Sunday, March 2, 2008

An Online Question

One of my readers writes:

Q: Sodfather, hello from Northern Virginia. I did a total front yard restoration last fall. I removed the sod with a sod cutter, did a little tilling of the soil and then brought in several yards of top soil. I seeded with pure Midnight. I have full sun in the day and an irrigation system. The grass took 4 weeks to come up but stopped growing around November. My question would be; do you recommend overseeding now? I am about to purchase more seed. Should I buy some Bedazzled or stick with the midnight? What are your recommendations for feeding and when? I feel the grass needs to be thicker and understand KBG will fill in but I want to give it a jump start.

A: I'm not an expert in northern Virginia, but it's probably close enough for me to wing it. My restoration was last year, too, about the same time and mine stopped growing in mid-November.

You can overseed now if you like, although spring seeding always takes more poorly than fall does. Adding another cultivar would add more resiliency in case of disease or insect problems, but you'll find that Midnight is a pretty hardy grass to begin with and doesn't have too many issues.

Bedazzled is excellent, but you'll find it's a slightly lighter green. If you're looking to add a high note of color in the lawn, it's perfect. If you want a darker color, try Moonlight.

Feeding is the most important part (well, proper watering and mowing are actually more imporant, but I'm assuming you're somewhere in that range). For an organic feeding, feed at any time between now and May. For synthetics like Scott's, hold off until May. Spring grasses grow roots more than blades, so you want to encourage that. High nitrogen feeds force the growth up top. Organics, which are much more balanced, tend not to.

I just dumped 15 lbs per thousand square feet of alfalfa (mostly) meal on the lawn, and I'll feed with 12 lbs per thousand of kelp meal yet this month (which has very little NPK, but a lot of minor elements).

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