will a big rainstorm wash away grass seed - covered with hay? archived

No, not unless it (the hay and grass seed) is on a hilside.

what if you didn't put any hay down? (like me)

Annie, I just happen to have a bale of hay (seedless, for landscaping) that I never got around to using. It's wrapped in plastic and you are more than welcome to it.

My seed disappeared. For the second fall in a row.

:cry:


move some of the hay and have a look. If you don't see any seed, it likely washed away. You will want to reseed asap, since it is getting really late to seed this fall.

The forecast is for more rain like that tonight and rain all day tomorrow, so wait till the weekend to do it all again! Good luck!

I've been reseeding parts of our yard in stages over the last month and a half or so. We used hay to cover the seed in one area, burlap in another, and in a few areas there was just the dirt. So far, we've made it through all of the last months rain storms without having any grass seed washed away. It has all germinated successfully so far.

Regardless of whether you use hay or burlap, you should be covering the grass seed with dirt. You would really need to have a small stream flowing over that to wash the seed away. It takes more than just ordinary rain.

not in my swamp, I mean backyard!

pdgnot in my swamp, I mean backyard!

Have you tried planting cat-tails?

or a willow tree?

not to hijack the thread, but is this the best time to reseed or should I wait until spring?

poolmomnot to hijack the thread, but is this the best time to reseed or should I wait until spring?

The best time to reseed is September. They say you need to give new grass 8 weeks to get established before the first frost. Also, when the leaves fall, it's hard to rake leaves from the areas you're reseeding without damaging the young grass, and any leaves you don't get could kill the seedilings they're covering. That said, reseeding now (or even later) can still be successful. In the spring, you need to reseed early enough to give the grass time to get established before it gets really hot. Also, you can't use weed-and-feed fertilizers on areas where new grass is growing. All in all, I've had much better luck reseeding in the fall, versus reseeding in the spring.

Two years ago, we had our front walk replaced in November, and a large section of grass near the walk was killed by the rocks and tarps and other stuff the contractors had put there. After the job was done, I cleaned up the spot, added some topsil and reseeded, just because I had some leftover grass seed that I would have thrown away otherwise. (I figured it couldn't hurt) I didn't go out of my way to water it, or anything. To my amazement, two months later, in January, I started seeing little seedlings popping up, despite the subfreezing temperatures. (I think the fact that it was a sunny spot, and there was black, sun-absobing topsoil on top might have helped.) Anyway, they grew slowly, but survived. So, be optimistic.

My neighbor was reseeding yesterday. I noticed that he was mixing seed into soil and then spreading the mixture in the areas needing "patching". (Not sure what prep he had done in those areas, but that isn't really my question of the moment.) So ... I'm wondering if this is a good method for improving the chances of the seed not getting washed away ... or what other pros/cons might exist.

We didn't get around to doing any reseeding this fall but I have a feeling we're going to need to do some in the spring. The hot, dry summer didn't do our lawn any good. And now, just in the last couple of weeks, I'm seeing lots of spots of yellowed grass - looks like dogs or other animals have been using various spots of my yard to pee, but I'm doubtful that's the issue since they are mostly not that close to the sidewalk and some are in the backyard. I've never had this happen before and we've been in this house for over 15 years.

We have been here many years and deciding to be more "green" of late, did not put down any chemical grub treatment, among other things. When we noticed the areas of yellowed grass, we thought it was from drought and would grow back in the fall. Eventually we lifted the dead grass and it all came up, exposing hundreds of grub larvae that had eaten the roots !
We had to kill them first, wait a week or two, then add more soil and seed. More work than money, but grass is slowly coming in now. Ironically, my neighbors dont seem to have the same problem ...

Best of luck .... I often call mark Pierson at Millstone for advice ...

we had the same issue- just thought it all completely died from the heat this summer but we had the same grub issue. I did not realize you could kill grubs now- I thought you had to wait until they were active? Anyway, we pulled up all the dead grass (same issue as you, it pulled up like sod- no roots because the grubs had eaten them all), tilled the soil and started from scratch with seed and fertilizer. I am pleased to say we now have a fully thick green lawn from absolutely nothing. Seeded around Sept 18 or so.