# Should I spring overseed? Advice would be great.



## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

New member as of today, but have been browsing the forum for a while. So a belated thank you for all of the knowledge I have gleaned thus far. I also apologize for the long post, but I don't want to miss anything!

A little background. I moved into a house in central NJ (07091 zip) Dec 2015 after it had been vacant for a few years. A big reason for the vacancy was that during my inspection to purchase the house, we found an underground oil tank that need to be removed and remediated, which took almost 12 months to complete. I mention this because I think when they dug up the tank, they dumped the soil on the backyard, which I suspect is why I had bad soil back there. Also, I suspect they reseeded the area where the tank was with some cheap contractors mix.

The property isn't huge, about 4k sqft of lawn split evenly between front and back. The front yard has 4 mature maple trees on it so gets some shade/filtered sun. It appears whoever lived there prior took pretty good care of the yard, however when it was vacant, the neighbors tell me it was very overgrown. The dominant grass there seems to be a type of fine fescue. The backyard is surrounded by hedges, but pretty much gets sun all day except early am. I think there is more of a mix of KBG/FF/PRG in the back and it is in much worse shape than the front. Lots of weeds, bad soil, rocks, bare spots, etc.

I had a newborn when we moved in, so the first season I did very little to the lawn aside from some fertilizer and spraying for weeds. Last winter is when I decided to do something. In the early spring, I ordered 2 yards of compost and top-dressed the whole yard. Before doing a bunch of research on grass types, I bought 25 lbs of Pennington NE Mix (roughly 60% PRG/20% KBG/ 20% Fescue if memory serves) and overseeded with my broadcast spreader. I watered 3x a day for 10-15 min.

The result was actually pretty good. The bare spots filled in for the most part, but by the time July/Aug came around the weeds were back and seemed to be winning the battle with the grass. I used some tenacity and q4 plus over the summer to try to fight them back and it worked okay, but I still was not where I wanted to be. So I started planning for the fall.

In the fall I did some more extensive research and emailed Drew at SSS. He suggested overseeding with 100% KBG so I ended up taking his advice and ordered higher end seeds. For the front yard, because of the trees, I bought 3lbs of Bewitched KBG. For the back I bought 10 lbs of the Three-way Kentucky bluegrass blend from SSS (Midnight, Diva, and something else). I also bough few lbs of Pangea PRG and mixed everything together, going heavier on the bewitched for the front. I aerated and a week later overseeded with a slit seeder I rented from HD. Watered 3x a day again, etc.

So here I am now. I look outside and I do not notice a ton more growth since I did that fall seeding, although I did not take photos prior to for comparison, unfortunately.

I am thinking about doing a spring seeding again and I am curious if anyone thinks that is is good or bad idea. Should I even include KBG in the mix or just go with the quicker to establish PRG? Or am I being stupid and the grass planted last fall is likely to fill in this spring? Ultimately I have told myself that regardless of if I put down seed this spring or not, if I am not happy with the lawn come fall, I would like to nuke it and put down 100% bewitched (although I am not 100% positive this would work well with the 4 shade trees in the front.). Any advice?


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## jessehurlburt (Oct 18, 2017)

Hey gm-

Welcome! There are a lot of folks here more knowledgeable than myself, but I will share my experience and things I have picked up in the last year or so.

Most everyone here will tell you to skip spring seeding. The seedlings are still young when the summer heat comes and it's tough to keep the plant alive. More weed pressure in the summer. Fall has warm soil temps to get the seedlings going quickly and less stress from heat and weeds.

I've read here that KBG doesn't do too well in an overseed due to the long germination time and being shaded out by other grasses. That said, I have zero experience with *** personally, and I can't imagine Drew would steer you wrong. :|

Did you get a good deal of *** germination in the fall? If so, also keep in mind that KBG is slow to establish even once it does germinate, so if you think the *** germinated and went into winter OK, you may be surprised once it warms up and the KBG gets going. As you probably know, the *** will fill in a good deal in year 2.

I think the safe play is skip the spring seeding, apply a pre-m soon, work on what weeds are left during the summer, adjust PH if needed, then see where you're at mid summer and decide then if you want to keep working on it, or kill it and reno.

Can you share some pictures?

Jesse


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

I saw some germination from the fall seeding... but unfortunately not sure what was PRG and what was KBG. What was interesting to see was there were patches were it came up really strong. Other patches where I saw very little difference. I will take some pictures when it stops raining .


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

jessehurlburt said:


> I think the safe play is skip the spring seeding, apply a pre-m soon, work on what weeds are left during the summer, adjust PH if needed, then see where you're at mid summer and decide then if you want to keep working on it, or kill it and reno.


Is there a good pre-m to use knowing I may be seeding in the fall? I am a bit ignorant to them, do any say effective long enough to screw up germination in the fall?


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## ericgautier (Apr 22, 2017)

jessehurlburt said:


> I think the safe play is skip the spring seeding, apply a pre-m soon, work on what weeds are left during the summer, adjust PH if needed, then see where you're at mid summer and decide then if you want to keep working on it, or kill it and reno.


 :wave: Fellow Jerseyan...

I'm with @jessehurlburt on this.

Apply a good pre-m when the time comes, tackle the weeds, fertilizer as needed and see how the lawn looks mid summer then decide.

For pre-m, check out the post made by @g-man here - https://thelawnforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1595


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## ABC123 (Jul 14, 2017)

What have you been fertilizing with?


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

Milorganite or Ringer on the holidays. I used a starter from HD in the spring and the "Kinder Blend" Starter from SSS for the fall overseed.


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## ericgautier (Apr 22, 2017)

gm560 said:


> Milorganite or Ringer on the holidays. I used a starter from HD in the spring and the "Kinder Blend" Starter from SSS for the fall overseed.


If you can find a retailer near you, I suggest looking into OceanGro. It is our local brand of Milorganite and cost way cheaper. :thumbup:


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

"Local". Aka neighbors poop on my lawn  . Thanks for the tip might need to make a trip to East Brunswick and stock up for the season.


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## ericgautier (Apr 22, 2017)

gm560 said:


> "Local". Aka neighbors poop on my lawn  . Thanks for the tip might need to make a trip to East Brunswick and stock up for the season.


 :lol: yep. They usually have a sale in April to kick off the season. Not a bad idea to stock up then.


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

Okay. I will heed the advice I received here. I ordered a jug of Prodiamine from DoYourOwn and have begun building my renovation schedule. I just know myself and I'm not gonna be happy until its perfect, I have a feeling others here can relate.

With that said, I would like to spend the spring and summer doing a few things:
1. Leveling the lawn. Its not terrible, but there are definitely high and low spots, especially in the back. 
2. Improving the soil. Once again in the back I have some drainage problems that I think are due to compacted soil and low spots.
3. Installing an irrigation system.

My plan right now is:
1. Put down the Prodiamine soon to fight back weeds.
2. Order a few yards of material and level the lawn. My local delivery place (http://www.bartellsfarmandgarden.com/products_bulk.html) has Topsoil, Brown Dirt, Black Dirt, and Mushroom Compost. I am thinking 50/50 mix of mushroom compost and black dirt. Would this be a good choice? Mix in sand as well? I have no experience with mushroom compost.
3. Install the sprinkler over the summer
4. In Aug nuke the lawn and reseed with Bewitched.

This look okay? Is there any problem if I top-dress over the PreM? And how shade tolerant can I expect Bewitched to be. Does it do okay under a few shade trees?


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## jessehurlburt (Oct 18, 2017)

Have you had a soil test yet?


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

jessehurlburt said:


> Have you had a soil test yet?


I did my own with a kit I bought on amazon. As a result added some lime last year and raise my N applications. But haven't sent out anything official.


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