I am in need of some advice from the World Wide GardenWeb...

Here is our story...

Last October, our landscaper and his crew graded, brought in top soil, and hydro-seeded approx. 10,000 sq. feet of brand new lawn with a perennial, rye, and fine fescue mix. We also hydro-seeded other areas adjacent to the lawn, but did not bring in any topsoil for these areas, just used the existing soil. Now, in May, everything is growing in beautifully - lush, green, and soft. However, to our dismay, the entire top soiled lawn is filled with poa annua. It's literally everywhere in just the top-soiled lawn, but is nowhere else. Not around our house, not in our neighbor's lawns, not in any of the adjacent lawns, nowhere but the top-soiled lawn. We have discussed this with our landscaper, and he too has concluded that the top soil was contaminated with poa annua. We know that poa will eventually infiltrate as time goes by (our landscaper said 2-5 years). But it's quite frustrating to have it heavily throughout our entire, brand new, $25,000 lawn.

Our landscaper is a very reputable, very honest, and is a good guy. He seems willing to help out - but also to a point. His supplier of soil has essentially refused to accept any blame in the matter, so we are stuck between a rock and hard place trying to decide what is fair to request or accept. He has offered to cover the cost of a one-time pre-emergence spray sequence (I think they spray three times over a 2 month period) this fall, if we choose that route. Alternatively, he will cover the labor for sod, if we decide to take everything up and put sod down - but we will be responsible for the difference in what sod would have cost over the hydroseeding cost (hydro ~.25/sq. ft - sod ~.75/sq. ft.). If we choose the sod route, we will lose the use of our lawn this summer, and be forced to pay for sod, which we didn't want to do in the first place...

We feel bad that this problem will fall almost solely onto his shoulders, but also realize we paid a high contractor fee for him to perform as a go-between for his sub contractors. IWe feel he should be held responsible for the performance of his subs - that's why we paid a contractor fee.

My plea is for some kind of advice from you Gardenwebbers. What would you do in this situation? What is fair to ask?

Many and much thanks in advance.

On top of everything else, how do you expect to prove that the seed was the source, or the topsoil was the source? The entire burden of proof is on you - if you get accommodations from others it is only because they feel bad, not because they have to.

If I may rephrase and divert towards a more lawn care related topic... Would it be worthwhile to pursue resodding the entire lawn (at the likely cost of $5,000)? Has anyone had success with this?

Alternatively, what are people's experiences with the pre-emergence spray? This is our other option.

Again, my apologies. I didn't intend to ruffle any feathers...

Remember that Poa is an annual grass. When the summer heat sets in it is all going to dye out and be gone.. for now. What happens now is the seed heads get set, the plant dies off, and thoseseeds sprouts again in fall. The same process happens over winter to spring. So mid to late summer put down a good pre-m, heard a lot of good about tenacity, and do this again in fall. Repeat the next spring and through the year accordingly. It should take care of it.

I know it's frustrating to see, I have the same problem right now from a lawn I renovated in fall. I'm just going to block it out with a pre-m.