I have had new sod installed in my back yard this spring. I have been watering it regularly and applied a fertilizer/weed control early-June. I have applied a grub control product mid-June. I over-seeded around the same time-frame. All dates are estimates, and may have fluctuated by a week or two. (Old age, the mind is the first thing to go!)
The sod installed is a shade tolerant variety. However, certain portions of my lawn are not doing well…
1.) Small circular dead-spots which look like the type of dead spots you see with grubs. I have treated for grubs so I don’t think that is the source. This section gets sun most of the day. Other areas (the larger majority of the yard) of the lawn which receive the same amount of sun are doing just fine.
2.) A mid sized section is almost entirely in the shade all day long. This area is thining out significantly.
I am looking to over-seed and apply fertilizer again. My question is on timing, is it better to apply the fertilizer/weed control now (end of August) and then wait until the end of September to over-seed. Or should I reverse this, over-seed now and increase watering for the new seed and then apply fertilizer/weed control at the end of September?
The landscaping company is willing to return mid-September to replace sections of sod. Is doing any of the above a waste of time considering some portions of sod will be replaced anyway?
Could be the creatively-named “brown patch.” It’s a fungalinfection. Top Google result linked, with treatments I don’t necessarily vouch for or know anything about. For the organic gardener, corn mealis a good fungicide.
Well, at least we know it is a “cool-season” grass vs a “warm-season” one based on your location.
Do you have a big weed problem? Unless your sod is really infested, I would probably skip the weed and feed and just feed with spot treatment for the weeds with a garden sprayer. Then overseed in a week or so. I am not that familiar with the OH climate, but I would think that leaving overseeding until the end of September could be risky in terms of still having enough warm days for good germination.
For the shady spot, I don’t know if there is anything to do. I have a shady spot under a maple in my front yard and despite trying every type of “deep shade” seed on the market, the grass that flourishes during the late fall through early spring invariably dies back during the summer once the leaves come in.
Actually no, with it being a new lawn I don’t have any weeds at all. There is a weed infested lawn next to me so using a weed control is preventative more than anything. (I also treat about 6 feet of the lawn next to me as a “barrier”). The fertilizer component will benefit the new lawn and help it continue to get established.
The section that is thining out is also shaded by a large maple. I’m having a tree-service come in and clean up the canopy in a couple weeks so hopefully that will help with getting some more sun light into this specific area.
My Michigan yard has sandy soil and an abundance of maple trees, providing lots of shade. Maples tend to have shallow roots, and will ‘steal’ large amounts of water and fertilizer from the grass. The more I water and feed, the more these surface roots seem to multiply; combined with the shade, the grass really struggles.
I was doing a little maintenance on an inground sprinkler head in the middle of my yard, probably 20-30 feet from the nearest tree. I had to dig for an hour to get a hole big enough that I could replace the head. Damn maple roots had completely surrounded the old head and wouldn’t let go.
Love the shade in the summer and color in the fall, but they do make having a decent lawn a challenge.