New lawn, but patchy. When and how to oversees?

5 years ago

last modified: 5 years ago

Did a lot of searching but can’t find I do on my situation.

New house, Acre of clay and weeds and kudzu. A professional came in with a bobcat and removed all weeds and debris. The dirt was flattened and all weeds and pre existing grass gone.

Then sprinkler systems installed. Then top soil added to dirt. Finally deed was planted (fescue and rye) and the waiting started. Not even 14 days in and some parts of my yard are flourishing with beautiful green thick grass. Other parts, especially the sunny back yard (odd to me) are super patchy

Everything I read on over seeding says aerate but since that was done 2 weeks ago, can’t I just now, bag clippings and overseed?

Do I need to add a thin layer of topsoil to patchy areas? And new hay? Plenty of water every morning and night.

In Atlanta, hasn’t gotten cold yet.

THANK YOU!

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Comments (6)

dchall_san_antonio
5 years ago
Apparently you didn't read anything from this forum about seeding. Well, maybe you read others' opinions, but in my opinion, you have spent too much money to get to this point. I'm going to sound very negative at first. That is not to make you feel bad, but more to deter others following on what you don't need to do.

The bobcat is a nice tool for carrying stuff around, but it is not great for leveling the soil. I watched a video of a guy doing that last night - it was hilarious - like watching Laurel and Hardy trying to push a piano up the steps. The proper tool for a do-over like you did is a tractor with a box blade. That tool could have done in one pass what a bobcat might take all day to do. If you are paying by the hour, it makes a difference.

New topsoil is not a solution to old topsoil. Your new topsoil used to be someone elses old topsoil. You're simply trading your old issues for different issue. Old topsoil can almost always be restored to a very healthy condition with organic fertilizer.

The recommendation to aerate first, which I disagree with anyway, is so that you can drop seed down into the holes where it is supposed to sprout better. I don't get that, so at least you have not wasted your money on aerating.

Looking at the current situation, spread more seed to the thin areas, walk on it to ensure the seed is making good contact with the soil, and continue watering. When the new grass is 5 inches high, mow it back to 4 inches. You don't need more soil and don't need any hay. In fact hay is a serious problem for new grass. The product you were looking for was straw, not hay. Hay has weed seeds while straw does not.

All the water you need is about 5 to 10 minutes, two or three times a day. If your soil ever gets soggy, that's way too much water.
Kaylen
5 years ago
I would like to echo this, you can revive your soil.

My soil was dead when we got our house. Hard. Dead. You could just look at it and know it was dead. No signs of insects and it was like a rock. It was so super compacted and had pretty much everything wrong with it. The grass that was there had roots about an inch deep, and almost 1/2 of that was thatch. The only thing thriving was plantain and some seriously mature dandelions. Even the clover struggled, pretty sure that lawn had no fertilizer for at least the last decade. I pulled 5 full bluebins of dandelions in about 2500sqft, must have been nearly half the darn lawn. My soil was so compacted that even in a damp spring I bent and broke 2 steel weed pullers digging these weeds out.

I started reading a lot on this forum (and watched the many YouTube channels)

With healthy mowing techniques, and bringing in organic matter, my lawn is finally looking like it has a healthy environment to grow in. I started forcing life to the soil by topdressed with compost, filling in low spots with triple mix and using hen manure fertilizer. I have also aerated annually and have added 5 applications of baby shampoos (at 3oz/1000) this year which has dramatically improved my soils water retention and my root depth. What a difference.

By focusing on healthy soil, I feel like I'm finally going in the right direction. I am certain (after beating my head off the wall) that had I only added more topsoil instead of om, I would be absolutely no better off.

My point is, trust the advice of people here. They know their stuff.
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+Above. The seeding window opens when temperatures aren't quite reaching the highs they do during summer. For you, that's likely to be the end of August, give or take a fair bit. It's that day when you first say to yourself, "Summer's starting to end." The window closes about six weeks before your first real frost. While your first frost is October 28, the first significant frost is probably somewhat later. Still, let's call it October 28 minus six weeks, or September 16. So any seeding date from around August 20 through September 16 is completely fine. I'd try for the earlier end to middle of that range to give the grasses plenty of time to grow roots and settle in before winter hits.
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Don't do any of those things. Let the grass that has germinated continue to grow. Cut back on the watering frequency but start increasing the volume per session. You want to slowly start transitioning to watering only once a week (and watering for a long enough time to put down 1 inch of water as measured by a rain gage or tuna can). Cut it when it's 3 inches tall to a height of 2 inches; make sure it (and the soil) is dry on that day! After the first cut, raise your mower blade height to the highest setting (ideally 3.5 to 4 inches). That is the height you want the fescue to be maintained at. Never cut off more than 1/3 off at once (so cut when it's about 5 inches tall). Because your lawn is new ... And because you made the big mistake of planting in the spring, you WILL get weed pressure. Resist the urge to apply any herbicide. Your grass will weaken as a result. Resist the urge, resist the urge, resist the urge. Fall is the ideal time to plant fescue, but what's done is done and you will be throwing money away by spraying herbicide. Resist the urge. On Memorial Day, think about putting down an application of lawn food. I wouldn't recommend any Turf Builder or other synthetic fertilizer until the fall, but organics are great. I like Milorganite personally because it's safe for kids/animals and won't burn the lawn. Give it another dose of organic lawn food on July 4th. Once the lawn your put down has established, you might be surprised how well the bare spots will fill in. (Even with fescue.) deep and infrequent watering + mowing high and often is the recipe for success. For any bare spots that you are still unhappy with come September, save yourself some trouble and just buy a jug of Scotts EZ Seed. It should match the Scotts tall fescue that you put down already. It's meant for patching and it's kind of goof proof.
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dchall_san_antonio
5 years ago
I have also aerated annually and have added 5 applications of baby
shampoos (at 3oz/1000) this year which has dramatically improved my
soils water retention and my root depth.

In my opinion the shampoo did more good than the aeration. I need to keep a file of replies like this. It is amazing to me that people will refuse to spend 50 cents on shampoo to try this out. They prefer to hire a guy to aerate the lawn for $250. If you do choose to aerate, a good follow up would be the shampoo and flooding the holes with water. The whole idea is to improve the soil and water penetration.
Kaylen
5 years ago
Yup I have no desire to mechanically aerate anymore.

The kids that come around charged about $60 for 5000sqft. I can do 4 applications of baby shampoo on that 5000sqft for about $8 plus water.

I hope to do experiments with this next year now that I am a believer, but I think the shampoo is more efficient than anything. Mainly because I can keep the soil softer for longer due to multiple applications thoroughout the year, rather than the 1 aeration.

I basically didn't irrigate through the heat of the summer this year, and basically never got more than 1/2" of rain in any 2 week span. I did however shampoo once every 3 weeks through summer and the soil wasn't a rock like it normally is before a wet September.

I wish I would have found out about the shampoo a few years ago. Could have used that money on more organic fertilizer.
callirhoe123
5 years ago
Baby shampoo? Really? How do you use it? Hadn't heard of this.
Kaylen
5 years ago
I use a hose end sprayer (ortho one), put in 3oz of baby shampoo multipled by the sqft I'm applying it too and blanket the lawn. I know dchall recommends watering it in after, but to be honest I have been lazy and haven't really committed to that.

I start off at a low setting and work my way up to flow rate that is suitable to my walking speed. Then you walk and spray (and pray). The amount of baby shampoo you added should be completely used by the time you covered your lawn.

YouTube gives you a rough idea as well:

New lawn, but patchy. When and how to oversees?

Comments (6)

dchall_san_antonio

Kaylen

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