Believe it or not, if you have a cool season lawn, in central Virginia it’s time to prepare for it’s September seeding, planting or renewal. Fall is the very best time for starting a cool season lawn from scratch, laying sod, or restoring an existing lawn. But, you might not be ready for those steps without a bit of preparation now. Let me explain…In central Virginia we’re right on the fringe of good conditions for cultivating a warm season lawn or a cool season lawn. The lawn of preference here is a cool season or fescue lawn that conceivably retains it’s green color all year. More on cool vs. warm season lawns in a future post. But summer temps of 90’s-100 plus and our usual dry conditions have undoubtedly left the typical area fescue lawn in a less than ideal condition.

If you have weeds, the first step and the effort needed now is to plan and execute a strategy to knock them down by either removing physically (if not too numerous,) or using an appropriate herbicide. The deal is, once we get close to seeding time or laying sod, it’s the perfectly wrong time to be using an herbicide. After all, the job of an herbicide is to kill weeds.

For some time after treatment, an area treated with an herbicide is not a favorable environment for seed germination, etc. So the effect, at least for a short time depending on the product, is the exact opposite of the conditions needed for seeding a new lawn or over-seeding your existing grass. One herbicide treatment may not do the job of eradicating weeds depending on the particular variety. So it’s important to plan ahead for treatments two weeks apart, and to let the area rest for at least two weeks before seeding. So the calendar says this process should ideally begins at least a month before seeding or laying sod. In other words, right now/mid August!

Lawn prep continued next post…

Related posts:

Special deliveries! Yes Virginia- It’s Time For Your Lawn! part 2 Yes Virginia, It’s Time For Your Lawn! part 3 What’s a gardener to do… in winter?