Lawn Mowing, MoonLight Kentucky Bluegrass, Overseeding
Started my day mowing my lawn… It was raining some (sprinkling) while I was trying to cut the tall moist grass. I had to cut some areas in 4″ strips because my lawn mower could not handle cutting the tall moist grass. Very annoying trying to cut a lawn when it’s raining out… but I needed to cut it. This year I am cutting my lawn with my lawn mower at the highest setting (4″ I think). Tall grass = deep roots which help during hot weather get water to the blades of grass, tall grass help block out sunlight for new growing weeds… preventing some weeds from growing. The last couple of years I’ve been making my lawn my hobby… trying to get a perfect lawn. I did some research and discovered for Minnesota lawns… you want cool season grass seed… that being Kentucky Bluegrass… so I discovered to get a ‘dark green’ lawn you 1st need grass seed that gets dark green… that lead me to Midnight Kentucky Bluegrass. I overseeded my lawn the past 2 years with Midnight Kentucky Bluegrass. Then last year I discovered ‘the darkest’ Kentucky Bluegrass seed is called Moonlight. If I ever overseed again, I will use Moonlight Kentucky Bluegrass. All Kentucky Bluegrass seed have a 1-9 (9 = dark green) genetic color rating. MoonLight has the highest/darkest-green rating of 7.9, and Midnight has a rating of 7.5 . I got this information from a pdf file at sroseed.com . So if you want the ‘darkest green’ lawn… first plant the seed that can ‘get’ the darkest green. Then for fertilizer I use Milorganite . Go to their website and watch their video how they make their fertilizer… it’s an organic product. Along with putting Milorganite down… I also will put Scotts Starter Fertilizer down the beginning and end of the grass season… Don’t let the package fool you… It’s MORE than just fertilizer for seeding… I’ve had excellent results using it as a lawn fertilizer… try and you’ll see… It’s non burning and has 20-27-5 (High in phosphorus). I also use Scotts Super Turf Builder products along with Milorganite. You now know the grass seed to plant, fertilizer to use… When watering LAWN SEED to get it to grow… best to buy water timers (I own 2 Gilmour Model 9400 electronic timers)… and oscillating sprinklers (I use Melnor Delux Turbo Oscillating Sprinklers… I own 3 of them to cover my whole yard, my neighbors said it looks like a really good sprinkler… It lays the water down even everywhere… rather than other sprinklers that put 4″ of water in the center, and 1/2″ of water at the outer edge in an hour). For NEW SEED… just keep it damp constantly… 1 time a day on cloudy days… 2 times or more on sunny days… just keep it damp… NO puddles. For a mature lawn… best to water 1 time a week for 1-2 hours (1″ of water a week). If HOT out… then water 2 times a week rather than watering little amounts every day… because you want the grass roots to grow DEEP DOWN… You’ll have shallow roots if you water little bits every day. Cut your lawn frequently… 2 times a week… For the roots to grow their best… keep the lawn at 1 tall height consistantly. To make a lawn THICK/DENSE… overseed with MoonLight Kentucky Bluegrass… Find someone that will lay your seed down with a Verticutter machine! and first have them core-aerate your lawn… Make sure you mow the lawn as short as you can WITHOUT hitting dirt, and get the lawn nice and wet to make the soil soft… so the core aerator plugs go deep into the soil. You’re lawn will look terrible the 1st week of overseeding like this… but in 2 weeks it will look green again… and in 1 month you’ll start to be amazed how great it worked.
