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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: Most of what's there is actually crabgrass. I just overseeded this section and have been keeping it watered, but germination is sparse (another area up by the house has much better germination). This also happened last year when we seeded and this area just didn't take. 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!!

Except I'm not a pro, I'm technically a hobbyist. My argument is that this means I'm interested in helping you achieve a beautiful lawn (and beautiful gardens) and don't have any stake in making money out of it. I do it because I like helping other people achieve the perfect yard. You'll note that I don't tend to recommend a specific company for anything unless the price is very good or the item is very hard to find. Post-watering, grass should rebound in two hours. Three if it's pretty badly stressed. Several days if it was going dormant, several weeks if dormant. If it doesn't then water wasn't the problem, but it's a cheap initial thing to try. Sawdust...there will be a ton of the stuff from tree removal there, and it's going to suck up nitrogen like nobody's business. However, it won't kill the lawn, just render it very light green and slow-growing. To counter that, slop on Milorganite (chosen here as a specific company because of the modest amount of fast nitrogen in it and large amount of slow nitrogen) at 20-30 pounds per thousand in that location even if you already fed organically. That'll overwhelm the system, add nitrogen, and restore the lawn quickly. Oceangro, Baystate, or a half rate high-nitrogen synthetic feeding plus any other organic will also be just fine and work the same. On the up side, once decayed that sawdust will give you fantastic soil in that spot, and ultimately end up sustaining the lawn better than standard soil. But decay takes years. For now, let's see what it looks like this evening. (tapping teeth) If you want to, you could spray some of the lighter-colored seeding tufts with Tenacity. If they're P. annua, they'll start to fade toward white in ten days or so, but reapplication of the Tenacity will be required to make them eventually (slowly) go away. If they're not P. annua, only slight whitening happens, and the patch will recover in a month or so with no harm done.

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