Starting Your New Lawn

At the beginning of the previous chapter, I cited an estimate that had been made about the prevalence (80 per cent) of improper seed selection in American lawns. There's a parallel estimate for this chapter: 75 per cent of the lawns in this country are planted at the wrong time!

Most gardeners in northern regions assume that spring (preferably "shirt-sleeve weather") is the ideal time to sow grass seed. Nothing is farther from the truth. Even a lawn sown in mid-July can be expected to be more successful. The best time for sowing is mid-August to mid-September.

But before we go into the mechanics of lawn sowing—seedbed preparation, seed treatment, rates of sowing and so forth—there is a lawn-making "essential" that comes along later but, because of its great importance to success, should have first emphasis. This is to keep the seed moist from the time it is spread until the grass plants have become well established. This need is seldom considered until after sowing, when hastily improvised sprinkling systems are set up. These often are inadequate; thus many seeds fail to germinate or seedlings dry out before their roots have a chance to penetrate well into the soil. This need for early moisture applies even to Merion Kentucky Bluegrass and Pennlawn Fescue, grasses which, when mature, will thrive over most of their natural range without artificial watering.

Sprinkler Setup

So, to prevent such damage to a newly seeded lawn, make provision beforehand for a lawn watering setup. Permanent underground watering systems, at least throughout what is commonly accepted as bluegrass country, are rarely necessary. The exception would be where bent grass, with its high appetite for water, is to be planted. Most non-bentgrass lawns are watered too much rather than too little or just enough. About the only other situations where the expense of underground watering systems seems justified are areas under trees and extremely dry sandy sites.

For the great majority of cases, a simple arrangement of hose lines and sprinklers will be excellent. Whether you buy or borrow them, the big thing is to be sure you have enough so that every inch of the surface can be covered—with overlapping sprinkler patterns—without shifting individual units. In this way, the job can be done by just turning faucets off and on. With the best intentions in the world, many a lawn-maker thinks he will be faithful about watering down the new lawn area—either by walking around with a hose or by moving a single line of sprinklers from place to place. When faced with doing this two or three times a day, however, he fails in his duty often enough to allow many seedlings to die.

Thrice A Day

In general, a program of proper watering to assure a successful lawn seeding means that each morning, if rain does not fall the night before, you should turn on the sprinklers for thirty minutes. If the sun is shining and the temperature is 80 degrees or above, turn them on again for thirty minutes at noon. Repeat for twenty minutes in late afternoon or evening.

This program will insure a stand of grass, even if the seeding is done in the heat of summer. My results with this method of watering have convinced me that temporary lawns are unnecessary. A good green covering of permanent grasses can be established just as readily as one of temporary grass species, and will bring the finished turf into being months sooner. (Note: After the new lawn is well along, you probably will have to give some attention to the un-watered spots under the hose lines and sprinklers.)

On To The Soil

Now, with your sprinkler setup on hand, you are ready to work on the lawn seedbed. Even if a general fertilizer and extra super-phosphate were added to the subsoil during grading operations, it pays to incorporate into the seedbed topsoil about SO pounds of superphosphate and SO pounds of sludge to every 1,000 feet of lawn area. Where the subsoil is to be worked up to support the lawn without additional topsoil, the sludge might well be increased to 100 pounds.

Food For The Roots

The purpose of this additional plant food is to enrich the upper 4 inches of soil, the area in which 90 per cent of the fine feeding roots will be found. The plant food and the upper 4 inches of top-soil should be worked together. Today, few new lawns are dug by hand, but if you have to work this way, be sure to use a regular spading fork. This will help you break up the clods more thoroughly and mix in the fertilizer more completely. But you probably will be able to borrow or rent (if you don't wish to buy) a rotary tiller. For this lawn soil improvement job, such a power tool is practically indispensable. Set the tines to till 4 inches deep, no more.

If time permits, allow the soil to settle for at least a week before seeding. If rain does not fall, a thorough watering will help the settling process. Then rake the soil surface as level as possible. Dragging it with a section of ladder is helpful. Every bump and depression removed before seeding will mean that much less trouble later.

Pre-Soaking The Seed

There is another step that precedes sowing and greatly enhances the lawn's chances for full success. This is pre-soaking the seed of bluegrasses in water, a procedure that speeds up germination to such an extent that the labor involved is hardly worth mentioning. The purpose of pre-soaking seed of all species of Poa is to remove an inhibiting chemical which prevents rapid germination. This is a water-soluble acid, akin to the one already mentioned under rye grass. In open fields and similar natural environments, this chemical's role is to delay germination of seed that ripens and falls to the ground in early summer. In summer the seeds and seedlings would be in competition with the vigorous growth of grass, weeds and other vegetation in the field. Because the chance of survival for the bluegrass would thus be reduced, this mechanism for delaying germination has served bluegrasses well.

In nature, the seeds fall to the soil, where they remain dormant until the rains of late summer and early autumn wash out the inhibitor. Then the competition of mature grasses is lessened, and moisture conditions are more favorable for germination.

But when the seed is harvested for commercial sale, it is taken directly from the plant and this natural washing process does not take place. Thus seed of the Poa species sown in fall is not ready to sprout at once. That's why we first should artificially remove this substance.

A Simple Dunking

The process is not at all complicated. Put the seed in a cheesecloth bag, dunk bag and all in a bucket or tub of water. Hold it under with weights if necessary, for every seed should be soaked. The soaking period should last at least twelve but not more than twenty-four hours. In the morning, take the bag to the kitchen sink or laundry tub and allow water to run through it until there is no further trace of brown coloring.

Now the seed is spread out in a thin layer in the sun for two to three hours, in a quiet place; by that time it should be dry enough to sow. Drying can also be done in the basement but will take longer. Do not do what is sometimes tried—drying the bag in a laundry dryer. The heat in a dryer is enough to kill all germination. Air-drying is the thing. If the seed cannot be sown the same day, it can be kept in a shaded but airy place for as long as two weeks, no longer. Do not allow it to remain in a pile as it may start to sprout or may mildew. Spread it out in a thin layer.

More About Pre-Soaking

Soaked seed of Merion will germinate in six days in late August, seven to ten days in early September and in less than two weeks in late September. Without this treatment, it may not sprout for twenty to forty days. Delta and Parks are both quick starters and are not ordinarily helped by soaking in August, but they show some slight increase in early germination in September. However, soaking in no way hurts them, so mixtures as well as straight Merion should be soaked. Common Kentucky Bluegrass is almost as slow-starting in fall as is Merion, and can profitably be soaked. The fescues and bents are neither helped nor hurt by soaking, so their presence in Merion or Common Kentucky Bluegrass mixtures need not deter the pre-soaking treatment.

Still a third preplanting seed treatment is recommended, namely, treating the seeds with a fungicide dust such as Arasan or Tersan. The damage that can be done by soil fungi before, during and after germination is considerable. The cost of fungicide treatment is practically nothing, and might mean as much as a 30 to 90 per cent better stand of grass.

Turf fungicides are sold under various trade names by most garden supply dealers. After the seeds have been pre-soaked and dried, they are placed in a paper bag with the prescribed amount of fungicide. A few shakes of the bag will give each seed a protective coating. Some seedsmen pretreat their grass with fungicide, but this will have to be renewed if you give your seeds a pre-soaking treatment.

Pre-Sprouting The Seed

The real expert can carry the pre-soaking method a step farther. He can pre-sprout grass seed, including Merion, by holding it in a moist condition in a polyethylene plastic bag of not over four-mil thickness. By this means, you can actually start the seed germination process so the seed will be ready to grow the same day it is sown. I would not recommend this method to the inexperienced gardener, except on a very small scale. The idea is to hold the seed in the plastic bag until some of the seeds show a crack of white. Then all are immediately sown. I have seen lawns that were greening up nicely a week after being seeded with pre-sprouted seed. If the bag is too thick, or is of a plastic other than polyethylene, the seeds may smother or rot.

The Why Of It

There is ample justification for speeding germination by every possible means. The earlier the grass appears, the better able it is to compete with weeds and the sooner it can be mowed. When you are sowing in fall there is another reason for haste: a quick start allows the new turf more time to produce a strong root system for winter survival. Too, the sooner grass is on its own, the less watering it will need. A two-week saving in water bills can run to a substantial figure.

This leads to the question of when you should plan to start seeding, to take advantage of autumn rains yet give the grass time to form a sod before it is frozen in. The ideal time over the blue-grass area, as already stated, is from August fifteenth to September fifteenth, with the earlier date preferred. August is the time that bluegrasses germinate naturally, stimulated by the washing of rains and by the combination of warm days and cool nights. Best temperatures for the germination of bluegrasses, fescues and bents is about 54 degrees at night and 90 degrees during the day. This alternating temperature will stimulate faster, stronger germination than will any steady temperature. One theory holds that the effect of such alternating temperatures is to pump air in and out of the seed coat and thus stimulate the embryo into action.

Seeding Rates

The rate of seeding is dependent upon the species or variety of grass used (see Chapter 6). By all means use a mechanical seeder. The newer fine-seeded grasses are almost impossible to distribute evenly by hand. Most of the newer fertilizer spreaders also have settings showing the right openings to use for fine-seeded grasses. One of the best devices I know, which can be set so accurately that as few as two seeds to a square yard can be sown, is the Seeder-Feeder-Weeder hand distributor. It pays for itself on the seed it saves in planting the average lawn.

Do not use more seed than recommended; it may sound like a good idea, but can easily be overdone. It is just as harmful to have too many young grass plants crowded on a square foot of lawn as it is to have too few.

Always try to seed on a calm day. Wind can make a mess of the most careful job of distribution. If a fertilizer-spreader type of seeder is used, the wheels will mark the rows. On a large lawn, it may pay to mark out lanes with string if you are seeding by hand or using a broadcast-type of seeder.

Seeds Need Light

When the sowing is finished, the seed will be on the surface of the soil—and, if it is a bluegrass, leave it right there. Practically every word ever written on lawn seed sowing will tell you to "rake it in lightly." This recommendation, if followed, may reduce the percentage of germination substantially. It does not take into account the fact that all bluegrasses need light to germinate and will not sprout well in the dark. Do not bury the seed, even lightly, by raking it. Buried seed will not sprout until washed out by rains, or by watering, exposing it to daylight. The right way to do the job is to sow the seed on the surface, roll it with a fairly heavy roller to press it into the surface in firm contact with the soil, and then maintain a moist atmosphere by watering two or three times a day. Only by such frequent watering is it possible to keep the seed exposed to daylight and still keep it moist enough for strong, quick germination.

Once the properly prepared seed is properly sown, all you can do is water and wait. If your work was well done, and if no untoward weather occurs, the surface should show a strong tinge of green in a week. If not, all you can do is wait and hope some more. Whatever you do, don't apply fertilizer. The seeds do not need it, and until a young seedling has roots and green leaves and is beginning to stool out (branch out from the crown), its need for fertilizer is practically nil. Actually, as far as the seeds are concerned, fertilizers could do more harm than good at this time. The stored food inside a seed should be enough to carry the seedling without further nourishment until its second leaf unfurls. With a fall-seeded turf, if the soil was well prepared, no more feeding will be needed until the following spring.

Spring Second Best

Perhaps the second-best time of year for planting is early spring, as early as you can walk on the soil without sinking into mud. If the grading and top finishing were done the fall before, seed can be sown in March on the soil honeycombed by frost. The ground should be bare if possible, but damp. This allows the seed to bed down in firm contact, but it is still exposed to daylight for germination.

Seed germination in spring is slow because of the low temperatures. Pre-soaking will help speed growth by allowing the seed to take advantage of any warm days favorable to germination. Be ready with the hose if spring dry spells occur, as they sometimes do even in humid climates.

Midsummer Sowing

As I have already mentioned, I am totally opposed to temporary lawns as a fill-in for the homeowner whose property is not turned over to him until some time in late June, July or early August. No matter how strong the temptation is, do not delay the start of the permanent lawn. But bluegrasses germinate best in cool weather, so how do we get summer-sown seed to germinate? If you have an ample watering setup as previously described—lines of hose and lawn sprinklers—conditions favorable for germination can easily be maintained. The water applied through sprinklers is usually so cool that it brings soil temperatures down to a favorable range. Pre-soaking the seed will also help a lot. I have known instances where pre-soaked Merion watered three times a day germinated in four and a half days in July!

The only time this method might not work is in areas where 100-degree weather can be expected for several days on end, as might be the case in semiarid regions. I am not prepared to say that four-times-daily watering would do the trick there, but I would certainly be tempted to try it. Since lawns in such regions simply must be artificially watered, a permanent underground irrigation system would probably be almost indispensable.

Getting the seed to germinate is only part of the job. Lawns started in warm weather also make slow root growth. Rhizome development in most sod-forming grasses is strongest at temperatures below 70 degrees. Fortunately, in most areas of the bluegrass range, water from wells and public mains is substantially below 70 degrees, so that when applied to the soil it will not only aid seed germination but should also serve to cool off the soil to a favorable temperature for grass growth. Evaporation from daily irrigation further cools the ground, so that conditions for root growth are better than might be thought at first. Top growth is most vigorous, if disease does not check it, at 80 to 90 degrees. The late-summer-seeded lawn usually needs mowing sooner, and oftener, than the lawn sown in fall. Because the rate of root growth may be reduced somewhat in warm weather, the mower used for this first cutting should be a newly sharpened reel type, to avoid pulling out the young seedlings. (Mowers and mowing are discussed in detail in the next chapter.)

Time Advantage

With careful attention to details, a late-summer-seeded lawn will be mowed at least twice before a fall-seeded lawn is up. The advantage of this gain in time is obvious. As cooler days come and root growth increases, a tight, solid sod will be formed that will be able to resist any kind of winter weather.

Let me emphasize that I am only recommending midsummer planting if time is important. The early-fall-seeded lawn, although it may make smaller top growth, will throw out small stools almost at once and, by the time freezing weather arrives, should be able to stand sub-zero weather. Sometimes it pays to delay planting, even for a month or two, in order to do a good job of grading and soil preparation. A well-graded, beautifully tilled lawn-in-the-making is far better than the best temporary sod.

There is only one short period during the year when northern turf grasses should not be sown. This is the deceptive spell of warm weather that comes almost every fall just before the first killing frost strikes down tender vegetation. Some of the loveliest weather of the year usually occurs during this period—days when it is a pleasure to work out of doors. Do not be deceived, however. Not enough time is left for seeds to germinate and grass to grow sufficiently to be mowed once or twice to produce a crown for winter survival. Even Perennial Rye grass cannot make enough growth in this period to survive. Along the southern edge of the Great Lakes, for example, October first should be the deadline after which no seed should be sown. Along the Ohio River, the time might be moved up to October fifteenth, but this is running some risk. Along the Canadian border and in northern New England, September fifteenth is probably the latest time for seeding grass.

Although seedsmen sometimes stretch these dates somewhat, the homeowner should not seed lawns against the above restrictions unless the dealer will promise to replace the seed if it does not grow enough to survive. Some years, however, it pays to take a chance. I have seen autumns in the Chicago area when an October-seeded lawn was better than one seeded earlier. In the fall of 1940, for example, I recall that November eleventh was so warm that I went to lunch without a coat. We had not had a trace of frost up to that date, and October-seeded lawns were perfect. By the time I came back from lunch, the thermometer had dropped 30 degrees in an hour, and, by the morning of the twelfth, it was hovering close to zero I The sudden drop in temperature in no way harmed the new grass in those lawns where it had been mowed at least once.

Winter Hardiness

Unlike most perennial plants, grass is conditioned to sudden changes in temperature. Even if the blades are killed, the crowns survive. It is not unusual for Merion Kentucky Bluegrass to start growing and develop a good green coloring during thaws in midwinter, yet if refrozen by a sudden cold snap, it is perfectly all right when spring comes.

Much has been made of the idea of sowing grass seed on top of snow. I have even known homeowners to pass up the ideal planting time in fall—though they had the soil prepared and everything in readiness for seeding—in order to wait for a thin crust of snow. The method does work, but not nearly so well as many think. If a heavier snow comes and seals in the newly planted seed—all well and good. It will then remain in place, ready to bed down with the first thaw in spring and grow when the soil warms up.

But this does not always happen, unfortunately. All too often the thin snow melts and a warm spell dries off the soil surface. Drying winds are a winter hazard. Hungry birds are a menace to exposed seed, too. If the ground slopes at all, runoff from melting snow may bunch up the seed or carry it completely off the lawn area. In the end, any small gain made by winter sowing is lost.

Straw—Doubtful Protection

We all probably have seen silage cutters, equipped with blowers, throwing out straw as a mulch over newly-seeded highway shoulders. This looks like a good idea for the home lawn but it is not. It has value in establishing rough lawns in areas inaccessible to water, but for home lawns, this is not good practice. It can be used in semi-arid regions or during droughts as a crutch for a new seeding, but ordinarily the problems it creates will be worse than those it solves. Water alone will do a much better job. True, the straw keeps the soil moist and cuts the need for irrigation. The difficulty lies in the organic matter left behind by the straw. For one thing, as it decomposes the bacteria use up nitrogen from the soil. Often straw-mulched lawns start growth rapidly but turn yellow after a few rains. Water has dampened the straw enough to start decay and the bacteria draw nitrogen from the soil in order to work on the mulch.

Later, if the straw was heavy enough to do its work, there will be a layer of duff in which fungi will multiply easily. Then the fungi may move onto the grass. So, if straw is used, it should only be applied to areas open to full sun from dawn to sunset. Actually, these are the conditions usually found where this method is used— on the shoulders of roads. If strawing seems to be the only way to establish the home lawn under difficult conditions, be sure the material is run through a silage cutter or hammer-mill to break up the long straggly wisps.

For smaller areas, buckwheat hulls, rice hulls or horticultural vermiculite can be used as mulches. They are too costly for larger lawns.

Chips Off The Chapter

1. Preferred time for starting a permanent lawn is late summer to early fall. And a permanent lawn is the only kind you should bother with; a temporary lawn of annual grasses is "old hat."
2. Soaking seeds before sowing will give Kentucky Bluegrasses an invaluable head-start.
3. Sow seed according to package directions; use a spreader.
4. Never let a newly-sown lawn dry out; arrange an adequate sprinkler setup in advance.
5. Early spring is second best sowing time; summer is third. But any time is acceptable if proper care is given.

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