I forgot to mention that come June, I will be included by my boss to work from home(remotely). This will allow me to sneak 5 mins just to turn ON/OFF the watering outside. :P What about the village's rule 6-9AM, 6-9PM watering and only on odd dates, am I still candidate for seeding this fall?

If you're limited in when you can water, you may want to consider doing a dormant seeding instead. If you can't water when the seeds need it, you'll lose a lot of grass. If you dormant seed, you'll lose some and you won't be able to use a pre emergent, but you should be able to do it without any additional watering. I'm not sure this would be a good approach for completely replacing a lawn, though.

I forgot the watering steps. I remember bestlawn last year posted a program. However, I couldn't find it in my notes. All I remember was that as the days progresses, the number of watering hours decreases. My real problem here in our area is that we cannot water everyday and only from the hours I mentioned above. It really sux. :( So, is daily watering really needed if I am going to seed? Can't I do it every other day?

I already told my wife that I won't be taking care of the lawn this year since I'm seeding this fall. She made no comment which means it's a go :) Not sure though if what I am doing is right.

So, is daily watering really needed if I am going to seed? Can't I do it every other day?

Yes and no, respectively. Get a hot day and you might have to water it more than once--in early September, I was watering lightly three times a day in a desperate attempt to keep the ninety degree weather from killing my seed. It worked.

You'll lose 30% of your seed if it's dry for more than 24 hours. As that time increases, losses mount fast.

Thanks morpheuspa. What seed did you put? Do you have pics now? If I remember correctly, your house is the one with the whole front brick right?

I've got to ask my neighbor later. I remember that we can water anytime as long as I'm holding the garden hose and not use an automatic sprinkler. It's been a while.

Does anyone still have the fall-seeding program?

1. kill lawn
2. rake dead blades?
3. borrow seeder from home depot? Is it easy to use?
4. water

1. Get a soil test. Call your nearest county extension service for a test kit and details. It will likely take two weeks for results. If you need to apply sulfur, lime, or any other amendment per test recommendation (that is not applied in Step 6), you can do it after seeding if you don't get results back in time.

2. Apply that "R" word stuff and again one week after the first application. You can seed the lawn one week after the second app.

3. Scalp it down
4. Rake it up
5. Core aerate (or cheat with Nitron A-35)
6. Fertilize
7. Sow seeds
8. Topdress 1/4 inch layer compost, peat moss, or clean straw (weed-free).

9. Irrigation schedule
water 15-20 minutes twice a day for two weeks
water 20-30 minutes once a day for one week
water 30-45 minutes once a day every other day for one week
water 30-45 minutes once a day twice a week for one week
move into deep irrigation, increasing the time to provide 1 inch of water all over and decreasing the frequency to just once a week.

Starting off, the schedule supplies roughly 1/4 inch of water, then increases that amount while decreasing frequency of application at the same time. Like practically everything that concerns lawn care, this schedule is a general guideline and should be modified to accommodate your specific conditions. The lengths of time should be modified if you have an automatic sprinkler system since that will not take as long to provide adequate moisture. So, decrease amount of water (time) but maintain frequency as is. The tuna cans test is recommended. If it is still especially warm, you may want to irrigate 3 times a day (10-15 minutes if necessary) for that first couple weeks. Your objective is to keep the upper 1 inch of soil moist and not let the seeds dry out.

Baby the grass for the rest of year. Once the seeds begin to sprout, don't walk on it if at all possible. First mowing is when the new grass reaches two inches. Remove 1/3 of the grass blade, then allow to grow to 4 inches. Cut it back to 2.5 inches and maintain 2.5 inches mowing height.

After second application of R, how many days to wait before we can seed? Also, how is R applied? Do we just connect it to a hose?

1. About a week but okay to do it sooner.
2. Depends on which one you purchase. Not sure there is one available in a hose-end sprayer though.

another reason I didn't seed last year is because I don't know how to use the machine. The person at Home Depot wasn't really helpful in explaining. Does anyone have a live-action video of how to use a slit seeder?

FYI, just spoke to the village. Confirmed, I can water daily as long as I use garden hose. :)

Ron, post your question to a thread of its own so everyone can see it. I doubt there is a video available, but no one knows how to use it until they do use it. Then they get the hang of it. I'm sure there are several here who can help walk you through the initial steps. You just want to make sure they see you asking.

Thanks morpheuspa. What seed did you put? Do you have pics now? If I remember correctly, your house is the one with the whole front brick right?

I used the Mag 3. Photos are here and I started a grass blog as well detailing that I just broke my organic regimen. Or maybe I'll be too embarrassed to blog about that...

"Does anyone have a live-action video of how to use a slit seeder?"

Not exactly a how to, but the goobers at Ask This Old House did a segment on reseeding with one this past weekend. Might be a re-run on channels in your area.