Also, if you have a second to answer this question about rolling. The woman at the store where I bought the roller said to roll the seeds once a week for 4 weeks, the man said 6 weeks! I couldn't find anything like that on any English speaking website. Are they right? Thanks forsheems! (ps, I moved from Durham, North Carolina... not a day goes by without me missing home).

I would think you'd have grass after 4-6 weeks..

Do whatever it takes to keep your seeds moist. In my opinion, more times daily the better but short/shallow waterings, ie. mistings.

Depends on what type of grass and the conditions it endured to decide whether old grass will come back. If cold season grass, it should come back in fall. Since you have a big tree, make sure the seed is suitable for shade.

Lastly, rolling is only done once after you lay the seed down. After germination, it does more harm than good.

An update: Yay! The grass did indeed come in. And while it is patchy in areas, it did indeed grow! I only grew "shade seed". Given the confidence the grass growing success gave me, I continued to plant in large sections of the yard. I also have spent many an hour pulling up ivy to prepare for grass seed.

The problem I am facing now is that it is mid October and I am not done but am worried that it is too late for me to finish the job. If this was my personal yard, I wouldn't be have so much trepidation.

Is Mid October indeed too late to plant grass? It looks as though, the weather will be about 50 for the next two weeks with plenty of rain.

With temps in the 50s you will not get much germination.

oh no!

Where do you live? France is a big place. And does it snow in your area?

Here is some general info on lawns.

Ignore your neighbor. He's trying to intimidate you and set you up to fail.

Plant new seed only in the fall. Start in the early fall. That might be August or it might be September depending on where you live. You seem to have done it pretty well - perhaps by accident. Not rototilling was excellent. Rototilling is a big mistake that a lot of new gardeners make. See if you can rent a roller. You only need it once the first time you seed a big yard. After that, for annual overseeding, you can simply walk on the new seed to press it down onto the soil. Water new very lightly 3x per day, every day, until you get 80% germination. For the shade grass you planted that would be 3 weeks.

If you have shade type grass, I'm assuming it's a fescue. Fescue should be mulch mowed at the mower's highest setting most of the time. If it gets hot in the summer, then mow every other week. The idea is to develop deeper roots to get water from deeper places in the soil.

Fertilize for the first time on Fête du huitième mai or Jour de la Victoire 45 (same date different name). Fertilize again on Assomption and for the last time on or about
Jour d'armistice. With the new lawn skip Jour d'armistice for this year. National holidays are easier to remember than specific dates. If you want to use organic fertilizer, you can do that any time including now. The application rate for organics is almost always 7 kg per 100 square meters. I like to use alfalfa pellets (lapin chow) as a fertilizer. Get them from a local feed store in 20-kilo bags. They really work.

Watering: Deep and infrequent is the mantra for watering. This is for all turf grass all over the place. Deep means 3 cm all at one time. Put some cat food or tuna cans around the yard, and time how long it takes your sprinkler(s) to fill all the cans. Memorize that time. That will be the time you water from now on. My hose, sprinkler and water pressure takes 8 full hours to fill the cans. Your time will likely be less. I like gentle watering. As for watering frequency, that depends on the daytime air temperature. With temps from 33-38 deep water once per week. With temps from 25-32 deep water once every 2 weeks. With temps from 21-24 deep water once every 3 weeks. With temps below 21, deep water once a month. Note that you have to keep up with quickly changing temps in the spring and fall. In the USA this deep and infrequent schedule works in Phoenix and in Vermont (for Oz think Hobart to Darwin including Alice Springs), so it should work for you. The reason for deep and infrequent is to grow deeper, more drought resistant roots and to allow the soil to dry completely at the surface for several days before watering again. If it rains, reset your calendar to account for the rainfall.

These are in reverse order of importance. Watering is key to getting a good lawn with the fewest problems.

Weeds: Spot spray a liquid herbicide in mid April and again in mid September.

Thanks Dchall! I am going to print your response and tape it to my wall so I don't forget those dates. As far as not rototilling, it was intentional based on all the internet research I had done. It also just seemed overly aggressive to me intuitively. I will keep the aggressive actions for ivy pulling!

I live just outside of Paris, in the village called Saint Cloud. It doesn't snow that much here, but gets pretty chilly and very damp and gloomy gray in winter.

I have been so lucky that the temperatures are exceptionally warm this month... my first segment of lawn did indeed take and it has grown now to about 3.5 inches. And yes, I do think he wanted me to fail so he could "be right" that the grass would never grow thanks to the trees that he wants to cut down. On the other hand, the guy is nice so maybe it is unconscious sabotage or plain ignorance.

The garden is huge.. and has a shady lower yard and a half shady upper part. Thanks to being frenzied with keeping up with trimming the bushes to keep my neighbors content, planting bulbs and my own life responsibilities (2 young kids) my ability to plant grass seed at one time has been impossible. Well, also weed and ivy clearing (thanks Hula Hoe that no French person had ever seen before and basically sneered at), land preparation took several hours before discovering that I could mix topsoil with seed at one time before shaking on. Tool rental isn't really a thing here outside of big floor washers, etc. So, I had to buy a roller.

NOW though, I am facing another issue. This is quite a learning process. I was absolutely determined to get the entire lower lawn seeded and thanks to warm temps last week and next week, I was feeling pretty optimistic.

Then, massive amounts of leaves have begun to drop on the new seeds. I am finding so much contradictory information . It's just like hay, so it will protect the seeds to remove them or they will drown out any sun and kill the seed. I am torn as to what to do!!! For the areas of the yard which have germinated and are growing well, I think leaf blowing gently might be the way to go. I have also read mowing them into small pieces and leaving them there helps the grass. But, frankly, I do not see how I can blow the area just seeded anyway.

Any advice?