The Great Lawn Seeding Conundrum. I've reached an impass.

Factual Questions
1

Ok, I’m helping a buddy reseed his lawn, and we are coming to a large problem. I need some advice and possibly some guidance.

History: The reason he is coming to me for help seeding his lawn is because my lawn is anally put together, meaning I spend hours each year maintaining it and keeping it looking it’s best. I use a personal blend of Bluegrass and Fine Fescue on my lawn. I have about 60% shade at noon in the summer and small rolling hills and flat areas…Not direct sunlight. Acreage is roughly 8 acres of grass, the rest woodlands.

Current Project: 1.5 Acres direct sunlight nearly all day. Rocks, ruts, boulders, sand/dirt, patchy crab grass everywhere. Essentially, when they built the house they didn’t touch the yard…so each year for the last 3 years, neighbors yards have been contributing to the crab grass with their annual pollination and seeding.

Not the ideal situation.

I am suggesting first of all to put some mulched areas in the more heavily laden rocky areas…basically, cover it up with some areas where a water feature and other annuals can look nice and cover the more rocky areas.

However, I was spoiled when it came to my lawn. I was anal about it when it was being built, so it was done right. I also had a foot and a half of soil from the local mushroom farm put over most of it, so the soil was second to none.

However in this case I am worried, he won’t be able to do that…so any suggestions on if we should import some soil…or till under the existing stuff and seed the hell out of it? I am usually not at an impass when it comes to this sort of thing, but this guy really has a chore with his lawn.

So any anecdotes would be helpful. And links to products if possible would be great! Thanks all.

2

I feel his pain - I just moved into a new house in November and have had to work like a dog to get the lawn started.

My advice:

Till the entire area and rake what rocks can be got out.
Amend the soil in the formerly rocky areas with some well rotted manure and turn them into perennial borders or shrub borders. Mulch well after planting. He’s now cut way down on the lawn portion of the project.
Get a soil test from the local extension agent (this should probably be done first). Amend the soil as suggested by the soil test.
Plant a builders mix, add straw to prevent moisture loss and retard erosion.

My biggest piece of advice though is to wait 'til Fall to do any of it - I don’t know where you’re located, but summer isn’t the time to start a lawn (unless it is a hot season grass).

3

We are in Connecticut. The farmer’s almanac say’s Mid October. So we will wait until then I am sure. I hope we can get the rock out, and maybe set up the soil properly.

4

I’d put ground cover plants in the rocky areas, first of all. For the rest of the lawn ares, I wouldn’t import soil, but till and amend what he has. Compost is your friend here. Many towns in CT have composting. That stuff will be black gold for your friend’s lawn.