I built a new home and the builder put in grass seed back in late October/early November. After seeding he put down a netting with hay. He said it would be fine over the winter and the netting will help retain moisture. Eventually, he said that the grass will grow and the netting will break down. So far, however, there’s barely any grass sprouting. I emailed the builder and he said that it will still take time I asked about over-seeding and he said I could seed over the netting. I bought some seed and the guy at Home Depot said that it was a bad idea to seed over the netting (the netting and hay is very sparse though). Who is right? Should I do anything or wait until Summer? Or, should I wait until whatever little is growing grows enough to cut and then seed?
And where on Earth do you live? The correct advice varies between northern Maine and Southern Arizona. Not to mention Yukon territory and Chiapas Mexico. All of which have Home Depot.
Sorry upstate NY.
I used to work at Home Depot. I would not go to them for advice. Though at one store, I worked with a Master Plumber who knew EVERYTHING. But, I digress.
Is there a Garden/Nursery kind of place near you? Ask them for advice. They may suggest you bring them a soil sample.
Also, it’s only early May. Wait a bit. Grass is Hard. 
Are you serious about the hay? Because straw is the preferred mulch. Pasture hay has a lot of undesirable seeds. Although I used to live in upstate NY (north of Albany) and early is pretty early. Hell, we weren’t guaranteed to be past the last frost until Memorial Day most years.
NY , well its spring for you… so now’s the time for it to germinate.
They detect the warm and wet conditions and sprout then !
What was he doing putting seeds in during autumn ? thats the wrong time for NY.
Maybe right for AZ…
both the soil has to warm and be at the correct moisture. it is still early for the ground to be warm enough in the far north for many seeds.
Mostly this. It’s a good time to seed your lawn, but germination is going to take longer because of cooler ground temps and the chilly nighttime temps that we still have. However, spring rains theoretically should help out. Spring and autumn are best for successfully getting grass to grow.
I live in Upstate NY too, seeded an area 2 weeks ago, and it finally started to germinate over the past couple of days. It’s not all completely germinated yet, but it is finally more promising.
We gave the area a good watering once or twice per day, depending on how dry it was. We did not use any netting or straw, but you’ll need to use something if you can’t keep it watered in a timely fashion and the rains don’t cooperate, or if it’s on a hill and you have to worry about water washing away the seed. I work from home so it was easy to keep an eye on watering needs, and the area was flat so there were no worries about seed washing away.
The other alternative is to buy sod if it’s a reasonably small area. We just did this for another small area around the foundation of the house that was roughly 40 feet long and 4 feet wide. Some local garden centers carry sod; others don’t. We bought more sod than we needed and will use the remainder to fill in other areas that had to be dug up last year. We spent about $110 on sale for sod and used about a third of that for the 40X4 area.
We didn’t want to be running so much water near the foundation of the house, lest we get water intrusion (old house, old foundation), so we went with the sod instead of seed. It might be something to consider if the area is not too big and the builder isn’t helpful. But give the seed time (and water) to germinate.
Yeah, I don’t know what the logic was to seed before winter. I think the stated reason was to get the work done while he had the people and to let it germinate over the winter so it would be ready by spring. It could either be hay or straw, it’s yellow…
I looked at the netting where it was rolled over and it looks like the grass is growing albeit thinly.
So can I seed over the netting? Or, will the seed just get stuck in the netting and not properly take root? The holes in the net look like 2x2 inch (maybe 2.5). I tried rolling out the netting that had been rolled over and it was pretty tangled. It looks like I got half of it to unroll.
The original fall seeding was probably too late in the season.
If the netting truly is biodegradable, it won’t hurt to seed over it. Seeding directly into hay is not a good idea though.
Grass seed needs a prepared bed, with the soil loosened enough for seedlings to put down roots and to absorb water properly. You definitely do not want to wait until later in the year to sow more seed (cool, moist conditions are what grass seedlings want).
the reason is that the ground is hard. in spring, with snow melt water and rain water, the ground is soft and you will dent the earth. you could wait until the ground hardens in spring but then you might loose a little bit of germination/growing time. you would then be looking at just brown instead of the greening and netting.
you can seed over the netting. you will loose a bit of seed compared to bare ground. the netting help holds moisture, which you want, and keeps the dirt in place until the grass is established.
A few people have hit it right; the ground just isn’t warm enough yet for the seeds to sprout – past couple of warm days may have started them. Grassy seeds sprout when the forsythias are dropping their flowers.
Water lightly twice a day. You don’t need to soak the ground deeply, just get the seeds and top inch or two of soil wet twice a day.
The main purpose of the straw is to keep the light from the seeds; generally, weed seeds germinate in the sunlight and grass seeds germinate in the dark – that’s why those dandelions sprout in the bare patches. Secondary benefits of the straw cover are retaining moisture and preventing the birds from eating all the seeds.
Sounds to me like your contractor knew what he was doing. Not his fault that the job was done too late in the season to start your lawn in the fall (and BTW, early fall, right around Labor Day, is the best time to start a lawn – spring is second best). Just keep it moist for a week or two and it will be fine. Mow when it needs it, no special care required. The straw will gradually disappear within a few weeks.
Have some time … figured I’d go into a little more detail.
First, I suggest you give the setup you already have in place a chance. It is important to do the twice a day light watering to give the grass seed a chance to germinate before the straw is gone and the weed seeds start to take root. Keep it up for at least a week, better ten days to two weeks. Some of the grass seeds (the ryegrass) will sprout within a few days but the fescue and bluegrass seeds take a lot longer to germinate – that is why you want to keep up the watering routine for longer than might seem is necessary.
If you do the watering, you will get a thick lawn which will help keeps weeds out on its own. If you don’t do the watering the lawn will likely be sparse and weedy. Some of the fescue and bluegrass will eventually germinate on its own, but it is much better to get as much of the grass going as possible right in the beginning.
Advice from HomeDepot people can be very hit or miss. I suggest you hang on to your bag of seed and do your overseeding in the fall. Grass seed needs to be in contact with the soil to germinate. You won’t be able to achieve that by spreading it on top the straw … and you really don’t want to disturb the whole setup you already have in place. Basically, if you spread your seed now, you will pretty much be providing some very expensive bird seed.
For best results when the time comes for overseeding, after you spread the seed, “drag” the lawn – drag an old piece of carpet, a piece of chain link fence, an old board, anything that will help shake loose the seeds that are clinging to grass blades and get them to fall to the ground. After dragging, you can again increase the percentage of seeds that successfully sprout by running a roller over the lawn to insure firm contact with the soil.
The fact that your contractor bothered to put down netting to hold the straw in place makes me think he has done a pretty good job. Give it a chance. You can do your overseeding at any time if you really want to, but early fall is best because the shortening days and cooling temperature puts the grass into root growth mode as they prepare to survive the winter.
So get the sprinkler going and enjoy watching the grass grow.
Oh … and … a lot of “contractor grade” grass seed mixtures contain a lot of annual ryegrass because it is cheap and it sprouts very quickly (within three days). It gives a nice looking lawn quickly, but the annual ryegrass will die in October and will not come back next year. It is important to get those other types of seeds germinated.