Round-up before reseeding?
 

My front lawn is 90% crabgrass and I'd like to start a new lawn this Fall
with either a heat resistant fescue or a heartier variety like Bermuda or
St. Aug (I live in Atlanta & get almost full sun). Two questions:

1. should I just use Round-up to kill everything off first or is a
weed-killer a better choice?
2. Can either Bermuda or St. Augustine be started from seed and what are the
pros/cons of these varieties?

Thanks,

W.D.

I suggest you use a sod cutter and lay down some good soil, rather than use
Round Up. If you stray it, you'll need to wait till Spring to seed it.

"W.D." wdanis at NO SPAM dot yahoo dot com wrote in message
...
My front lawn is 90% crabgrass and I'd like to start a new lawn this Fall
with either a heat resistant fescue or a heartier variety like Bermuda or
St. Aug (I live in Atlanta & get almost full sun). Two questions:

1. should I just use Round-up to kill everything off first or is a
weed-killer a better choice?
2. Can either Bermuda or St. Augustine be started from seed and what are
the pros/cons of these varieties?

Thanks,

W.D.

"I suggest you use a sod cutter and lay down some good soil, rather
than use
Round Up. If you stray it, you'll need to wait till Spring to seed it.
"

Use a sod cutter to re-seed a typical front lawn? What are you
smoking? You can use Roundup and re-seed a week later. From a
practical standpoint, allowing about 2 weeks works better to allow time
for the existing vegetation to completely die off.

"W.D." wdanis at NO SPAM dot yahoo dot com wrote in message
...
My front lawn is 90% crabgrass and I'd like to start a new lawn this Fall
with either a heat resistant fescue or a heartier variety like Bermuda or
St. Aug (I live in Atlanta & get almost full sun). Two questions:

1. should I just use Round-up to kill everything off first or is a
weed-killer a better choice?
2. Can either Bermuda or St. Augustine be started from seed and what are
the pros/cons of these varieties?

Thanks,

W.D.

Roundup is a fine choice for killing off your old lawn. You need to wait at
least a week before re-seeding.

That said, it is very late in the season to re-seed Bermuda in Atlanta (I'm
on the northside myself). I'd wait until late next spring to seed Bermuda.
I don't think St Augustine comes in a seeded variety, but I could be wrong.

If you're thinking Fescue, go ahead and do the roundup thing, wait a week,
till (or rake, or dethatch, or do something to disturb the soil for seed),
smooth, and seed. Keep the area damp and you'll have grass in a week or two.
Next spring, you'll have a nice lawn.

Personally, I've always found it very hard to keep a decent fescue lawn
here. If you use enough pre-emergents to prevent crabgrass and other weeds
from taking over, you'll have germination problems when you overseed with
fescue, which you need to do every year. Also, fescue is a very fragile
grass in this climate. Almost any post-emergent crabgrass product you can
name will cause serious injury to Fescue. It's a real catch-22. That's why
I'm transitioning to zoysia.

Speaking of which, if you're the patient type, you could seed with Zenith
zoysia late next spring. One of my in-laws has it, and it looks very nice.

I'm a fan of sod myself...

KB