From this page, select the publication "Carolina Lawns." What to plant depends on whether you're in the mountains, piedmont, or coast. The time to plant cool season grasses is early fall. Grass planted now will be outcompeted by crabgrass and the roots will not be developed enough to survive the summer. If you must have grass for June, you could put down sod. Or plant anything and know it won't survive through the summer. Other alternative is to let the weeds grow and just mow them. At least there is a ground cover. If weeds don't even grow (too shady?), you will have a hard time growing grass.

Put annual rye down for a quick fix. It will germinate in a couple of days and grow quick. You should be able to mow it several times before June.

Keep it mowed tall at like 4 inches and it could help shade out crabgrass and other weeds.

The annual rye will die quickly in the summer heat, but it should be fine for the June wedding.

In late August, core aerate the yard and then plant some more permanent turf. You can't go wrong with Turf Type Tall Fescue in the transition zone.

re-seed your lawn with some fescue, it will do fine with the heat. Now it is a great time to re-seed. I would encourage to aerate the whole lawn, apply compost. 6 yards of compost will cover 35,000 sf. and re-seed 2lbs/1000 sf with a mix of blue grass, fescue and perennial rye. mow high at 3" tall. leave the grass clippings on the lawn, but you can bag the clippings before the wedding day. Ideally you want to mow 3 days before the weeding. That way the grass will look as it best.

@J Gil Organic

You've been saying some fairly silly things lately, like "fescue spreads by tillers", and now :

• re-seed your lawn with some fescue, it will do fine with the heat.
• Now it is a great time to re-seed
• re-seed 2lbs/1000 sf with a mix of blue grass, fescue and perennial rye

Have you any idea how hot it gets in NC late April/May? Even well established well watered fescue goes dormant. 2lbs/ksf is not enough even for overseeding, let alone reseeding.

I don't think he can re or over seed, he said he just had dirt now. Original poster , what part of NC are you in? By the coast is still chilly in May (some years when I vaca'ed in the Outer Banks), inland not so much. Then again, other years it was brutally hot last week of May.

Either way if you go with grass now, you will need to keep it watered to stay alive thru June. If you can spring for it, have sod laid that can survive the heat (warm season grass).

@j4c11 I believe that's right. Fescue grows in clumps. It develop tillers or stems from the base of the plant.

They way grass seed germinates is based on soil and air temperature. Right now it is the perfect time to re-seed because the soil is already at 45F and the average day temperature is above 55F. Summer is an horrible time to re-seed, hydroseed, etc.. You need warm days and cool nights. I would also re-seed in the fall. The reason I also choose to re-seed in the Spring is because I want to grow as much good grass as possible during the growing season.

For stablished lawns overseeing with 2lbs /1000sf is the norm.

Most grasses go dormant in the summer if it gets too hot, that's why the grass stops growing. That's why is bad to mow too short in the summer

IMO your best bet is annual ryegrass. It is dirt cheap & looks better than dirt; moreover, it will improve your seed chances for seeding fescue in the fall by preventing your future seedbed from eroding. It will still provide a green groundcover for the June wedding. When the ryegrass dies in the summer heat, it will leave organic matter (roots and leaves) that will benefit your soil. You can't go wrong. Anything else is throwing your money away.

@J Gil Organic

Well no, that's no right, tillering does not constitute spreading, you still have just one plant. Grasses that spread, like KBG or Bermuda, do so by rhizomes and pop up a new plant here and there, filling in empty areas. Fescue does not do that.

Right now it is an awful time to seed in NC, you'll just be growing crabgrass. And whatever survives will be killed by the heat.

Tall fescue is overseeded at 4lbs/ksf. Even when mixed with KBG at 90/10, you're still at around 4lbs. But we're talking about seeding bare dirt here, so it should be more like 8lbs/ksf. You're about 6lbs short.

I looked at your profile and you have a picture that says :" Using weed & feed on your lawn? Active ingredient glyphosate."probably carcinogenic". EPA". Can you name one weed and feed product with glyphosate in it? Because glyphosate aka Roundup will wipe out your entire lawn, so it makes no sense to put that in a weed and feed product. Excuse my bluntness, but you dish out so much misinformation that I can't help but doubt your claims of being a lawn care professional for 10 years. And if it is true, then I feel sorry for your customers.