QuestionI think i over fertilized my lawn!OOOOPPPSS i just resodded it last year,it looked wonderful.anyway it is now dead.if i resod or seed it what do i do?
do i have to take up the old sod and get ride of it,or can i seed over it?
Answer$$$$OD does not come cheap, my friend. For those prices, you deserve a lifetime guarantee on the stuff. Now we have a problem.
See, you want to know what to do now that your $$$$OD is dead.
But me, I want to know WHY it's dead. So that you don't have a case of Deja Vu all over again this time next year. This is already $ad enough.
So I'll answer your question, but I would really like to understand the cause and effect to keep it from happening again. Watering problems? Fertilizer error? Other? What do YOU think happened here?
For now, your $$$ad $$$od is kaput. Luckily, 憈is the PERFECT time of year for New Yorkers and their neighbors to plant new brand Grass. September weather is ideal for Cool Season Grass germination -- not too hot, not too cold, not too dry, not too wet.
The same weather that's so friendly to Grass is murder on Weeds (which thrive in the blazing triple-digit Fahrenheit of mid-July -- just as the Cool Season Grasses are taking the Summer off).
Your best plan of action is to till the brown matter into your Soil or run a slicer over the deceased. Remember, though, that I don抰 have the whole story here and if I knew why your $$$od succumbed, I might tell you something different.
Running with the presumption that you have never had your Soil tested, it is the time to do that. Send me your zipcode and I'll send you the Cooperative Extension contact info to get a nice, cheap, super-duper analysis of the dirt that this new Grass will be seeded on.
The standard M.O. here is to tell homeowners, 慞ut down fertilizer.? But why put down ANYTHING if your Soil is healthy?
And if the Grass died, there is SOMETHING rotten in Denmark, right?
Do you have perfect Soil? Or is there room for improvement?
My money抯 on the 慍ould Be Better?rating. For less than the price of a tank of Regular Gas, you can get a 5 star report on all the things MISSING from your Soil, WRONG with your Soil, and ALREADY THERE in your Soil. Don抰 spend a penny on anything that抯 already there! That will get you absolutely nowhere.
The BEST amendment for your Soil: Compost. It can be your own homemade concoction, which is free and first rate, or you can buy decent products off the shelf -- some people use Allgro, others use Milorganite. There is one called Glatco-lite. Or you can use something else called Erthrite. Homemade Compost, like homemade apple pie, is the ultimate amendment, but probably not an option today.
Seed costs less than Sod, but it takes a lot of time, especially for slow germinators like Kentucky Bluegrass. If you opt for Sod again, and if you do this yourself, let me know so I can give you step by step instructions. You don抰 want to wreck this train if you can avoid it.
Remember that Straw spread over broadcasted Seed keeps the Seed from drying out. (My personal favorite mulch is a container of green pellets made by blending recycled newspaper and water-absorbing gel like PennMulch.) Don抰 neglect watering -- moisture levels should be even and make sure the Seed (or Sod) stays moist. Kentucky Bluegrass can take 30 days or longer to germinate, so be patient.
That抯 all there is to it. But please, let's not stop here. Let's look at why this good Sod went Bad. What in the world happened this Summer to your Lawn? rsvp!
