Does Your Lawn Need a Little Love?

If so, this is the perfect time of the year to fix that. Whether seeding a new lawn, or thickening an existing lawn, from August 15 up until September 25 is the best time to start grass seed. We don’t sell grass seed, so I don’t have a horse in the race. I just want to give you a heads up that it’s time to do it now. 

Since most likely you have an existing lawn that needs a bit of thickening, I’ll talk about that. Remember, something is better than nothing. So, if you can’t do all the steps, pick and choose what you can do. 
Give your lawn a very hard raking. That will get rid of dried grass leaves and thatch, allowing the seed to get into good contact with the soil. While you can get a dethatching blade for your mower, or rent a dethatcher, in most cases that is overkill. Simply rake hard. It’s good for the grass seed and it’s great exercise! 
Next comes the seed. When you go to buy seed you will likely be faced with a ton of different options. What is the best? Well, best can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. In my world best is the one that’s going to work. Because of that, I like to choose a grass seed that is a mix of three different species of grass. 
First is Kentucky Bluegrass. This is an amazing grass that takes a while to get established, but once established, it is extraordinarily wear tolerant and recovers from injury quickly. But like most everything in life, there is no free lunch. Kentucky blue needs full sun, high levels of nutrition, and great growing conditions. If you have all three of those, you’re probably not even reading this article, because your lawn looks fantastic to start with.
The second kind is a fescue. There are many different types of fescue now, but in general, they are somewhat more shade tolerant. Let me take a moment to elaborate on that. When you see a bag of shady blend grass seed, it doesn’t mean that it likes the shade. It simply doesn’t hate the shade quite as much as some of the other grass seed types. No grass likes the shade! Because of the way that fescues grow, they don’t recover from injury as quickly as a bluegrass does. But they are also much more accepting of less-than-ideal typical residential lawn conditions.
Perennial Ryegrass is the last type. Fast to start growing and rugged, perennial rye used to be considered a course textured second rate grass. But breeders have made lots of improvements over the past 15 or 20 years. So it is worthy of being part of your mix. 
You may be asking why I suggest using a mix. Initially most of the seeds will germinate. But because a lawn is rarely completely uniform, certain parts of the mix will flourish in certain areas it is best suited to. Some spots might have deeper topsoil. Others might be a bit drier. Don’t worry about the differences, simply spread the seed. 
After spreading the seed it’s a great idea to set up a sprinkler and water it in. In addition to providing moisture, this will help to bring the seed into better contact with the soil. In a perfect world you would want to keep the soil surface moist for 2-3 weeks as the seeds germinate. But that can be a labor intensive task unless you have an irrigation system. So any moisture you can add during this time is beneficial. 
Fertilizer and ground limestone are also important pieces of the lawn puzzle. But I’ve run out of my word allotment, so that will have to wait for another time. 

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