There are a lot of reasons to tear up a yard and start over. Invasion by weeds, invasion by Bermudagrass (I don’t consider Bermudagrass a weed), the need to do some dirt work around the house and yard. The list can go on and on. Or you may have a new house and need to start a new yard. Regardless, late summer is the usually the best time to start a new fescue or bluegrass lawn.

There are also a lot of reasons not to tear everything up and start over. If you have a lot of trees and shade in your yard you will have a thin stand of grass. Grass is a sunshine loving plant and without at least 6 hours of direct sunshine a day, the grass stand will thin out. You can live with that, you can switch to ground covers or you can remove part, or all, of the trees to allow more sunshine. I prefer the first two options.

If you feel that your grass stand is thin and you have plenty of sunshine then I would suspect a couple of possible problems. You are mowing too short. Too short, for fescue or bluegrass, is anything under 2.75 inches. These grasses grow better when cut at 3 to 3.5 inches in height. You may also have a nutrient deficient lawn. This is often the case where new houses are built in what used to be native pasture. The native prairie soils are very low in nitrogen and phosphorus. Until these levels are built up, the grass will be very stunted and pale. I have also seen lawns with thin stands of grasses that were caused by excessive herbicide applications. If any of these are the cause of your poor stand of grass, then a new lawn may not be needed, just a change in your management.

The best way to start with a new lawn, is often with a clean slate. This is essential if you are dealing with a lawn invaded with Bermudagrass. You can not rototill a stand of Bermuda and kill it. This will only make it spread further, faster. The best approach is to use one of the glyphosate type herbicides such as Roundup. These products kill everything and leave no soil residue. Water the yard good first to make sure everything is actively growing. Then spray following the label directions, being careful not to get any spray on desirable landscape plants. Wait ten days and spray again.

A week after the second spraying you can mow the dead vegetation short and rototill. This is a good time to take a soil sample for testing. Since there will be a lot of organic matter you will probably need to rototill twice to get a good seedbed. It is important to have a seedbed that is not cloddy. You need a fine grained soil structure so you can get good seed to soil contact.

You won’t want to sow the grass until the first of September (okay, you can cheat and start the last few days of August if the weather isn’t too hot!). Sow the seed and if possible pack it lightly to get that good seed to soil contact. Once the seed is in the ground, you want to get it up as fast as possible. Start the sprinklers and water daily. This is the only time I will allow you to water your yard daily. In fact, if it is hot and windy, you may have to water twice a day. You won’t need to soak it deep every time, just keep that top couple inches wet.

Once the grass starts to sprout and establish itself (one inch or taller), you can start backing the water off to every other day, then every third day, etc. depending on the weather. Once it is three inches high, start mowing. This clipping is an important stimulation to the young grass plant. And don’t worry about weed control until late October or next spring. We have several bulletins at the Extension Office that discuss lawn and new lawn management. They are free, so stop by and pick them up!

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