill it off, it'll die on its own.

Mid to late August is standard for most areas. It's whenever daytime highs just start falling off their maximum temperatures and you first start to think to yourself, "Summer's starting to end" when you're standing outside at night. That gives the seed plenty of time to pre-germinate in the warmth, time to sprout during the drop to cooler temperatures, and time to grow roots as temperatures start to really fall. Winter is not a major stress on northern lawns under most circumstances, and you're giving it the best start you can.

I'm a fan of The Rebels grass seed (fescue/KBG), but plenty of other brands are also very nice. Look for one with low weed seeds, other crop seeds, and zero noxious weed seeds.

If you want to go with an elite lawn like many on this site, the game changes a bit and you order grass seed cultivars quite specifically. For that, we'd need your closest city (and state you're in) as Zone 6A is extremely wide and covers tons of climates.

There's nothing wrong with an off-the-shelf lawn, however, and much that's right about one, so that decision is a more personal one.

Sounds good. We're pretty much in the off-the-shelf category. It doesn't have to be a perfect lawn, I just want it to look decent.

I looked for The Rebels seed online, but all I could find is their tall fescue mix and a shade mix (here: The Rebels). Is there a KBG mix I'm missing? We also have a good garden center nearby - I can see what they have that has KBG and meets the other specs you mentioned. The yard in general is pretty shady. Should I try to find a formula specifically for shade?

One problem I didn't mention earlier is that the soil seems very compacted, which may be why I've been thinking it's so poor. We had it aerated last fall, but if it helped it was only a little. Should I try shampoo?

Also, the front yard doesn't have a lot of weeds, but the back has a substantial amount of violets and plantains. I don't want to spray. Is there anything I can do other than (or in addition to) hand-pulling and overseeding/getting the grass in better shape?

The resource you guys provide is amazing. Thank you!

Well, they used to have a mix with KBG in it, about 10% Midnight. But they might have discontinued it...

Really, anything with low weed seeds, other crop seeds, and zero noxious weed seeds is great.

The soil compaction is because of the magnesium (I mentioned above that it might make your soil a bit tight). The calcium we're adding should help a little, but definitely try the shampoo method. Shifting to organic feeding will also lighten soils as the soil life tends to shove soil particles together and make homes out of them. Ten trillion trillion bacteria can aerate far better (and faster and keep it up longer) than you can with an aerator that punches a couple dozen holes per square foot!

Barring chemical spray, you can try spraying horticultural vinegar on them. Wear eye protection while spraying, that stuff is potent and can burn your eye while wet and in the air. Once dry, it's fine. Use on a hot, sunny day with no rain in the forecast for at least 48 hours. Reliability of that method is modest at best.

Other than that, hand pulling is the only option. If I could suggest, Hound Dog products makes a weed puller, the Weed Hound, that really makes that task easier (plus Hound Dog makes all their products in the USA). I use it to kill dandelions in the garden that I missed and are now gargantuan. You can get that at Home Depot, and probably Lowe's and any other big box store or most hardware stores as well.

Over time, as the lawn improves, weeds will become far less prevalent. I've had two this year, not including P. annua or P. trivialis. Mowing high will shade out weeds (when you have enough lawn to do so!) and proper watering methods will keep them from sprouting.

Wow, so many great suggestions. We will give them a try and see how we do. I haven't had much luck yet finding potassium sulfate locally. My local garden center has 'potash', but that is probably a mix, not just potassium sulfate, right (it's the Espoma version)? I did find an online source so I can order it if necessary. Thanks!!

Espoma's potash is muriate of potash, definitely not what you're looking for. Chemically, it's potassium chloride, which is extremely harsh. While I could design an application rate for it if I absolutely had to, I'd rather avoid it unless there's no other choice.

Sidenote: What that's doing in Espoma's lineup of otherwise good products is beyond me. The stuff is easy to overapply, and it's a major stress on any plant you apply it to.

Okay, that's really good to know. I also don't know why they can't be clearer about what's in there. (I'm a chemist, so I think they should just use the real name!) I had a phone conversation with the woman at the garden center where she was saying "it's potassium", and I was saying, well, it can't just be potassium. It has to be potassium *something*.

I found it online at a decent price here and the shipping is reasonable, so I'll just order it.

Thanks for all your help. I'll post an update in a couple of months and let you know how it's doing!

That explains why the numbers didn't make much sense to me. But I
didn't spend any time trying to figure it out because you had already
given me the rates I need!

I have a side question. It just
occurred to me that the Logan labs test doesn't include lead. If I
wanted a lead test done is this something I'd have to request
specifically or have done separately? It's not an issue for the lawn but
I'd be interested to know before trying to grow vegetables or berries here. Thanks!

You'd need a specific test. Lead releases best in an acidic environment, so modest lead levels shouldn't be a problem for most vegetables, but would be an issue with some types of berries. Keeping the soil pH in the garden above 6.5 will reduce lead availability.

Severely contaminated soils should be replaced to the maximum root depth, of course, but minimally contaminated ones can be rescued by the addition of organic material (which both dilutes and binds the lead). In moderate cases, remediation with a few years of sunflower growth, where you cut the sunflower and remove the root systems and discard both (don't eat the seeds), will help.

Most country soils are OK, while most city soils are contaminated to some extent due to the use of leaded gasoline (lead does not leach easily). A quick search shows that 10 PPM is the average, with 7 to 20 PPM being the normal range. Levels of up to 300 PPM are acceptable for vegetable gardening as plants don't absorb a great deal.

http://www.extension.umn.edu/garden/yard-garden/soils/lead-in-home-garden/

Okay, thanks! It would be especially important to know for blueberries,
then. We're not in the city (suburbs) but old house, lead paint, etc.
I'll get a test done before putting in any edibles. Thanks so much
morpheus!

Hi again! I'm back with an update on how my lawn has done this year and some questions on what to do next. I did the recommended amendments in the spring, and things greened up and filled in pretty nicely. We had a ridiculously dry summer and early fall, and I don't have irrigation, so things didn't stay totally green all summer, but mostly looked okay (except for a patch near the street - more on that in a minute.) I've been a little behind schedule on the amendments this fall, but here's what I've done:

-around 8/15: milorganite

-around 9/26: milorganite, encap lime (front only), overseeded part of front and back w/Pennington Sun & Shade mix

-10/11 and 12: encap lime (back only), potassium sulfate (front only)

I ran out of lime on 9/26 and had to order a new bag, so that's why only the front got done then. That put me behind schedule on the back yard, but I'll do the potassium sulfate on that in 2 weeks. I know I'm late overseeding, but it was so dry in Aug/Sept and I knew I couldn't keep up with the watering, so I decided to wait. I only overseeded some sections that were pretty bad that I felt like I could keep watered this fall. We also, luckily, got some significant rain this past couple of weeks after I got the seed down. Here are some pics of how things look now. This is the good part, closer to the house (most of it looks like this):

This is the part we're still having problems with, right next to the street:

Some questions: It occurred to us that part of the problem in this area might be road salt. If that is the problem, is there anything we can do about it?

I didn't get in 3 rounds of milorganite this fall. Should I do another one, or just skip it and winterize at some point? If so, when? I saw that Espoma now has a winterizing product. Can I use that? Anything else I should do this fall?

Since irrigation is a problem for overseeding the whole lawn, I was thinking I might try dormant seeding this winter. Is this a good idea, or a waste?

Thanks so much for your help!!

Hi! Bumping this up to hopefully get a reply. I realize I posted on the holiday weekend which is probably not the best time! Thanks in advance.

Your sodium numbers are a touch high. Nothing extremely severe, but if road salt is building up in those spots, it could certainly cause a problem.

To counter that--and I have no objection to you doing this once without a new soil test specific to that area as it's pretty harmless--apply 10-20 pounds per thousand square feet of gypsum in those areas. Gypsum (calcium sulfate) will react with the sodium to free the calcium ion (which will find another, lower energy combination or bind to the soil cation exchange sites) and turn the free sodium to sodium sulfate. That's very water soluble and will wash out pretty quickly in normal rainfall.

Your other problems there are the shade from the trees and the water being sucked up by the trees. Both of which are damaging to new sprouts and grasses.

The best thing to do there might be to mulch it and either let it lie fallow or put in a shade tolerant, drought tolerant shade garden.

You can skip the third Milo app, it's not really necessary if you got in two this fall. Just make sure to winterize.

I'm not a fan of organic winterizers due to the slow speed at which they're available--this is the one time of the year when you're on the clock! The window between growth stoppage and dormancy tends to be rather short, so this is the one time of the year when a synthetic really does work better and makes far more sense. Plus they tend to be cheaper per unit of nitrogen.

My chosen winterizer this year is Vigoro 29-0-4 (these numbers are close but I don't have the bag in front of me). Reason? It was cheapest per pound of nitrogen, it's fast release, and it was a selection available at the first place I went to.

Thanks so much morpheus! That sounds like a great plan.

I'm sure you're right about the trees being a contributing factor. I'm not normally one for taking down trees, but I wish the town would take that left one down, as it's 75% dead anyway. But, that area gets good afternoon sun from the west (to the left in the picture - I also took the pic in the morning.) It does get dried out, but there has been very little germination even with consistent watering. The soil is also somewhat crusty, which is why I thought it might be salt or a soil chem issue. For this year's soil test I just mixed that area in with the rest, but I
think next year I will send a separate sample so we can see if there's really something going on there.

I will try the gypsum and see if that helps. I also meant to shampoo this year but never got around to it (too many other yard projects.) Maybe I'll try that on this area as well. If I can't get grass to grow, then I will take your advice and put in a mulched garden bed.

I'll winterize around Thanksgiving (or a little before?), and put some grass seed down in January, and we'll see how things look next year. The seed I put down at the end of September is germinating pretty well elsewhere. Fingers crossed things stay warm a bit longer.

Thanks again. Your guidance is invaluable!

In that spot by the sidewalk, Put a bush there with some mulch, forget the grass? How about a mailbox mulched around it?

Hi morpheus, I am still a little confused about winterizer (sorry if I'm over-complicating this!) The ones I've found locally either don't say anything or say they're slow release, but you had mentioned above that it should be fast release. Does it matter? I haven't found the Vigoro. Some brands I think I can get are: ferti-lome (25-0-6), green thumb (24-0-12, says it contains slow-release nitrogen), Ace hardware (24-0-12, says controlled-release feeding up to 8 weeks). Let me know what you think. Thanks!!

Usually, if they don't say anything it'll be fine--slow release amounts are zero or low. That's not always the case.

I can't find the Ace label offhand, so can't evaluate that.

http://www.fertilome.com/ProductFiles/10896%20Winterizer%2025-0-6%20Approved%2003-03-11.pdf

Here's the Ferti-lome label. Under nitrogen, it states that it contains 2% ammoniacal nitrogen (fast), 15.5% urea nitrogen (fast) and 7.5% water insoluble nitrogen (slow). Since 7.5 out of 25 units of nitrogen are slow, it's about 30% slow release. That would be tolerable if it's all you can get.

http://www.kellysolutions.com/erenewals/documentsubmit/KellyData/ND%5CFertilizer%5CProduct%20Label%5CGREEN_THUMB_FALL_WINTERIZER_LAWN_FERTILIZER__24_012__8_15_2011_2_23_00_PM.pdf

The Green Thumb label states that it contains slow release nitrogen and it does--5.52 units out of 24, or 23%. That would be slightly better for winterization than the Ferti-lome.

Thanks, morpheus! Now I know what to look for. The Ace label says 4.8% slowly available nitrogen out of 24% total nitrogen, which is about 20% slow release. Plus it was on sale so I went with that one. Appreciate the help!