We recently bought a house and i am planning to put new lawn and need help choosing right grass seed. We live in bay area CA, zip code is 95008. The area we are planning to put lawn i can devide in 2 parts, 1/2 completely exposed to sun and 1/2 is under shade of the house. After reading different articles, I guess combination of Kentucky bluegrass + red fescue + prrennial ryegrass + tall fescue is one i should be looking for. Can you suggest any specific grass seeds with brand that will work best.

Thanks...

One thing you should know about seed is you get what you pay for. All the seed you see at the box stores has a component of weed and other crop in it. The percentage you see listed in the guaranteed analysis is by weight. The really bad news is good seed is heavy and weed seed is light. In fact the worst weeds, common bermuda and bentgrass, have seeds the size of dust. Those seeds weigh one eight-millionth of a pound - meaning a pound has 8 million seeds in it. In a 10-pound bag of good KBG you could have 0.10% weed and get a full lawn of weeds. More expensive seed will have 0.00% weed and other crop listed on the label. Most weeds can be gotten rid of but bermuda and bentgrass are toughies. I'd spend the money for better seed. It is usually sold online only.

Another thing you should be aware of is that spring is a bad time of year to be seeding a lawn. Why? Because the crabgrass seed is sitting there waiting to get enough water to sprout. If you are watering enough for grass seed, that is more than enough for crabgrass seed. That is why fall is the recommended time of year to seed new grass. Crabgrass dies in the fall so you have all fall and winter to establish your turf before the crabgrass tries to return. Spring is also a poor time because the new grass roots don't have time to become established and able to resist the summer heat. You may dodge that bullet with your location. With those thoughts in mind, go ahead and seed now and hope for the best. Anything that happens can be corrected in the fall.

Please don't till your soil before seeding. No matter what your soil is like, the best thing to do for it is to get grass growing. Clear off the current vegetation with a verticutter (power rake, slit seeder, or other similar tool). Blow or rake off the litter, scatter the seeds, roll them down, and water daily, 3x per day (10 minutes only), for 3 weeks.

If you really want to improve the soil, look at the organic forum. If you don't care about that, then just be careful about using exactly the recommended amount of fertilizer on Memorial Day, Labor Day, and Thanksgiving. Going too heavy with chemicals is much worse than going too light. With organics it is looking like the reverse of that advice.