Get the soil tested, at least for PH. New material that is trucked in
can be way out of wack, frequently too low in PH. A PH of about 6.5
is good for most grass types. Get it adjusted with lime now if
necessary.

Wait till early Sept to reseed. If you have lots of weeds, little
grass, kill the whole thing with roundup the week before you reseed.

Rent a slice seeder and use the best seed you can find. A mix of tall
fescue, Rebel variety is good and blue grass should work fine. If you
are more concerned about drought resistance since it's raised, I think
Loft's has a summer stress mix seed. Use starter fertilizer, keep it
constantly lightly wetted, use weed free straw or some peat moss as a
light top dressing to help retain moisture.









"Peter H" wrote in message able.rogers.com...
"Joe Zorzin" wrote in message
...
Wow, a newsgroup on lawns! What will they think of next.

Anyways, last year I had a new septic field built here in a mountain top
hill town in western Massachusetts- where the ground won't perk due to
heavy
clay soils.

The new septic field is a huge "mound" type. The contractors brought in
something like 38 huge truck loads of gravel and sand and whatever else
goes
into it. It's almost the size of a tennis court! The top is elevated like
a
mound with a gentle slope in all directions. The contractor told me that
there is 4" of top soil on top of all that sand and gravel.

The lawn that they seeded hasn't come in well. At the time, I had no idea
of
what type of seed is available- since then I've learned about "contractor
mix" which I think has some weeds in it which can grab hold quick to hold
the dirt in place. Along the edges of the mound, the grass has come in
much
better- but in the middle it looks sparse.

I'm trying to keep the cost down in fixing the lawn problem. Most people
seem to think the best solution is to spread out more grass seed. That may
be true, but I also wonder if the top soil is deficient and it's probably
excessively well drained in the middle.

If I were to spread seed, what type is best? Can I spread fertilizer at
the
same time? Any other suggestions?

We've had far too much rain this spring, so a shortage of water at this
time
can't be the problem.

--
Joe Zorzin



It sounds to me like the weeds got a foothold before the grass had a chance
to. The fault may have been with the topsoil or the seed. This is a very
common problem when starting a lawn from seed anyway. My suggestion would be
to get rid of the weeds and then see what happens. You may possibly be
pleasantly surprised to find that there is a lawn there struggling to come
through.

The best time to seed a lawn is in mid-August as the fall weed season is not
nearly as competitive as the spring one. Why not take a couple of wacks at
the weeds with a weed killer this spring and then reseed in August.

Peter H