My neighbor told me to overseed my lawn in late fall and it was a disaster

Back in October, my neighbor Bob insisted that throwing down grass seed after the first frost would give me a thick lawn by spring. He said he'd done it for years and it worked great. So I bought $45 worth of tall fescue seed and spread it everywhere. Then it snowed two days later and never warmed up again. Come spring, I had patchy dead spots and more weeds than grass. Had to rent a slit seeder in April and start over. Has anyone else gotten bad lawn advice from someone who seemed confident but was just wrong?

2 comments

2 Comments

elliotr394h ago

@alex524 nah, Bob gave you bad advice.

alex5245h ago

I mean, "disaster" might be a bit strong here. Bob's advice about overseeding in late fall actually works pretty well in a lot of places, but it really depends on your climate and the type of grass. Tall fescue is a cool season grass, so throwing it down after the first frost can be risky if you get a hard freeze right after. The seed needs some time to germinate before the ground freezes solid, and it sounds like that snow came too fast for it. Maybe the timing was just off for your area, not that Bob was completely wrong.