I love it.

The after pics look great. The before pics look like bermuda. Did you overseen into bermuda? I thought you said you got rid of that a long time ago?

Yeah, Quirky, got rid of the bermuda in the front/side yard that these pics are from in 2001. That yard was all KBG and P Rye until this overseed. The pics were from after mowing low and running the slidseeder/aerator over it a few times, that is probably why it looks different. The stuff you see that look like bermuda in the pics is what the seeder/aerator brought up. To have been more clear I probably should have labled the first pics the "in progress" pics.

I did this overseed mostly because my trees were getting big and giving so much shade now that the KBG just wasn't very strong. I am looking forward to next year to see how the creeping red fescue and larger percentage of p rye I put in in the shadier areas do. Its up to a pretty good stand, so we will see.

We're entering week 4 of fine fescue in the back and side yards. Creeping red and hard fescue only. Nothing else. So far so good. Soft and fluffy. It's holding up to the dogs and the sun.

Quirky, are those the varieties that are glyphosate tolerant? Seems like I remember reading about some kind of "roundup" tolerant fescue.

Yes. But that was an after thought. Even though there are some specifics about how, when and what rates it is applied, if I can wing it and spot treat bermuda sprouts with ordinary roundup I will be thrilled. I will tell everyone I know to plant this grass. Of course it has to hold up in the sun and grow without any rain too. :-)

You would be so thrilled that you would be doing cart wheels and back flips :-)

I knew it was perennial ryegrass as soon as I saw the pictures, way to go! Looks awesome!

Where in TX are you, exactly?

I'm way up "north" for Texas, in Amarillo in the Panhandle.

I've heard and seen Amarillo on the map. Yes, you're way up north - almost in Colorado. So you get the 4 seasons like we do. I'm in zone 7 as well, in central NC - Raleigh to be exact.

Not many warm season lawns up here, it's predominately Tall Fescue. Not my grass of choice, so I grow KBG and PRG. They both make an awesome lawn.

Anyway, good to know that you're growing cool season grasses as suppose to weedy bermuda that texas_weed sells every body in Texas.

I was going to start this differently until I read the last post. Maybe you were saying this more light hearted than I took it, but in texas_weed's defense, which he can certainly do himself, but my observation is that he helps people who already have bermuda, or who are considering bermuda, face the facts of what a difficult turf it can be to manage. He doesn't pop out of your computer screen with an ax and force you to plant bermuda. I, on the other hand, have my ax ready for anyone who wants to use synthetic fertilizers, bwwwwaaaaaahahahahahahahaha! (Halloween humor, shallow, but humor)

Nice lawn rcnaylor. Can you get into some detail of how you prepared for the seeding, how you picked the seed, how you did the seeding, and how you cared for it? Or if you have already posted that, just a link would do.

Almost Colorado? Well I guess if you consider a half a day's drive close, then okay. Until you drive around in it, it is hard to imagine how big Texas is. Driving from Amarillo to the closest town in Colorado is farther than driving from Boston to New York or from New York to Washington DC. But your point about four seasons is definitely true. I live in San Antonio (only two seasons), but for now I'm in a hotel about 60 miles northeast of rcnaylor. We're definitely getting a season I've never seen today. Temps in the low 50s with a 30 mph wind. It's nippy.

Well, like most things "yard" David, there was kind of a stream of consciousness set of posts as I went along this year.

But, to kind of tie it together for those who might be interested I decided to overseed this year primarily because my trees were getting big enough to keep the KBG and P Rye (small percentage) doing as well as I wanted. I hadn't done it for a couple of years while trying to battle poa.

I cut my grass from max height on the mower (4.5" maybe) down to about 2 inches over a couple of weeks.I usually mulch mow but used a grass catcher to do that. Then I rented a slit seeder and put out 4 lbs of Bedazzle and 3 lbs of Midnight in the sunnier areas and then 9 lbs of Pennington Dense Shade mix (43.5% Camilla Red fescue, 19.50 Integra P rye, 14.5% 7 Seas chewing fescue, 9.5% Boareal red fescue, 9.5% Kenblue KBG). The areas that didn't come in quite as strong as I would have liked at about day 14 I added some Justice fescue and Exeda fescue.

I held out as long as I thought I could to plant because it was so warm this fall. Soil temp was 68 degrees at 6" and 67 at 2" inches when I planted and the air temps were eighties and often into the 90's there for a couple of weeks. I had a pretty good germ, probably the rye first, by about day 8.

I fertilized at the time of planting with about 20lbs per thousand of alfalfa meal. At about 5 weeks I put out 10 per k of dried molasses (mostly SBM).

So, I expect I'll have quite a heinz mix, but with the mix of sun and shade I have now, I think that is what it'll take.

FWIW, I have a strip of heavy shade on the side of the house under some burr oaks that I got a pretty good stand up on this overseed, but, it is already weakening. May have to try some of that Shadow Turf you have mentioned over there next summer. Although, eventually, I'm afraid I may have to go to a shade type ground cover there.

It was a struggle this year with the hot dry weather. But, its turning out well enough, so I won't complain.

I hate to criticize anyone's lawn, or make it seem like any "full" lawn is anything less than great, but to me the closeup photo seems like there is a considerable difference in the width of the blades of grass. Perhaps it is just that the newer grass isn't developed, or perhaps it is because of the different varieties. What do you think? As someone with a mix of different grasses in my lawn, that seems like the only drawback to me.

I have a rye/fescue/kbg lawn that I am trying to overseed more kbg into, while my neighbor's lawn (which I kind of consider to be my own since I helped with his renovation this year) is now strictly kbg. I can't wait to see the difference next year. The main benefit of the rye/fescue/kbg mix is the fact that I don't have to worry about disease as much and that at least one of the grasses will thrive in every part of my lawn. The downside is that I haven't had enough kbg for it to spread into bare spots, plus I really am starting to like the look of people's "uniform" kbg lawns.