Question
A friend planted some grass seeds in some patchy grass areas in my backyard about three weeks ago.  He covered the seedlings with straw.  The grass shoots are now about 5-6 inches tall (peeking through the straw.)  Someone else suggested I leave the straw on through the winter (it's now end of Sept.)

When I have the regular grass mowed, should I mow these grass shoots over the straw?  Leave them alone?  Remove the straw? (And, how to remove straw without hurting the shoots?)

I am clueless!  Many thanks in advance for any advice.

A. Lares

Answer
You've got me. I haven't seeded a lawn in in over 40 years, and I didn't know about putting straw over it back then.
Have you tried to lift it off with a grass rake?
Use your greass rake (yard broom) and lift off a little bit of it and see if the grass shoots come up too, or if they are going to stay anchored.
If it is not to terribly thick, Maybe you could just mow it. the chopped up straw would just become compost, eventually, and turn to food for the grass.
If you want to leave it, it will just help insulate the grass over the winter.
The grass may have time to go to seed before it goes into winter dormancy, and if it did, and dropped more seeds, they would come up in the spring, and those areas would be very full then. In the case that it may do that, I would leave it.
You don't say what kind of grass it is, or what area you live in.
Here in north Texas, it would still have a long enough growing period to be pretty mature grass by the time out lawns start to turn.
My grass doesn't start to turn until sometime in november. If I had tender Burmuda or st. augustine shoots now, I would have time to mow it severl times and water it deeply ( at least 6 inches) and establish a pretty deep root system.
In areas that get snow early, and their las mowing is usually in late Sept or early October, I would leave the straw for winter insulation. Just water it deeply to try to get the roots established as deeply as possible top help protect them from freeze. the straw would help with that too.
Sorry I can't help more.
Charlotte