Question
I live on the Eastern End of LI.  I understand that it is neither a cool season nor warm season area.  It is a "transition" region.

This year, I am determined to have a "great" lawn.  Thus far, I am making progress.

My lawn has areas that are: (1)predominantly in the shade, (2) predominantly in the sun, and (3) mixture of sun & shade but more shade than sun.  So I have questions about which grass seed is best for each of these areas?  Is it too late to sow new seed?  Which brand of seed should I use?

I have used Scott and Agway, but the guys who grow sod seem to have some secret seed that is only available to contractors.

I am not trying to create a "new" lawn.  Just trying to fix the lawn I have.  I take out the "weeds" - moss, chick weed, ... - by hand.  I then sow need seed in the bare spot.  I am still working at it.  Some spots have taken, but others ned to be repeated.

Got any help?

Thanks

Answer
For starters, we are DEFINITELY shopping in the Cool Season Department for Grass.  Anyone who told you otherwise just wants to confuse you or simply does not understand that yet.

Before we get started, let's talk about the Sod guys.

They have a "secret" called Turn You Lawn Into A Toxic Waste Site.  It seems every friend I have in Manhattan with a place in East Hampton or Quogue has a gardener who will appeal to their darkest nightmares about Lyme Disease and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever to sell the "Ultimate Protection" against all insects.  They pour things on their lawns for them, for an insane price, that are SO toxic, EVEN HOMEOWNERS can't buy the stuff.  

The "secret" by the way eventually catches up with them.  These gardeners come down after 10 years or less of pouring this stuff on people's lawns with the weirdest diseases.  Illegal dayworkers are the only people desperate enough to do work like that for them.  The man across the street from me for instance passed away about a year ago from Pancreatic Cancer.  He has a lovely lawn.  But did not believe any of these things could be bad for people because he bought them so easily.  I mean, Heroin is illegal, right?  Why?  Because it's bad for you.  How bad can 2,4-D be?

You have heard about those Cancer Clusters, Sir?  You know where they are?

IN THE EAST END!

Oh yes, there's one in Brookhaven.  The one they i.d.'d before they found the radioactive waste leaking from the laboratory.  

But I digress.

There's more.

The "secret" of all this as far as you're concerned is that after they pour these things on your lawn, they wipe out all signs of life.  They destroy the entire balance of the soil.  They kill the earthworms.  They rub out butterfly larvae adults.  They kill ladybugs and praying mantids and all those bugs you loved to keep as pets when you were growing up.  There are no ants or ant hills.  There are no grasshoppers, no Jimini Crickets, NOTHING.  It's like being on the moon.  Because they have killed everything.

Does that sound like a good thing to you, Mister?

Because it's NOT!!!!!

And THEN YOU PAY THEM FOR IT!

So, going back to the sod people, If they painted their grass green, would you call that a secret that you would be impressed with?

Do we all go out and rob banks because the Mafia does it?  Because that's the Mafia's secret to wealth.

You're a smart guy.  Or you would not be able to put together such an intelligent question as you did in that kind of language about a home in a zip code the rest of the world can only dream of.

Do you rob banks to get that kind of wealth together?  

I reallllly doubt that, Sir.  And if you disagreed, well, I would not believe you.  

You will have neighbors and visitors looking at those lawns with the secret weapons all summer.  Because the Hamptons is filled with people from Manhattan who don't know anything about chemicals.  I know because I have really good friends in Manhattan who went to Harvard and Yale and don't know nothing about pesticides.  I don't even try.  There's one who is terrified of getting sick.  He's just a hypochondriac who thinks he will be bitten by ticks and fleas in untreated lawns one weekend and be struck down.  The landscape guy gets him every single year by playing to his phobias.  He sees all things organic as a vestige of hippiedom.

To get a beautiful lawn like you see on the Scotts Boxes, you don't have to buy anything named Scotts.  Including Grass Seed.  

But what's done is done.

If you have significant shade in certain parts of the lawn, think, seriously, about a ground cover to put there.  At least directly under trees, you will spend less time aggravating yourself with an uphill battle that will never end.

Prune lower branches to let in as much light as possible on your grass.  Make sure there are shade-tolerant types in the seed mixture.

It is too late to do your Spring seeding.  But in August, go shop for grass at Seedland (www.seedland.com), which will stock the perfect, weed-free grass for you.  And yes, you should look under Cool Season Grasses.  Those are the best, most beautiful grasses that money can buy.  Much better than anything you will ever see in a bag labelled Scotts.

I guarantee the sod guys have never heard of Seedland.  

In the meantime, this summer, try to get your lawn off chemicals.  Water it carefully -- deep and thoroughly, but ONLY when needed.  Build up the health of your grass and your soil.  Because healthy grass never gets sick.  And never needs fungus treatments.  Your neighbors with the sod guys with "secrets" have to treat their lawns for fungus all the time.  It's an ongoing, highly profitable, extremely poisonous racket that should only be used by people with a death wish.

Enough of hammering you over the head with this.  Let's get back to business.

Mow carefully at the perfect height for your current grass.  Check the Seedland chart.  Ignore everything Scotts or your local landscapers tell you.  Preferably, you should mow this lawn yourself so you get up close and personal with your own lawn.  Because you're right, no one will take the kind of care that you take with your own grass.  Well, actually, they are out there, but they are not good IMHO at marketing, so they don't get the business of anybody I know, but Organic is the way you want to go here.  You want to have the cleanest, healthiest grass in the entire East End.  

Mowing is very important.  It doesn't sound like much, but the optimal height is determined at the research level.  The grass uses energy and makes energy; you need the balance because that height is not so perfect for weed competitors.  The grass gets stronger.  The weeds get weaker.  It takes time.  And nobody human dies along the way.

We are almost at the height of summer heat, so you don't want to fertilize right now.  

But go get some Corn Gluten (which comes in large bags, in the Weedkiller section of your local garden center and don't even bother with Home Depot for this), and in late October, two months after you have put down your Seedland grass seed, pour on the Corn Gluten.  Get more for the spring.  Corn Gluten biologically interrupts the germination of annual weed seeds.  It is an Organic Pre-emergent Crabgrass Killer and it works every time.  You can't put too much of this stuff down.  It does not burn roots and it fertilizes gently and slowly the new grass you have planted.  You must however wait until your new grass has been mowed 3 times before you use it because it will interfere with that too if you're not careful.

To re-introduce Earthly Life into your lawn, go to Gardens Alive (www.gardensalive.com) and start ordering all their insects.   Pray that residual toxins are sufficiently low in your soil that they don't kill the new bugs.  Because the new bugs will eat all the bad bugs at your house.  And there is nothing in the world easier than releasing good bugs to go out and find all the problems you don't even know exist out there, and eat them before you find out about them.  

Bet your neighbor's gardener doesn't want your neighbor to know about that!

This is the very basic info you need to know.  The most important thing is that you should never, never, never pour another drop of anything named Scotts or Ortho on your lawn ever again.  No Weed And Feed.  No Round-Up.  No Grubs Killer.   These chemicals kill.  The pictures are pretty.  The damage is not.

Slowly, but surely, your lawn will become The Grass That Is Greener On The Other Side.

I guarantee it.