What grass to overseed Pennington Ultimate Grass Lawn?

11 years ago

I live in a suburb of Seattle/Tacoma WA, approx 4700 s.f. lawn, a mix of full sun and partial shade. I seeded the lawn about 6 years ago with Pennington Ultimate Grass Seed (only sold by Walmart) after rototilling in a 5-way soil mix. It appears the seed I used is discontinued. I have some areas I need to fill in as large as 2' x 1' and general overseeding to thicken the lawn (the large open areas were due to moss invasion which I removed).

I haven't been a lawn nut and am trying to learn about how to care for lawns. I've increasingly become very aggressive on removing moss. This is the first year I raked in Cedar Grove Compost into the lawn which is recommended by Ciscoe Morris, a local gardening guru on TV, on an annual basis. I have been fertilizing the lawn each Nov. which I've been told is the most important time and sometimes early summer when I get around to it, I use organic lawn fertilizer such as Dr. Earth. I also annually apply Super Sweet lime to the lawn which is also recommended by Ciscoe Morris since our soil is generally aciditic here if left alone.

So I'm open to anything re: what type of grass to fill in and overseed with but obviously need something that is going to be compatible color-wise with what I have and also hopefully a similar growth rate to what I have. I like the look of upright grass much more than the look of spreading grass. I have just started reading about Perennial Rye, KBG, etc. so I'm very new but am open to opinions.

Pennington Ultimate Grass Seed
39.4% Rebel Exeda Tall Fescue
29.2% Justice Tall Fescue
19.6% Shadow II Chewings Fescue
9.6% Blue Ridge Kentucky Bluegrass

Thanks!

Comments (7)

auteck
11 years ago
The Bluegrass does not do well in your climate for some reason, it is best to stick with Perennial Ryegrass or if you want a thicker bladed grass, then use Fescue (turf types only)

You can mix both if you want, I don't recommended because of the different texture. Just get a 3-way blend of Perennial Ryegrass, that's what grows best and looks best in your neck of the woods.
Wayne Reibold
Original Author
11 years ago
Do you think if I overseed and fill in the open spaces with Perennial Ryegrass the color and growth rate will be compatible with what's in the Pennington Ultimate Seeded lawn I have? Thanks!
grass1950
11 years ago
NTEP.
Wayne Reibold
Original Author
11 years ago
What does NTEP mean?
tiemco
11 years ago
I disagree with Auteck's recommendation, and I'm a little surprised he recommended what he did. Your original grass seed mix selection was tall fescue, fine fescues and KBG. I suspect you have mostly tall fescue growing since you have bare spots. If the KBG in your original grass mix had germinated fully, then it should fill in bare areas in the sunnier parts of your lawn. I agree with him in that perennial rye is usually what is grown in your area, but there was no perennial rye in that original mix. Overseeding your lawn with it now will give you some throughout the whole lawn, but the bare spots will be all PR, and they will stand out against the TF you have now. My advice, use either all TF to overseed, or a mix that has similar percentages to your original mix. I would also stick with Pennington's as it is usually the best mix in the big box stores.
Wayne Reibold
Original Author
11 years ago
What I don't like about the KBG and Fescue mix is when you walk the lawn you can see pretty big patches (e.g., 2' diameter) where it's all KBG, other parts that are all Fescue, it keeps changing all over the lawn. From a distance the lawn looks pretty good but I really dislike the differences as you walk on the lawn, the KGB looks like a horizontal spreader that you can tell it's horizontal spreading vs. the fescue stands straight up.
Wayne Reibold
Original Author
10 years ago
Need to overseed again this spring. Any further recommendations? Walmart has Scotts Commercial Grade Mix all tall fescue 4 types of it nothing else in it - thoughts?