Today I’m answering a few questions I got from last week’s video show you how to seed your lawn in fall time and get awesome results in just 18 days. I followed the plan in my FREE Guide to Fall Lawn Seeding.
Those are amazing results I know. If you want to know the secret to it, all of the stuff works together to deliver what you see here, but the primary elements are the right weather (fall time) along with rain help and watering and fertilizer. The seed, biuo-stimulants and weed control are extras that for sure contribute and play a roll, but water and fert are the most important.
What Did Un-Treated Neighbor Lawn Look Like?
Some folks asked how the neighbor who did not fertilize their lawn ended up just from the rain alone. In the video you can see that the neighbor’s lawn did green up some but it isn’t evenly green, it’s thin in many areas and frankly, it is completely dominated by what we did.
Here are a couple shots from today, Sept 7, 2021. It’s our lawn on the right and the neighbor on the left. Does this look like they got as good a results as we did?
The back lawn did have some greenup but it’s nothing compared to ours.
The rain has helped for sure and that is why I stress in the beginning of the video that we are taking advantage of the timing. That’s how nature works – it’s all about timing. If you are going to take on a project like this, do it in the best time and for a cool season lawn, fall is the best time to restore your lawn.
Why Didn’t I Core Aerate, De-Thatch or Scarify The Lawn?
As you know, all along I have taught that aerating the lawn is an important part of this process. However, over the years I have learned practically speaking that most people are not willing or able to rent a mechanical aerator. It’s a heavy machine to begin with so you need a truck or trailer just to get one and that cuts out most people.
When it comes to scarifying or de-thatching, I think these are also good for lawns in some cases. If you feel like you want to remove some thatch, or tough up the soil, go for it!
In this project though, I wanted to show that you can get great results without any mechanical intervention. And as you see, we did not do any of that and came out just fine.
Does this mean that YouTubers who recommend de-thatching are wrong or bad? Nope. It just means they have a different approach. You, as the DIYer should choose a path and go for it! Over time you will learn what works for you and your situation. But my goal in this project was to go as bare bones as possible, especially in the “machines that kick your butt” department.
Is Pre-Emergent Necessary for Fall Seeding
In this project I used Mesotrione as my pre-emergent weed control. This is optional and I’ve always said that but I can tell you that with the results we got on this grow, I am going to recommend it’s use more heavily in the future.
First off, Mesotrione (generic Tenacity) is the ONLY pre-emergent you can use at the time of seeding. You cannot use prodiamine or dithiopyr anywhere around seeding. Mesotrione is a completely different chemistry that stops some weed seeds but doesn’t harm grass seed.
What I also saw from it was soe good kill off of the existing weeds. I did not expect this since we did not use any surfactant (sticker) and we watered everyting in really well within just a few hours. Either way, it killed a ton of the existing weeds, especially the foxtail that was invading.