Morpheus -

I appreciate your honesty, this is exactly the type of information I was hoping for. As I’m sure you have gathered, I have very little lawn care experience. I will take your advice and try to water 3 times a day. I’m stuck at home anyways due to Covid so I might as well try! Maybe I’ll get lucky and at least have some success and if so I can focus on the areas that are coming in and reseed in August as you advised. I am more optimistic about my front yard then the back as it is a much smaller area to care for and has some shade. In the event that I “abort” on some or all areas, what should I do about the weeds? I am sure that there will be plenty. Should I just let them do what they want and then address them when I get closer to trying again? Or would it be better to try to keep them under control?

Thanks again!

I probably should have asked the state and nearest city to you yesterday before starting to spout my mouth off. It does vary by type of grass seed; southern lawns are supposed to be planted in June and this would be the perfect time. The Midwest is a pretty big area, although the vast majority of it is northern grass seed area.

As far as weeds, I'd keep them under control. Otherwise, they'll flower and seed out, which is exactly what you don't want them to do. Those big, fresh, viable seeds will be sitting there by the tens of thousands, waiting for your thrice-daily watering in August (if you're putting in a northern lawn).

Control in an unseeded or aborted area is easy: pull or use RoundUp. As long as there's no greenery there you care about, you can really use the stuff right up until a few days before seeding.

(I actually used it the day of seeding, but the bottle doesn't recommend that...I know the chemistry well enough to realize that it'll soil bind the first time it waters in, so I wasn't worried about it).

Great advice regarding the weeds. Generally speaking, what else can I do to prepare for seeding in areas that I need to try again on? Keep the weeds under control, water and mow?

I live in Peoria, Illinois which is about 2 and a half hours south of Chicago.

Northern lawn, then.

Keep the weeds under control. Mow them if you have to, kill them, definitely. Water? It's not necessary, but if you water daily for about 2 weeks in mid-July, you'll get the weeds to sprout. Then...kill them with RoundUp. It won't get everybody, but it reduces the amount of weeds you'll get in August when you sow the seeds.

You won't think that helped because trust me, there will be enough weeds to go around. But it helped.

At the time you sow, you can spray Tenacity (somewhat expensive, but it really works, and you'll have the rest of the bottle for later to spray on weeds, and the small bottle lasts ages) to reduce weeds, or use Starter Fertilizer with Mesotrione (which is Tenacity, but just enough to cover the area you're seeding about once) to suppress out weeds. It's good for about 30 days of weed suppression, or the time period when you're watering really heavily.

A soil test through Logan Labs can really help if you don't know what you're dealing with. Bad soil balances kill more lawns, let me tell you, and can be fixed easily with a $20 basic soil test and some soil additions. My soil was in full collapse (it had practically nothing in terms of resources) and that's what started my journey into the lawn person you see today.

Great, thanks. I like the plan for flushing out the weeds before seeding again. I feel a little less helpless that way!

It's looking more and more likely that I'm going to need to abort on the backyard. I've been watering 3 times a day which takes about an hour at a time running two sprinklers in the back, one in the front and a hand sprayer on the sides. There is zero shade, there has been next to zero rain and the highs are in the 90s with no end in sight! At a certain point, it's just not going to be worth my time and water bill. I do feel better having a solid plan for when I try again though!

The front yard seems to still have a chance. One area has actually started to sprout. I have a bit more shade and can hit the entire area with one sprinkler for 15-20 minutes. I hope to have the front yard in decent shape by the time I restart on the back. Ideally the new grass will come in with enough time for me to hit the front with Round Up at the same time I hit the back.

Thanks again Morpheus!

OP:

You mention using “Round up” on the front yard grass. Are you talking about a glyphosate based product, or a Round up branded selective broadleaf weed killer? Are you planning on using the same Roundup product on the front yard grass and the backyard weed field?

And, will the newly germinated grass in the front yard be ready for any of the usual post emergent products (bearing a "roundup" label) 6 weeks from now? It's certainly not going to grow much in 6 weeks of Peoria heat.

Morpheus needs to come back here.

Yeah, I'm not following; RoundUp in the rear, sure, but the front where the grass grew shouldn't need it?

RoundUp will kill everything it touches. For weed kill in the (sprouted) front, you'd use Weed B Gon or the like. And that would have to wait until the front lawn has been mowed three times--or until about September 15th, whichever comes first. By then, it's mature enough regardless of whether it's been mowed three times.

Until then, it's strictly hand weeding only, I'm afraid, in the front.

Watch your water bill. It might jump higher than you expect. Wait until late August or so and save $.

Thank you for the clarification on when and where to use RoundUp vs other products. I misunderstood the original recommendation on RoundUp and now understand. There are some weeds in the front in areas away from the new grass is growing but it is not a major issue. For now, I will focus on the new grass and hope for the best!