I use cypress mulch, about 1-2" around the plants in question. Some seedlings of other plants grow through, just not the ones I wanted. But I don't know how long those seeds have been there or what random struggle they went through to be in contact with the ground or grow through the mulch. Although I had wanted automatic self-seeding (because that's what these plants had a reputation for, right?), I guess it never hit me to do manual seeding. I definitely can collect the seeds from the plants, but just never thought about throwing it under the mulch. Even with buying columbine seeds, I had not heard of the stratification until this year. I was always just planting it in spring since that is typically when people think to plant, and it just would not come up (even sitting another 1 year under the mulch) I guess it's an example of thinking so narrowly that the other easy solutions didn't even come up. Thanks for that idea. This post was edited by gardenper on Sat, Apr 26, 14 at 8:48

If this is an accurate representation, your summers aren't too hot. It shows an average of only 4 days above 90 in both July and August. It also says you average 1 day below freezing in October. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like you get a lot of rain in the summer, so you'll probably need to water the lawn to get it to grow well. Based on the temperatures listed on that site, you could probably seed in early to mid August. Do you know offhand what kind of grass you have now? Since you mention shade, I'm going to suggest that you go with a fine fescue mix. Fine fescues are more shade tolerant than most grasses. Most of them are bunch grasses, but creeping red fescue spreads. Fine fescue also needs much less fertilizer and water than most other grasses. It's relatively fast to germinate, too. Once it gets established, you should be able to let it grow with only occasional watering and mowing, and maybe fertilize once a year (preferably in the fall). Bonny dunes is supposed to be a good fine fescue mix. I'm thinking about using this mix in my backyard. It doesn't list the cultivars it uses, but they list Covar sheep fescue (the cultivar usually used for lawn grass) and Durar hard fescue on another page and I got Jasper creeping red fescue from them last year when I ordered creeping red fescue without specifying a cultivar. If you get something locally, try to make sure you get named cultivars and avoid boreal creeping red fescue. It sounds like a named variety, but it's unimproved and not a good choice for a lawn.

hi. I understand. I just retired at 57 and am really enjoying my basic yard in an average subdivision in Vancouver wa. kids are grown. when one of them made me a grandpa I let them rent my home and after living in a studio rental for a year ive moved back home and bought a huge rv and have it plumbed and wired and in back "yard". i used to really enjoy lawn and garden but lost all interest about 7 years ago and everything went to hell. haha so i have entire front lawn, much to the amusement of my neighbors grass free and am loving growing annuals, veggies and flowers. now i am almost to the point of planting 2000 feet in lawn in back and next spring will garden in the area not in lawn back there too. how old your kids? do they get to go to school where you wanted? i hope i didn't come across wrong and apparently i didn't but man you got lots of work no matter what you do don't you? lol. i used to love yard work so much that in addition to working at port of Vancouver for 35 years, i bought a lawn aerator and did yard work for others on the side. probably didn't make a nickel looking back on it. i bring that up because i never used a verticutter (?) as you said you might to reseed. i always wonders how they worked. when someone wanted a complete lawn makeover , and they were never as huge as yours is, i always rounded their lawn up, thatched, aerated and then reseeded and top-dressed with some grass mulch stuff they sell in bales around here. its a by product of the huge Oregon grassed industry and is seed free and i wither dispersed by hand or rented a caged roller thing that worked great for that. im really interested in what you do. so when you get a minute down the road email me and send pics if you like. im keith dahl kgd1956@gmail.com thanks for getting back. oh by the way, here we are having one of the driest July's on record. no measurable rain since June, with no end in sight. im a heat wimp anymore so i get my stuff done in the morning and enjoy the AC in the RV as i please. life's good. im divorced so i don't have a "honey do" list. my neighbor dude says i have a "homie-do" list haha pic of grand daughter sleeping on me. im pretty crazy about her. :-)

Is this a brand new home construction? There is so much wrong here it is hard to suggest a starting point that is practical. What needs to happen is all that topdressing soil plus construction debris needs to be removed. At this point that process would remove the entire lawn, too. But your entire lawn is going to die under that soil anyway, so.... There would not be much loss. If you don't do anything, all the grass that you see will live. The rest is already dead. St Augustine will spread to refill but not until the temperatures cool down. It might be October before that happens in your area. St Augustine will spread two times per year in the spring and fall. But also at this point, all that new soil will settle leaving you a bumpy surface again. When a lawn is leveled, it is done with only the minimal amount of SAND (not topsoil) necessary to do the job. That contractor doesn't know what he's doing. I have a home in George West and, sadly, I see very poor knowledge of landscaping most of the time.