My wife and I bought our first home here in Southeast Tennessee. This home is new construction and it was completed just before we closed a few days before Christmas. One of my many concerns about the house since going under contract has been landscaping. I knew that since we were buying the house at the start of winter, that my lawn would take some work.

The builder had the lawn seeded and strawed the day we closed on the house. In retrospect, I wish I had arranged for this to have been done in March instead. Anyhow, two days after we moved in, a rain storm dumped 2 inches overnight. It was very windy and rainy, and the house is on top of a ridge, so it is very weather exposed. I figured that most of the grass seed, which had been planted 2 days prior, had been washed away. A lot of the straw blew around, so once the ground was dry enough I went out and spread the straw evenly again.

It is now a month later. No grass. Albeit, it has been really cold. However, I don't really see any grass seen in the ground either. The straw was becoming a nuisance by blowing into my neighbor's yard. So last weekend I went out and raked away the straw from just the front yard and piled it in the side yard. I found a few patches of grass, maybe 5% of the total lawn area, if that.

Here's my question: Do you think there is likely still grass seed in the ground and I just can't see it because it's covered up? Should I put the straw back out? When should I re-seed and with what type of grass? The soil seems to be primarily clay. That is pretty typical for our area. The excavators graded the lawn using the dirt from where they dug our basement.

Thanks,
Aaron