We've finished some major construction on our tear down and rebuild house,
and now our lawn is in need of reseeding in some large areas.. The soil is
predominately a black dense soil and the water table, at least at this time
is somewhere around 8-10" down in the low spots. I don't think there's any
real amounts of clay in it and I know other than a few small boulders
around, there aren't any (*any*) rocks.. The area could be described as
swampy as the ground simply doesn't drain.. Central New York (snow just left
and looks like it might stay gone).

My plan: run an aerator over the whole area to tear things up (it's quite
compacted in the spots we've been driving over), then reseed.

My questions:

A. I've heard that there's 2 types of "contractor grass seed", one that only
lasts a year and another that stays. Since my goal is to make a decent
looking lawn (not a golf course), I'm trying to keep things cheap. I've also
heard of using oats to get some root structure established, then plant grass
over it toward fall.. Suggestions appreciated..

B. What's a good general fertilization regimen to get it to take off.. If it
rains at all this spring (it didn't at all last year), moisture should most
definitely not be a problem.


I'm in a rural area and the most my neighbors do for their lawns is maybe
mow it a couple times a month. I don't want a backyard full of weeds though.

Thanks for any tips!

Michael Keefe wrote:
We've finished some major construction on our tear down and rebuild house,
and now our lawn is in need of reseeding in some large areas.. The soil is
predominately a black dense soil and the water table, at least at this time
is somewhere around 8-10" down in the low spots. I don't think there's any
real amounts of clay in it and I know other than a few small boulders
around, there aren't any (*any*) rocks.. The area could be described as
swampy as the ground simply doesn't drain.. Central New York (snow just left
and looks like it might stay gone).

My plan: run an aerator over the whole area to tear things up (it's quite
compacted in the spots we've been driving over), then reseed.

My questions:

A. I've heard that there's 2 types of "contractor grass seed", one that only
lasts a year and another that stays. Since my goal is to make a decent
looking lawn (not a golf course), I'm trying to keep things cheap.

Reminds me of a sign a guy a work used to have.

Good
Fast
Cheap

Pick any two.

The notion of a decent lawn and cheap contractor's seed are
incompatible. The best thing you can do is get a high quality grass
seed that is suited to the location. People make the mistake of saving
$100 on grass seed, then spend 10 times that in a few years on
chemicals to fight disease, insects, etc and still don't have a lawn
that looks right.

The idea of aeration is good, but to seed it I would use a slice
seeder, as that is best way of getting seed established, short of
hydroseeding. Use a starter fertilizer. And get the PH tested and
adjust as necessary. Since you're doing this in the Spring instead of
Fall, you will probably want to put down a pre-emergent crabgrass
control in late April that is safe for new grass, eg Tupersan. You
could fertilize again in mid to late May, then again in early Sept and
mid Oct. I would not fertilize over the summer.








I've also
heard of using oats to get some root structure established, then plant grass
over it toward fall.. Suggestions appreciated..

B. What's a good general fertilization regimen to get it to take off.. If it
rains at all this spring (it didn't at all last year), moisture should most
definitely not be a problem.


I'm in a rural area and the most my neighbors do for their lawns is maybe
mow it a couple times a month. I don't want a backyard full of weeds though.

Thanks for any tips!