DIYbanter - View Single Post

jIM wrote:
wrote:
How long grass takes to germinate depends on the type. Fescue will
take 7-10 days, while blue grass can take 21 days.

Trying to establish a lawn at this time of year in Ohio is extremely
difficult. You have the worst of everything. Increasing temps, strong
competition from weeds, crabgrass germinating, the likelihood of
periods with little rain and high temps ahead, etc. And these are cool
season grasses, which want to grow agressively in fall and spring, not
the high heat of summer. IMO, for any decent size lawn, unless you
have inground sprinklers and water is free, it's just impractical to
be able to successfully establish a lawn from seed now.

Watering once a day from the start might be sufficient in mid Sept or
April, but it isn't going to give good results now. The surface of
the soil needs to be kept constantly damp for the first several weeks.
This time of year, that means watering several times a day. Somewhere
around 11am, 3pm, then 8pm would be good. It doesn't have to be deep,
just enough to keep the surface wet. As the grass comes in, you can
gradually back off the watering frequency, but increase the duration,
so you water deeper.

In all, you may be better off just giving up on what's there with the
plan to kill off everything in early Sept, then reseed. This also
gives you the ability to use quality seed, instead of the typical cheap
crap that a builder will throw down.

My neighbor has been out mowing once already. he and I have the same
builder, and in some places my grass is 4" tall, in other places it's
still dirt.

My backyard is shaded during the day and looks "better" than my front,
but there are still bare spots.

My sides are sloped (60 degree grade?) and there are many more bare
spots.

My front is sloped (10 degree grade?) and the grass is not as tall, and
this gets most of morning/early afternoon sun. There are bare spots
here, mostly at the edges.

I plan on watering some each evening, seeing what grows, and if front
yard hits 3", I will cut, then reseed the bare spots. I base this on
suggestions above that grass doesn't grow well this time of year, so no
reason to put too much effort into the bare spots. Once Fall hits I
will add more seed and try to regrow the bare spots.

if water hits the edges, grass grows... must have missed something
early on with that sprinkler...