Hi Everyone! Now that many of us are spending more time at home, our attention is turning to our yards. April is a wonderful month to kick off the growing season.
While you dream about which landscape projects you’ll tackle, take care of your existing yard by taking care of a few important tasks. Here’s a video I made that covers everything you need to know from caring for your lawn, getting a jump on weeds, and dealing with late spring snow storms.
I’ll be posting more about seed starting, vegetable gardening and planting soon!
Hi Catherine! How good to see you posting again. I miss talking with you now that I have retired.
My front lawn needs to be redone. I plan to hit it with Roundup, then till lightly, and seed. What’s your recommendation on timing? (Reminder, I am near Gleneagle at 7200 feet.)
Cheers,
Joe Dixon
Hi Joe! It’s great to hear from you. I hope are doing well and staying healthy. Timing for grass seeding really depends on soil temperature. The seed won’t germinate until the soil has reached the right temperature range. To save on your water bill, I wouldn’t seed until the soil reaches the minimum temperature. I usually measure the soil temperature with my cooking thermometer to get the timing right (and wash it well afterwards). Here are a few common grass species and their germination temperature ranges:
Kentucky bluegrass- 60-85 F
Tall fescue- 70-85
Fine fescue- 60-75
Perennial rye- 70-85
Buffalograss- greater than 60
For your elevation, I would guess that the soil reaches 60 by mid to late May or June. Soil temperature is usually about a month behind air temperature. You can seed as late as Labor Day and still be successful. My favorite month to seed cool-season grass lawns is August since the soil is at optimal temperature, but that means you have to go through most of the summer without a renovated lawn.
Hope that helps and let me know if you have any other questions. 🙂
Thanks, Catherine. Given soil temp expected to be ok late May or early June, when should I start with roundup? And would you expect at least two applications, the second one if anything green appears after the first round?
I recommend starting vegetation removal about six weeks before you want to seed. That gives you enough time to do two applications and give everything enough time to work. My experience is that it’s important to water pretty consistently for 1-2 weeks before you start to get all the weeds and remaining grass actively growing. If the existing vegetation is dormant, it can survive the renovation process.
Thanks again, and another thought. It’s ok with me to have a brown lawn until late July or August if that’s better for seed germination. (Most of our five acres is prairie, and not particularly green all year.) Does that give enough time to get established well enough for winter?
Hi again, Joe! Yes, if you could plant your seeding date to be around August 1st to 15th at your elevation, that would be ideal, assuming you’re going to plant a cool season grass. Every project I’ve done at that time has germinated quickly because of the warm soil temperatures. Here’s an article with a deeper explanation. Also, you end up with fewer weeds, which is a huge bonus.
I did a cool-season lawn seeding project in Colorado Springs once on September 17 and that proved to be too late. We got about 50% coverage and had to overseed the following spring. Cool season grasses will definitely be able to grow enough to go into winter as long as you get them planted in August. Let me know how it goes!
Thanks!
Hey, great to see you posting again! Did look forward to hearing you at the Western Landscape Symposium, but, you know what happened with that…Thank you for your encouragement and information to keep up the gardening.
Hi Maureen! Yes, I was sad the WLS was cancelled, but hopefully it will come back strong in a future year. Hope you are enjoying this Colorado spring weather. 🙂
Live on the Front Range in Denver and just discovered your site. Thanks for all the info and videos…this is going to be super helpful!
Glad you’re joining us, Frank. Welcome!