For a less than 1 year old lawn that looks about normal to me. I would keep watering, mow as high as your mower will allow and recycle those clippings right in place (those are 1/2 the annual nutrient needs of your lawn) and then, If necessary reseed in the fall. Good quality turfgrasses seeded now will need 6 to 8 weeks to germinate and that puts them into the start of the hot, dry summer weather about the time they will be wanting to go dormant. Fall is much better for seeding.

Get some compost into the soil...does wonders!

I would venture to guess that the better looking lawns were sodded, not sown. Yours looks about right, if a bit on the poor side. I would get down as much compost as you can - up to half an inch, and repeat in about a month if you can. Any alfalfa or cottonseed meal you could spread would also help. The above advice about mowing high, with a mulching mower, is excellent. I would wait to overseed, unless you REALLY LIKE to move sprinklers around, until the fall.

Ditto the compost and alfalfa meal. I have used those, and an organic lawn fertilizer (mostly chicken manure, from the smell of it) the last two years and my lawn looks pretty good. I'm not a nut about it, but even my skeptical neighbor complimented me.

Thanks for all the advice. I'm hearing what I've read, that overseeding should be done in the fall, but if I don't do it now, too, won't all my bare spots be full of weed seedlings by fall?

You might try seeding the bare patches now to prevent that. I wouldn't go to the expense of slit seeding until fall, but at least some of your grass will take hold and cover the bare spots. There's really no way around having to pull some weeds when you start a lawn. Even if you weren't trying to go organic, you can't spray weed killer on new grass blades. Adding some compost or other organic matter like the alfalfa will help keep the soil softer and the weeds easier to pull.

Weed early and often! That will make it easier and prevent anything from taking over before you rehab the lawn this fall.

People often seed annual rye to cover the bare spot while they wait until fall to do the real seeding. It germinates fast.

The GW Lawn forum has lots of organic-minded advice.

Here is a link that might be useful: Lawn forum

If you do sow the annual rye, then lightly covering the sown areas with either compost or with straw, not hay (to lessen the imported weed seeds), will help with the germination and continued growth. It will also add organic matter to your soil, which will help. You will have to water the patches, probably daily, and not mow them, until the new grass is at LEAST 3 in. high. But, doing that would help keep the weeds to a relative minimum. Don't let the existing grass dry out, as it won't have REALLY strong roots until a few years of growth have occurred. Watering not too often, but deeply will encourage deep roots.

I agree that you WILL have to hand-weed, there's just no other way to get rid of them weeds on a new lawn. The more you can pull as small babies, the less root disturbance for the grass and the less likelihood that you will leave chunks of roots behind to resprout. Pulling is MUCH easier just after rain, or after watering.

The application rate for compost is 1 cubic yard per 1,000 square feet.

If you reseed now, you will have to water daily, right? Watering daily will sprout every seed on your lawn, weed and grass. Just think about that and understand that if you seed with grass now, you will get weeds galore along with any grass that sprouts.

Check out the FAQ on lawn care at the top of this forum. That will help with the basic understanding of organic turf care. In addition to that you need to know that deep infrequent watering is the number 1 way to prevent weeds. Mowing tall is the number 2 way to prevent weeds. Since you decided to plant slow growing fescue you will not have to worry about the fescue covering any time this decade. Next fall you need to reseed HEAVILY to get good coverage. I think your hydroseeders short changed you.

If you really don't want to mow, consider mixing Dutch white clover into your turf. When you seed it evenly over the entire area, it looks very lush. See the clover mix below:

{{gwi:141666}}

Thank you for answering, David. I'm guessing that I made a poor choice of grass, right? It's not that we don't want to mow, but my understanding that if NOT mowed, this grass would get about 6" high and flop over in tufts. I was hoping to have a few "islands" in the lawn with groves of amelanchiors and sumac with the unmowed grass in the middle rather than mulching the "island" with bark. I want our yard to look neat, but lower maintenance than I've had in the past. The back half of the property will be seeded this fall with native grasses and forbs, and I'm trying for bird-friendly natives in beds next to the house.

The picture of clover is beautiful. At this point, would that be the best bet to overseed in the fall? Or should I overseed with more of the no-mow mix, or some other kind of grass seed altogether? I do feel like the hydroseeding was done poorly, so I don't trust the advice I'm getting from the lawn guys. I have read your faq over multiple times and appreciate your having written it. Since seeding now seems to not be a good thing to do, we have just spread 100# of corn gluten, hoping to minimize weed seeds sprouting until we can reseed. Is that a reasonable plan? Is so, should we continue spreading it every six weeks? I'm also planning on spreading compost over the whole lawn when I can get to it. Thanks for your help--

David, That clover mix looks great. What is the overseeding process?

You mentioned that the area above the hose is gonna be killed off for a garden of some kind yes? Well, it looks really good in my opinion. Why not just use a sod cutter to move that turf to the bare areas you need to cover to prevent weeds from sprouting and then filling in the bare spots of the future garden in with mulch? Then the worms can start working on your future garden plot and the weed problem would be fixed at least part way?
Just a thought.
Christina

Good thought, Christina, but the picture is deceptive. Most of the grass above the hose is not regular grass but something coarse and fast-growing. We knew when we seeded the lawn last year that about the back 30' of the yard would be seeded this fall in native grasses and forbs so we didn't use "good" grass seed there.

Hmm, bummer. Maybe the 'poor' grass seed did better there for a reason? One thing I've learned is not to fight it if it works. Therefore we have tons of bermuda mixed in with our St. Augustine. Good luck to you!
Christina