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Mary Beth wrote:

Needless to say my lawn, which was coming up just beautifully, now has a
LOT
of huge tire tracks in it, and the grass has been trampled to under the
dirt! Is there ANY way I can save this? Or do I just have to reseed the
'track marks'?

If by tire tracks you mean that the soft soil has sunk down 3 inchs
where it was run over, which is what probably happened, then the best
solution will be to fill it in with topsoil and reseed. If it's only
an inch deep depression, then I'd just wait and see what happens. The
new grass may survive. If it's been pushed into the ground, very
lightly raking with a lawn rake may help pull some of the grass out and
help it survive. Given that it's so l

Okay great, it may be able to come back up. It's just about one inch deep
tracks. Luckily it hasn't rained for over a week now, and I had planned on
watering *after* they dumped the sand. I still was only expecting the
smaller back hoe.
It did rain a lot last nite, so we'll see how that does.

I did put down a lot more seed than I usually do, and the lawn is so
luscious and full! Do I need to water more often, (as I was told by a
neighbor), if I've overseeded?

Yes, if anytime you seed you need to keep the surface constantly damp
for several weeks. As the grass starts to get established you can
graduallly reduce the watering. During hot weather this summer, you
will need to water it at least every several days, as the new grass
won't have deep roots this season and will die from lack of water,
while regular grass would survive. That;s one of the big advantages to
seeding in the Fall, instead of Spring. The new grass has more than
twice as long to get established before hot weather arrives.

Yeah, I understand this, but had no choice, we bought the house last
September and the back yard wasn't the top priority.
The lawn has been doing very well. I did all the tilling and seeding in
March. It is a lawn finally, and even tho I watered every day, I'd started
to back down the past three weeks, as the grass is very well established and
is getting very long. It's been mowed to about 3 inches every time so far.

Was I wrong to overseed, and do I need to make up for that with extra
waterings?

Now I'm confused. You said you roto tilled the lawn. That is not
overseeding. Overseeding is used when the grass that is already there
is desirable, but not dense enough. You typically overseed using a
slice seeder, which is most effective. Or you can also do it following
core aeration.

Okay, I see what you mean. I did till it, the whole yard, raked and rolled
it. Then spread the seed, a LOT of seed. That's what *I* was calling
'over-seeding' I put down a lot of it. Perhaps over-'sowing' would be
clearer.

What you described is called establishing a new lawn. And typically
you would use Roundup to kill the grass that was already there prior to
tilling.

Wasn't much in the way of anything but dirt there, when we started. But did
do a spot spray.

It's also not clear what the exiting problem was. Was the lawn thin
and not able to grow in via normal care, like good Fall fertilization?
It almost sounds like you did this because you had 20 weeds? If
that was the only problem, this was the wrong solution. Many lawns
have some weeds that are easily eliminated with spot application of
weed killer.


Nope, misunderstanding, I was merely bragging about how great the lawn is,
so thick not very many weeds have a chance to get through. I dig them all
out, every time by the roots, and keep on top of it, as my neighbors
house/lawn is empty and has plenty of weeds there....gotta keep the seeds
from there, out of my lawn.

My main problem is the tire tracks, and I'll just have to wait and see.

Thanks for your reply, I do appreciate it.

MaryBethj