A Green Lawn is an Easy Lawn - Best Grass Seed for Green Grass Year Round

Fescue grass may be the perfect lawn seed if you're looking for a low-maintenance lawn. A fescue lawn stays a beautiful dark green all year round, even in snow. Your fescue grass will tolerate heavy traffic, dogs, harsh sun, heat, shade, cold, lots of rain, drought and even forgetting to water it. It's easy to patch and doesn't require de-thatching. Because fescue thrives in virtually any situation, you will need to mow it regularly as it grows quickly.

Planting a Lawn from Seed is Better than Using Sod

Growing your lawn from seed instead of using sod can save you hundreds of dollars. Planting grass from seed is easier than installing a lawn with sod. Installing a lawn with sod sounds easier, but if you're doing it yourself it requires a lot of lifting and bending. You'll also need to rent a lot of equipment to get the job done right.

What You Need to Plant a New Lawn from Seed

Grass Seed (Fescue)

New Lawn Fertilizer (Don't use weed killing fertilizers yet)

Steel-toothed garden rake (No, your leaf rake won't work. Seriously, you'll regret it.)

Where to Buy Grass Seed

Garden centers at discount stores like Walmart and Target or hardware stores like Lowe's and Home Depot as well as your local Ace Hardware or True Value Hardware will carry fescue lawn seed. Look for things like "sun or shade," "high traffic," "ultimate" or "easy."
Tip: Avoid buying bulk grass seed from those big open bins. How often do you think people pick up a handful of seed and then put it back in the wrong bin? Okay, probably not that often, but a couple times is all it takes to mess up your new lawn.

What Kind of Grass Seed Makes the Best and Easiest Lawn?

The answer is, of course, fescue. Check the label on the bag. Fescue mixes are usually made up of varieties of tall fescue or red fescue and other fescues. A pure fescue mix will give you the best, most even results. Some mixes contain mostly fescue with small portions of other grass seeds such as Kentucky Blue Grass. These will work also if you can't find a pure fescue mix.

How Much Grass Seed Do You Need to Plant Your New Lawn?

Check the bag for seeding rates. New lawns usually take about 5 to 8 pounds per 1,000 square feet. Patching and improving existing lawns take about half as much or less. Always buy more seed than you think you'll need. It's hard to get the seeding to come out just right and having extra on hand is also helpful for filling in sparse areas that show up when the grass seed begins to germinate.

Optional Equipment

Seed Spreader

Seed spreaders, either hand held or push types can make the job a lot easier. A hand seeder will set you back less than $15 and a push type can usually be picked up for around $30. If you don't want to buy one and you can't find one to borrow, your local hardware store might rent them. You can also broadcast grass seed by hand. Walk slowly, and just toss the grass seed by the handful in a fan pattern or sprinkle it as you go.

Rototiller

To give your lawn the best start, consider borrowing a rototiller from someone or renting one at your local hardware store. If you're going with a rototiller, try to loosen the soil down about six inches and then smooth with a steel-toothed rake. If you can't get your hands on a rototiller, you can use a shovel or a hoe. To turn the soil with a shovel, just dig out a scoop and flip it over. Repeat that over the whole area. To turn the soil with a hoe, start chopping! If your soil is hard, has never had a lawn on it before or is covered in a thick mat of old grass, a rototiller can be your best friend.

Soil Testing Kit and Soil Amenders

You can pick up a soil testing kit at your local discount store, hardware store or garden center. They usually cost less than $5. You simply take a small scoop of soil, mix it with water and the capsule that comes with your kit then match it to the color on the chart to determine the Ph level of your soil.

Soil levels that are too acidic or too alkaline can be amended with special additives. Check with your local garden center to determine what to use for your specific needs.

Tip: Spring and early fall are the best times to plant a lawn but fescue can tolerate cooler and hotter temperatures. Planting after your last freeze date and when daytime temperatures are between 60 and 80 degrees will give your new lawn the best start.

Preparing Your Soil for a New Lawn

To prepare bare soil for your new fescue lawn simply rake up any leaves or sticks, and rake the soil with a steel-toothed rake to smooth and loosen at least the first inch or two of soil. If your soil has the consistency of hardened concrete or is presently covered in native weeds, you might want to go the extra step of renting a rototiller to break up and loosen the soil down at least three to six inches.

Preparing to Patch or Improve an Existing Lawn

If you have a really thick, weedy, dead lawn you can either rent a rototiller or aerator to chop it up or you can burn some hefty calories by hacking away at it with your steel-toothed rake. You just need to loosen things up so the new grass seed can actually get down to the soil. If you're patching bare spots, just fluff up the soil and smooth it out flat with your steel-toothed rake. If you're patching bare spots because of pet urine, test your soil or pick up a soil amender made specifically for treating pet urine.

Tip: To easily smooth the soil out, flip the steel-toothed rake over and using the back side of instead of the tongs. First, push the soil away from you creating a small mound ahead of the rake. Then draw the rake lightly back over the mound toward yourself to smooth out the surface. This technique also works great for moving larger amounts of dirt around and leveling large areas quickly. To move dirt from one area to another, pull large mounds toward you with the back of the rake.

Fertilize Your New Lawn

When you're buying your grass seed, pick up enough "new lawn" fertilizer to cover your lawn. Don't use lawn fertilizers containing weed killers until after you've mowed your new or improved lawn at least three times. If you buy a grass seed that contains new lawn fertilizer or has a fertilizer coating on the seeds themselves, you can skip this step. You can use your grass seeder to spread the fertilizer or just broadcast it by hand.

Plant the Seed

Use your hand or push spreader or broadcast the seed by hand. The seed bag often has instructions for what setting to use on your seeder, but you may just have to experiment to get the coverage you like. You want an even coverage but you don't need to completely cover the soil. It's usually best to make a light pass around the whole yard to ensure you get everything covered without running out of seed. Then go over it again to get a thicker, more even coverage.

Rake The Grass Seeds Lightly

Using your steel-toothed rake, lightly rake over the seeds. You don't need to bury them, but lightly covering them and mixing them into the soil slightly will help cut down on losses from hungry birds and help ensure even germination.

Water Your New Lawn

Until the grass seed has germinated you need to try your best to keep the soil from drying out. Despite your best efforts, it's probably going to dry out anyway. Fescue can usually handle this just fine as long as it doesn't dry out for days at a time. Ideally set your sprinklers or hand water lightly two to three times a day. You don't need to water deeply at this point, just enough to wet the seeds and the first half inch to inch of the soil. If it's really hot and dry where you live, you might want to add an extra watering. Watering early in the day is also recommended if your days are hot. Watering at night when it's cool can lead to an explosion of mushrooms in your new lawn, so you may need to experiment to find the best watering schedule for your lawn.

Depending on moisture and temperatures, you will begin to see a green hue appear between 8 and 14 days. The new grass stalks are delicate. You don't have to worry about keeping people and pets off it completely, but try to avoid too much activity like ball throwing and touch football games until the grass is more established.

Once your lawn is well established, deeper, less frequent waterings will help your lawn grow strong and healthy. Frequent, light waterings tend to encourage your grass to be fussy and delicate. Fescue shouldn't have much trouble hanging in until you perfect your watering schedule.

When to Mow Your New Lawn

Wait until the grass is just slightly longer than the height you want to keep it and then give it a light mowing. Lawns, especially tender, new lawns, can be susceptible to pressure and can be damaged by riding lawn mowers and even heavy gas mowers. If you have a small lawn, you might want to consider a push lawn mower as a cheaper and greener alternative to gas-powered mowers. If not, just make a quick pass over the lawn and avoid mowing over the same place twice until the lawn is established.

Want an Even Easier Way to Plant A Lawn?

If this all still sounds like way too much trouble, here's a really simple way to plant a fescue lawn. Step One: Get a bag of fescue grass seed. Step Two: go scatter it around your yard. Step Three: Water it.

Sources:
www.penningtonseed.com, maker of "The Ultimate Seed Grass Seed Mixture"
www.wikipedia.org