need how to?

19 years ago

I need some suggestion to keep my lawn green and nice thick looking. I live in a condominium so I have quite small backyard. My wife wanted green area which not so big around 200 sq feet to make the backyard look a bit cooler so I ordered sod type and laid down by myself a couple months ago. The sod is "Medallion" which nursery told me that is suit for shade area and need very low maintenance.

The very first month the grass looked green and healthy but after the first clipping with manual clipper about 3 weeks after, the grass look kind of thin and a lot of brown spot. In the first 2 weeks I water 2 times a day, after that only one in the morning. The area only get sun about 3-4 hours a day. The area used to be really hard clay but I did some prep by digging around about an inch deep and added some seed starter before laid the sod down. I did add coffee ground in the area a couple time too but haven't used any fertilizer just yet.

What do I do to keep them thick and green with no brown spot -watering, clipping (how often), fertilize (how often and when)? Should I over-seeding with the type that more shade tolerant than medallion and how.

I ordered a B&D trimmer in hope to use that tool instead of killing my back clipping grass, will that work?

Thanks James

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Comments (3)

Billl
19 years ago
I've got some general answers and a few specific questions.

First, Medallion isn't a type of grass - it is a brand. The company sells tall fescue, a tall fescue/KBG mix, dwarf fescue, and fine fescue blends all under that name. All of them can be bought as sod. Those grasses all have similar characteristics, but you should figure out which one you bought before proceeding. Also, the company webpage boasts a 1 year replacement guarantee if it dies or declines, so you might want to call them and see if that applies to you.

In general, all the cool season grasses will want about 1 inch of water per week in summer. Once the sod is established, they would prefer that in 1 or 2 applications instead of a sprinkling each morning. An easy way to test how much you are watering is to put an empty tuna can on the lawn and measure how much water it collects.

For fertilizing, cool season grasses prefer 1 dose in spring and 3-4 does in late summer to fall spaced 4-6 weeks apart. You can put out coffee grounds anytime, but it takes about 8 dry lbs to replace one fertilizer treatment for a lawn your size.

Mowing - This is very important. You should trim the lawn every week. you should cut no more than 1/3 of the blade off at a time. If you have tall fescue, you should cut it no shorter than 3". You will likely have a hard time cutting it evenly with a trimmer or shears. They sell small electric mowers that would be perfect as long as you have a place to store it.
bestlawn
19 years ago
I have two questions:

The first is for how long did you water those two times a day? 10 minutes? 1 hour? 3 hours? How long each time?

The second question is understanding the length of time between laying the sod and the first mowing. It sounds like 7 weeks from what you say, but I want to be clear on that.
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james_hoon
Original Author
19 years ago
I water about 7-10 minutes each morning with hose. I only water one time a day now. The first clipping I did around 3 weeks after laying the sod. I haven't cut the grass for quite sometime but I plan to do so in a couple days.

I believe the type of grass I have is fine fescue blend. What type of fertilizer do I need? is 16-16-16 marathorn brand good?

"Once the sod is established, they would prefer that in 1 or 2 applications instead of a sprinkling each morning."
sorry, I don't really get what you're trying to say here. So I should water only 1-2 times a week but make sure the grass get about 1 inch of water per week, correct?

How much is a dose of fertilizer and what kind? I bought some steer munure for homedepot but afraid to apply to my grass due to it still smell like sh..