Question
This email is a little long but I thought the details were necessary........I would appreciate your help with some questions about establishing a new lawn - I have been reading some things on the internet but wanted to ask a few questions to an expert.  I live in eastern Pennsylvania,  in Stroudsburg - near the Poconos.  I built a house last year and had the yard planted in June - mistake - since it was a very dry summer and there is about 2 acres of grass which was hard to keep watered.  The yard gets full sun all day and there is no shade  The seed mixture was 20% annual ryegrass, 40% creeping red fescue, and 40% perennial ryegrass - and it was quality seed.

The yard guy I used likes the 20% Ann. Rye to come up quick and prevent erosion since some of my yard is slightly sloping and we get nasty summer downpours - but some others don't agree with that seed mixture - he doesn't like bluegrass for this area and says it goes dormant quickly in the summer leading to some brown coloring.

Last summer was so dry that much of the yard seemed to die off - it came up initially but I couldn't keep up with the watering - we went weeks without a good rain.  The land we built on was farm land so many weeds are still present even though we sprayed the area initially to kill what was growing.  I overseeded by slit seeding last fall with the same grass mixture - mainly because the guy gave me the seed at cost since the yard didn't come in well the first time - same thing this spring  - spike aerated and then overseeded with the same seed mixture again because of the good price (I will not be putting any more annual ryegrass on the yard from this point on). - all 3  times the yard was seeded Starter Fertilizer was applied but no additional fertilizer has been used at this point other than that.  

This summer so far has also been very dry and I am seeing the same thing this year  - areas that are browning and a sparse looking yard where the remaining weeds seem to be 75% of the yard - the yard is just not hardy looking and certainly doesn't look like I've seeded it 3 times.  This spring after the seeding we had a fair amount of rain and the grass started to come up nicely but has since thinned out - if new grass comes up and then dies off because of lack of water is that grass done forever or will it come back once we get more rain?

I cut the grass high and am careful about that.  I have also been told I have Red Thread and have read that could mean the soil is nitrogen poor - So I was also thinking about adding organic fertilizer early this fall  - I'd like to go organic if possible - I've used Garden's Alive lawn products in the past.

My thoughts from here are:

1.  I was thinking I should get the soil tested to see if I need to add lime and to find out if it nitrogen poor.  We do get acid rain here.

2.  Core Aerate the yard this fall and overseed with a bluegrass, perennial ryegrass and creeping red fescue mixture - apply an organic fall fertilizer that will not harm the new grass seed.

3.   Early spring - core aerate again and apply a spring organic fertilizer.  Can I overseed a little each year for the first few years until the yard thickens up?

Any comments or suggestions about this plan would be greatly appreciated - I would also like to hear what you would do if this was your lawn.  I would like to keep most of it grass for now and need to keep some control of what I spend but there is some leeway in that area if I need it.  One expensive option would be to start over but I really don't want to take that route.  I would like to thicken what grass has already come up and then each spring add an organic fertilizer with pre-emergent weed control.  I am open to using a chemical weed and feed once initially to thin out the weeds and then control the weeds by keeping the lawn thick.  Also - if pictures would help I can send some.   Thanks very much for your time.  I really enjoy working with the yard to try to make it look good - but it can be frustrating.

Sincerely - Mike

Answer
Weeks and weeks have passed since your question was packed into my mailbox, my friend.  I apologize for making you wait so long to hear from me.  Please understand I am really, really, really backed up here, and there are other people who are waiting even LONGER than you are for an answer -- or a rejection.  I'm sorry.  I just have too much to do and there is not enough time.

Your question is very long, and I appreciate the trouble you took to put in all these details.  They really help.  At the same time, this is not a simple problem.

Let me explain a few things that I see here.  If my answer gets too long, by the way, the whole thing crashes and I have to start over.  So don't think I could not talk about this for the next few days.  If you have a followup or two, please please PLEASE put them in a separate question so that the whole thing doesn't crash in the middle of my sentence.  I lose everything and I have to start over.  We're not supposed to talk a lot here; these are supposed to be very short answers, and I break this rule every day.

Back to you in Pennsylvania.

Beautiful country by the way, I am jealous.

First:  You have a drought problem there?  Grass is not a machine.  It will NOT come back to life after it dies.  Yes, I know this sounds obvious, but I think we tend to forget that.  Probably because it does go dormant.  Almost the same as dead, right?  But no, if it's dead, it's dead forever.  If your Grass is dead today, it will not be alive in a few days.  Isn't the internet great?  You can ask the dumbest questions and no one will ever know.

In Stroudsburg, it rains in May more than any other month, with just over an average 5 inches of rain.  July is your hottest month, with an average high of 85 degrees F and 4.42 inches of rain.  In fact, you guys get more rain than we do on Long Island all Summer long.  Unfortunately, yours comes down in buckets.

To me, reading your question, it sounds like irrigation is your biggest problem.

Funny, you didn't mention the size of your plot in your question -- unless I missed it.  So I don't know if an automatic sprinkler system is in the cards, or not.

But you have to solve this problem.  You must be able to irrigate when needed.  On the hot, hot days of Summer, when it's record temps soaring into the Pennsylvania sky, you have to be able to water your Grass.  Can you do that, or not?

You can HELP with the next problem: Your Soil.  Good Soil holds moisture.  That's important for healthy Grass.  Because it also holds nutrients, and it breathes so that Oxygen can reach the roots and the microbes in your Soil.  Good Soil is also teeming with life -- it's got zillions of microscopic things in it.  It's got Beetles and Earthworms and Fungus.  It's very busy.  And it gives your Grass the nutrients it needs to be healthy and survive DROUGHT.

Sounds to me like you are on the right track, but you need to fine tune your coordinates.

One new trick of the trade here would be: LOSE the aerator!

I know, it's hard to believe, but all that aerating is BAD for your Soil.

Reason is, this is like invasive surgery every time you embark on one of these aeration missions.  All the Earthworms, the Fungal hyphae (you need those), not to mention the Soil structure are being raked across the coals every time you poke your Soil with special equipment.  Take it easy.  Be gentle with your Soil.  Make nice.

Just take my word for it.  Because this answer is too long already.  We can cover it another day.  No more surgery.

Soil test - Great idea.  Probably by now you got that test back and are reviewing the recs they provided.  So my next point is: IGNORE the recs of the Coop Extension people.  They are often in the Dark Ages when it comes to Soil Science, and don't ask me why.  They tell people to put chemicals all over the place, they tell them all kinds of bad advice.  Forget it.  There are BETTER ways to do this.  But the Soil Test is a very big piece of the pie.  And this is a new house.  Do you want to spend your entire life wondering about your Soil?  Get the info now.

Next:  Your choice of Grass.  Most important quality has got to be drought tolerance.  Here's your choices:

ZOYSIA - I NEVER recommend Zoysia for Cool Season Lawns, but some people do love it.  So it's on your menu, sir.  Zoysia is THE most drought tolerant Warm Season Grass on the market.  It will be thick and Green ALL SUMMER.  It will need less mowing.  It will need less water.  It will SNEER at Weeds and then choke them out.  Zoysia is a thick, steel Green carpet, demanding full Sun and a year or two to get established.  What's not to like about Zoysia?  Well, you probably know, some time in September, with Summer barely over, the Zoysia will suddenly dive into dormancy and stay there until next May.  The Lawn will be tan all Winter.  That's almost 8 months of straw-colored Lawn.  In between, the low maintenance, heat tolerance and minimal irrigating win the Gran Prix every time.

TALL FESCUE - This is one of the least fussy Cool Season Grasses.  It packs a root system that renders it INCREDIBLY tough.  Able to take long spells between drought, able to take cold temps and traffic, able to grow with little nutrients.  In Winter, a Tall Fescue Lawn will be Green longer than most other Lawns.

The Perennial Rye was probably included in your blend because it grows like a house on fire.  But there is a common side effect when people do this.  The Rye tends to grow so fast, in fact, that the Bluegrass -- which takes a year and a day to sprout -- is completely over-run by the Rye.  What probably happened in the past was that the Bluegrass was wiped out because of the aggressive Rye.

Since Rye has bunch-type growth, it simply won't spread out and cover the entire plot.  No matter HOW long you give it.  Blends that have more than HALF Rye are sowed at higher concentrations than usual, to establish a Lawn quickly.  Now, if the Lawn is neglected, it isn't watered, etc, and the Rye starts to thin out, the Lawn starts to look choppy and goes downhill (no pun intended).  When that happens, Weeds start to look for a nice place to touch down find a home in the thinned out spots.  This is even worse on slopes, because now you have nothing holding the Soil in place and you end up with an erosion problem.

While you're waiting for your Soil Test results, get over to one of those Amish farms and ask to take all their Horse and Cow Manure off their hands so you can Compost it and put it on your Soil.  You can't go wrong by adding Organic Matter to your Soil.  Humus.  Peat Moss.  Compost.  They improve the nutrient- and water-holding capacity by leaps and bounds.

Pre-emergents -- Try Corn Gluten Meal.  I'm sure they have that at some Farm Supply Stand in your neck of the woods.  You need to do this next Spring, right on schedule.  Let me know if you need directions.

OK... before the computer crashes, here ya go, and I hope it was worth waiting for,

Sincerely,

THE LONG ISLAND GARDENER