The General Manager for my region came out and deemed the yard 90% weeds, and said the best thing would be to kill the entire lawn back and reseed it with triple blend Fescue, the best grass for my region. He insisted that it would only take about 4-6 weeks to see the lawn growing back.
Two weeks later, he came out and used total vegetation control to kill back my entire lawn. You see, in order to reseed, you have to kill back your entire lawn. Which, is super sexy and gets the neighbors talking.
Thankfully, once the entire lawn died back, 7-10 days from spraying the round up, Trugreen came out and seeded using a "power seeder". A power seeder cuts ruts in the lawn and shoots grass seed in the ruts.
Then, you water. And water, and water, and then, water some more. Morning and night!
Diligently, I watered. I made Ollie stay off the lawn. I babied the yard like a crazy person. FOR THE NEXT 12 MONTHS!
This is where it goes from bad to ugly...
Due to unforeseen issues, including weather and some mysterious patches that refused to grow, no matter how many times new seed was thrown down, or worked into to new top soil, the grass would not grow. It was devastating to say the least. My lawn, both in the front and back, looked like I owned 100 dogs that are professional lawn wreckers!
By the end of fall 2014, it was clear that the lawn was not going to come in completely, especially, in the patches that refused to grow. So, we had to suck it up, and wait for spring...
March 2015, the first of about 5-6 seedings took place. Nothing changed. The spots that wouldn't grow in the fall, still weren't growing. From March to June 2015, Trugreen would come every few weeks, throw down grass seed, and I would water. It was maddening watering day and night and not seeing any results! By July 2015, I was finished with the seeding process. I refused to water one more time.
The grass would not grow in certain spots and that was that! And then... the crab grass and clover started growing back in.
Needless to say, my yard looked like shit, so naturally, I lost my shit!
Mid-August, a soil test reveled that there were very high amounts of iron in the soil where the grass would not grow. At this point, being that Trugreen wanted to get me the beautiful lawn I was promised, they decided to switch courses and put down sod. And not just in my back yard, my entire yard.
The rest of my lawn is a patchy mess too.
Even though, my front yard was looking good, it still died back in certain places. Truth be told, due to multiple round-up applications to completely kill off the grass, I think there was an excess of vegetation killer used in the areas not growing. But, in this case, Trugreen and I decided to agree to disagree.
As far as seeding goes, I learned that it's a process
1. Kill the grass
2. Work in seeds
3. Water twice, morning and night for 15-20 minutes. I was given a tip to out out a tuna can in the line of the sprinkler and once it was full, the seeds had the water they needed.
4. Wait and watch and water some more.
5. Within 4-6 weeks you will see the new grass filling in.
6. Touch up will most likely be needed. Repeat steps 2-5.
Bottom line, seeding works, but takes a ton of work, water and patience. It's also best to seed during cool wet months, to both save you time and money.
In my case, seeding didn't work out so well. The sod is coming next week, so fingers crossed and stay tuned, because now I will be able to give a full report on Seeding Vs. Sodding.
Have you seeded or sodded? Any tips or tales to help the community decide what's best for them?
