1) Yes. One of our members grows grass in limestone chips and has excellent success (but knows exactly and precisely what he's doing). I grow a nice lawn in heavy, solid clay. It's less what you grow it in than how you treat it (although a poor soil will result in a poorer lawn, of course).

2) Your decision. KBG takes a very long time to sprout, which isn't the best thing for a spring planting. However, a mix with it in will take an equally long time. Rye and fescue are faster, but are clumping grasses and spread only very slowly. Those two generally require reseeding fairly often.

3) Try to choose a period of time when very heavy rain is not going to be an issue. Since that's impossible. mulch it or use a germination mat. Mats are expensive, so a good straw mulch will be a must on a hill.

You can use a seed-safe pre-emergent, like Tupersan, Siduron, or Scott's Starter Fertilizer with pre-M in it (which uses one of the two above, whether the trade name or the generic, I'm not sure). The cost will not be low, however, but it will help.

Spring seedings get weeds. Lots of weeds. Competition is fierce, and the pre-M helps but will only do so much. Expect to weed a lot.

With not watering, you can expect very heavy losses during the summer, and perhaps during seeding as well. I would expect and plan to redo the seeding in the fall to fill in the lawn.

Our standard tips (mow as high as you can stand, water rarely and deeply, feed regularly and according to instructions) also apply.

Thanks for the advice. A couple follow ups:

2. People have recommended a mix because the genetic diversity will allow the grass to survive through sickness/drought/etc. Do you think I need to worry about this? Would a mix of KBG vareties fare as well?

You mention the fact that the KBG is slow to sprout, but with those other grasses being clump grasses, wouldn't I have to worry about the yard not blending? Maybe the answer would be mixing in some annual ryegrass for a quick green-up and erosion control, but it could die off this fall?

3. I haven't yet found any place locally that has a seedling-safe pre-emergent. I'll keep looking, but I'm not optimistic.

As for watering, I plan to water during the seedling phase (when required), and probably would be able to water a most of it the first summer, however, I don't see myself doing this in the long run (unless I build a rain collection system). I was under the impression that KBG would just go dormant in the summer heat and green back up when the rain returned. Am I wrong about this? Most of the people I know with large yards don't really water and their yard brown up some in the summer but come right back in the fall.

Thanks,
Josh
http://josh.breittechnologies.com - My Blog
http://www.breittechnologies.com

Maybe the annual ryegrass as erosion control is a bad idea:

"Use of annual ryegrass in seed mixtures is discouraged because its aggressive growth prevents the establishment of the more desirable perennial turfgrasses."

Locate and contact your local farmer's coop, they'll have it or will order it for you and you can have it within a week. Funniest damn thing when I called for my 4lb bag of Tupersan. I guess enough of my yankee-detroit accent still remains because when I called asking for "Tupersan Pre-Emergent" the lady respond back with "Well we have Brand-X and it's 1.8%, is that enough?"

No lie...lol

As for the expensive part, expect the 4lb bag (treats up to an acre) of wettable powder Tupersan will run you almost $100 after sales tax and all.

2) Yes and no on the genetic diversity question. Our resident Lady of the Grasses, Bestlawn, always recommends the use of three different cultivars in a lawn. That doesn't mean three different species, though. I have a pure KBG lawn, with Midnight II, Bedazzled, and Moonlight cultivars. Each has its strengths and weaknesses, and they tend to compliment each other. I removed a three-species lawn (Kenblue KBG, some sort of fescue, and a perennial ryegrass of some kind) to put in this one.

I'm certain she'll be happy to help you pick three for your area.

Regarding noticing it not mixing...that depends. I'm a complete stickler and noticed it two days out from mowing because the rye grew a little faster and was 1/10" taller than the others. It made the lawn look shaggier than I liked pretty fast. If you haven't picked up that I'm a bit OCD about the lawn, you should be doing so now...

The average person for whom this is not a hobby probably won't notice the difference unless two types of grass (or worse, two different colors) back onto each other. My parents love their lawn, I have to suppress my gag reflex.

You can mix annual rye in if you like, but absolutely no more than 10% by weight (which is 2-3% by seed count or so). At that level, the aggressive growth and alleopathy (the tendency of ryegrasses to suppress anything around them except other ryegrasses) won't apply.

3) Arjo's right, and most of your garden shops will order it for you, too--particularly if they know you. Mine bends over backwards for me, but they know I give them all my business, I'm not hard to please, and I spend a lot.

The first summer (the second as well if a fall seeding is required) are fairly important. The grass, spring-seeded, only has a few months before it gets hot--and KBG (and any other cool season grass) doesn't much like the heat. Being young, the roots are thin and not as deep as they will be later.

Labor Day seedings have all of fall to sprout and start up, then spring to grow roots. They still need a bit of coddling the first summer, but not nearly as much and they'll probably do OK without it.

After that, fescue and rye can go without water for a while but don't have a great dormancy scheme. Bluegrass does, however, and can survive fairly long periods on minimal water. You should still water occasionally, however, to keep the roots alive if you aren't getting 1/4" of rain every two weeks or so. To keep it green and growing, 1" a week.

On the upside, bluegrass will also fill in any holes pretty well, so even if a bit dies the rest will just grow in.

Bestlawn recommended cultivars for me that also happen to be fairly drought-tolerant and slow growing. It was an incidental to the traits I wanted (deepest green, mostly), but ones I am happy to have. If you want, start a new thread and list your exact location plus any characteristics you want in the grasses.

Please note, however, that elites tend to be rather expensive. You can certainly have a very nice lawn with the bag of Rebel or Scott's off the shelf. I managed just fine, it's just those characteristics were driving me nuts and the color was too light for my taste.

I'll stop babbling now.

Thanks for all the info. You've been very helpful.

Personally, I'm not that OCD (as you put it) about the lawn. Like I mentioned, I don't need a showcase lawn, but I do like something decent.

I'm currently leaning toward a KBG blend rather than a mix. I'm just not interested in the bunching characteristics of the ryegrass. I might consider the Red Fescue, I have to read more about what the advantage of that would be.

And I am on a limited budget since I have such a large area to cover, so I will probably use cultivars that are sold locally rather than some of the more premium varieties.

So last question for now, any reason why having creeping red fescue mixed in would be a good idea? There's virtually no shade in the yard.

Thanks,
Josh

Josh

So last question for now, any reason why having creeping red fescue mixed in would be a good idea? There's virtually no shade in the yard.

Sure, if you like. Full sun is perfect for all the grass types. They have difficulty with shade more than sun, and my best areas get 100% sunlight.

I'd forgotten the area was large. Any seed off the shelf will be just fine and any Big Box Retailer or Little Garden Store should carry them. I tend to prefer Rebel over Scott's, but that's personal preference only. Both make KBG mixes that will do well enough to please (almost) anybody.