[HomerGuy]

Hi Guys,

We recently moved into a new construction home on a 1.2 acre lot. We were supposed to move in at the end of April, but the construction was delayed by 2 months and we just moved in at 4th of July. Needless to say, that delay put a strain on my lawn plans.

I have about 35,000 SF of dirt to seed. I have a landscaper under contract to install patio, landscape beds, irrigation, and then prep the lawn areas with a harley rake and hand rake. Now we are just waiting for him to show up. All of the contractors around here are so busy it was challenging to even get quotes from people. Right now, he is expecting to be here the week of 8/14 or 8/21 and the work is expected to take one week. This timeline is certainly later than I would have liked, but it is what it is at this point. I was hoping to have the seed down on 8/12, but it looks like it won't be till a couple weeks after that. Not ideal, I know, but I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Even getting the excavator out to grade the yard was tough with everyone being so busy. I was on a 2 month waiting list for the bulldozer to show up. But he finally made it out and did a nice job. Still lots of stones but the landscaper's harley rake and some hand raking should help with that.

Seed is a mix of Award / Bewitched / Blueberry.

With such a large area to seed, the cost of peat moss adds up fast. So in lieu of peat moss, I'm planning to very lightly rake the seed into the soil, and then roll it.

Here is my seed down plan for the day:
1. Broadcast seed at 2.5 lb per k
2. Broadcast starter fertilizer
3. Very lightly rake seed into soil.
4. Roll
5. Spray Tenacity

 

[Redtenchu]

Did seeding go as planned?

That's a nice seed mix, where did you source it?

 

[kolbasz]

Did seeding go as planned?

That's a nice seed mix, where did you source it?

not unless he is in a time machine...it is only the 9th.

 

[Redtenchu]

Did seeding go as planned?

That's a nice seed mix, where did you source it?

not unless he is in a time machine...it is only the 9th.

Doesn't everyone have a Time Machine?

My mistake.

 

[kolbasz]

Did seeding go as planned?

That's a nice seed mix, where did you source it?

not unless he is in a time machine...it is only the 9th.

Doesn't everyone have a Time Machine?

My mistake.

it should be a requirement of lawn care so you can go back and undo mistakes.

 

[wardconnor]

Do you have any saw mills close to you? I just helped a friend seed his 14k back lawn. We top dressed with a light layer of sifted saw dust we bought from a saw mill. We bought like 12 yards which was double what we needed for $10 per yard. We did pick it up ourselves. It is fairly cheap and it does the job of keeping the soil moist. As the seed grows in, the sawdust melts away into the sod.

I paid a guy in 2014 to hydro seed my lawn. In April 2015 I added more lawn and used the sawdust method in replacement of peat moss. I will show you the before and after pics. I know it works if there are sawmills close by where you live. You might want to consider this option as you have a lot already invested into the process and have a large area to seed.

A few days after seed down in April 2015. Ignore the truck ruts in the picture. That is a whole different story.

Current picture in August 2017

 

[GrassDaddy]

If all else fails, know that it will germinate just by raking it in. We're just working with percentages of germination here. If you can use peat moss/something else it will germinate faster and fuller. But in the end you are doing KBG so you can always get it to spread/thicken with nitrogen later on ;-)

FWIW I seeded late last year, and while last fall and this spring it looked terrible, now it's amazing. So a late start isn't the end of the world either.

 

[HomerGuy]

Thanks for all of the replies! Somehow I failed to subscribe to this thread and didn't think anyone replied. I logged in to post an update and was shocked to see so many replies.

Bad news is that the seed is still bagged up in the garage and not in the soil. Good news is that the landscaper is on site and ran the harley rake over everything. Looks great! Sprinkler guy starts tomorrow. I expect to be ready to put seed down on 9/8. Its a few weeks later than I would have liked, but nothing I can do about it at this point so I am trying not to stress out over it.

I sourced the seed from SeedSuperStore. I called around to a few places, and some places had certain cultivars available but not all three. In the end, the convenience of buying from one spot won out. And when you are buying 50 lb bags, the premium at SSS isn't horrible.

I like the idea of sawdust. I do know of one sawmill in the area and will see what they might have.

Also starting to think that peat moss might not be such a huge expense. When you consider how much I have wrapped up in seed, tenacity, starter, blankets, what's another few hundred?

 

[HomerGuy]

Irrigation is in, and the landscaper should be finished up on Wednesday. Planning for seed down next weekend.

I purchased 125 lbs of seed (two 50 lb bags and one 25 lb bag) and need about 90 for the initial seeding. What is the easiest way to blend these thoroughly? I bought four new five gallons pails at home Depot, and was going to weigh it out with my bathroom scale. Then stir it with a paint stick. Good enough?

 

[g-man]

Sound good to me. If the bathroom scale does not give you much resolution in the lower side (ie 10lb), then use the kitchen scale. Just don't ask the wife; grab it, use it, clean it and place it back. Ask for forgiveness if caught.

A fish scale is also a good one with the pails. Use it by lifting by the handle.

 

[LawnNerd]

If you're afraid of being caught by your wife like I am, I bought one on Amazon for $10 and had it 2 day shipped (hooray for prime) it gives resolution down to 2 grams.

 

[HomerGuy]

Kitchen scale ordered from Amazon! I had no idea I could get one for only $10. Only measures up to eleven pounds, but I can always do multiple batches.

 

[g-man]

Scare of the wife? It is not like mine uses the scale or the kitchen daily. :-D :lol:

I ended up buying an analog fish scale not to break the kitchen scale.

 

[HomerGuy]

Scare of the wife? It not like mine uses the scale or the kitchen daily. :-D :lol:

Haha! I actually used to have my wife's old kitchen scale in the garage. She got tired of me borrowing the one from the kitchen so she bought a new one and gave me her old one. Well I eventually broke that one and never replaced it.

Seed is going down this weekend! Currently having a little dispute with my landscaper over the definition of "final grade/seed prep". Here is a picture of an area they still need to work on. Supposedly they will be wrapped up by Thursday.


And a seed picture just for fun.


Also have 300 lbs of Milo, 100 lbs of 15-30-15 starter, two bottles of Tenacity (I had a 10% off coupon at DoMyOwnPestControl.com), and two rolls of erosion control blankets for a small sloped area adjacent to the garage.

 

[g-man]

That's soil is not close to seeding.

Your soil looks fairly dry. I like to give it a good soak days before the seed to help keep things moist.

Good luck.

 

[LawnNerd]

Scare of the wife? It not like mine uses the scale or the kitchen daily. :-D :lol:

I ended up buying an analog fish scale not to break the kitchen scale.

I pray your wife never finds this thread... LOL!

HomerGuy, I would definitely use this time to get some water on that ground. This is also a good time to watch your system. Learn where the water pools from extra coverage and, and how long you need to run it to prevent pooling and see how long it takes to get it damp. When i did my mini reno, i had the sprinklers setup (not in ground) a week early and fined tuned it.

Also, stock up on booze, because once that seed goes down, your gonna want some.

 

[HomerGuy]

That's soil is not close to seeding.

I know, right?!? I mean I am certainly no professional, but come on. Thankfully there are just a few areas like that and they are supposed to get fixed today or tomorrow.

I also appreciate the tips on watering. Yes the soil is really dry right now, and that is a great idea to water it in and check sprinkler coverage.

Looks like I will be getting some help from mother nature on the water later today, and will play around with the sprinklers as well.

 

[g-man]

I just re-read your original post. I have one key advise for you to think about. Depending on how far north you in Michigan (UP?), establishing a kbg lawn in 35k sqft with seed down at 15 Sep might be risky. It might be thin going into winter. 15Sep would be the latest I would do a kbg seeding in Indy. The temperatures in the next weeks will influence your success. I think Ken & Nancy had to do a late seed down due to septic tank late last year and I think they were successful, but it was a smaller area. K&N, any comments or advice?

My advice: Think about adding some PRG into your mix or be ready to address thin areas next spring.

 

[HomerGuy]

Thanks g-man. Yes, I'm pushing the limit big time. I'm not totally comfortable with it, but I don't have many options at this point. When we first started with the house construction, I had big plans. I was going to have the landscaping in by July, have a month or more to fallow, and then drop seed mid-August. Of course the builder was 3 months late finishing the house, and that killed my timeframe.

I am going to cross my fingers and hope for a warm fall. I have 125 lbs of seed to cover what ended up being about 32k SF. At 2.5 lb/k that's 80 lbs dropped, leaving 45 lbs left for touch up spring seeding. And if I have to buy more, I'll reluctantly buy more. Not ideal, but at this point I have to play the hand I'm dealt.

I appreciate the reality check and suggestion of adding some PRG. I've had this dream of a 100% KBG lawn since we started construction, and I'm not ready to give it up yet, even though it will likely mean additional work down the road.

 

[ken-n-nancy]

... in Michigan (UP?), establishing a kbg lawn in 35k sqft with seed down at 15 Sep might be risky. It might be thin going into winter. 15Sep would be the latest I would do a kbg seeding in Indy. The temperatures in the next weeks will influence your success. I think Ken & Nancy had to do a late seed down due to septic tank late last year and I think they were successful, but it was a smaller area. K&N, any comments or advice?

Yes, we did a mini-renovation last year in southern NH (pretty comparable to central Michigan; I used to live in Sault Ste. Marie long ago, which is commensurate to about 100 miles north of where I live now) due to septic tank replacement.

We actually seeded two different types of seed in different areas, due to different parts of our lawn being different grasses, us not having enough Bewitched KBG to seed everything, and my concern that it was too late to seed anything other than Bewitched KBG. Many more details are available in our mini-renovation posting on a different lawn site.

Our seed-down date was 11 October 2016. For reference, our "average first frost" date is September 26. (Yes, we needed to do seed-down two weeks *after* average first frost.)

The Bewitched KBG seeded on 11 Oct 2016 barely germinated. What little did germinate never got more than 1/2" tall and didn't survive the winter.

The northern mix (PRG, KBG, FF) seeded on 11 Oct 2016 had reasonable germination. Some of the grass was about 2" tall going into winter. I don't have sufficient grass ID skills to discriminate between PRG, KBG, and FF seedlings to know if only the PRG germinated. The following spring, though, the only grass left was PRG. (Whether or not KBG and FF seedlings germinated in the late fall, if any did germinate, it didn't grow enough to make it through a NH winter.)

The preceding year, I seeded Bewitched KBG on 9 September 2015 (more details at another site). That was only 17 days before "average first frost" for us here. The Bewitched ended up getting about 1.5" tall before winter, never needing mowing before winter, but all survived to the next year. It was very slow to wake up the following spring, but by the end of June was looking pretty good.

Bottom line: if seeding PRG, it's not too late for our local climate. If seeding KBG, it's going to be dicey -- best case is that it'll just make it, but you better hurry! You are getting real close to the time when failure is unavoidable...

I'm curious as to your zip code to be able to check "average first frost" for your location. I've (barely) had success with two-weeks prior to "average first frost" with Bewitched KBG, although that was a milder-than-usual fall for us.

Personally, I think a KBG seeded after there are only two weeks remaining until "average first frost" has less than a 50% chance of making it. Two weeks after "average first frost" wasn't even close to making it for me, even with a very mild fall.

It does sound like you have plenty of seed left in reserve for next year if needed.