Today we are going to discuss how to prepare your site for a Ryegrass and Red Fescue mix seeding. Ryegrass and Red Fescue are a great grass mix for almost any Northwest yard or lawn because it provides fast establishment, fast growth, a beautiful, lush, dark green color and can be seeded, grown and maintained throughout much of the United States.

Ryregrass (Lolium multiflorum) - Kristian Peters 2006

Red Fescue (Festuca rubra) - James Lindsey 2007

Planning and preparing for your planting

Planning for the planting season should be done at least one or two months ahead of time, with great consideration given to the quantities of seed that are going to be required to successfully sow your project. It is critical that you properly measure the area you need to plant to make sure that the amount of seed purchased is going to adequately cover the seeding bed.

You can measure your soil bed to find the appropriate square footage by multiplying the total length in feet by the total width of your area. Ryegrass and Red Fescue Lawns are best sown at approximately 3 1/2 to 5 pounds per 1,000 square feet when grown in a single stand. Your grass seed will typically germinate in 7 to 14 days depending upon moisture conditions.

Ensure that the soil is well drained, and if not take the appropriate action to improve the quality of its drainage. Eliminate excessive weeds, trim the limbs of trees surrounding the bed to establish a wealthy amount of daily sun exposure, and design the water supply to be sufficient for healthy plant growth.

In many cases we have found it is extremely prudent to pull a soil test and take it to your local county extension office. When you draw your samples you need to pull them from several different locations around the seeding bed at a depth of six to eight inches. The extension office will recommend the nearest soil lab in your area that is capable of analyzing the soil quality of the samples that you bring them. Based on the assessment you receive you can properly plan what fertilization requirements you are going to need to meet in order to improve the nutritional deficiencies present in your ground soil, if any are detected. Doing this in advance will greatly aid in reducing stress and improving the quality of your plantings.

Look up your local extension office here.

If you find that your soil is in need of fertilization then one good way to introduce nutrients back into the soil is to till or work the ground up, at least four to six months in advance, and plant a cover crop like Crimson Clover, Austrian Field Peas, Common Vetch or Oregon Wheat. Cover crops are a temporary species that grow over just a few short months and help replenish and re-introduce nutrients into the ground soil and better prepare it for your final planting.

It is critical that you make sure your soil bed is prepared correctly. If you plant the seeds you purchase too deep they won’t break through and grow. If you broadcast your seed onto an unprepared area, which does not allow the seed direct contact with the soil, you decrease your chances of growing thick green grass that will thrive for a long time.

One of the reasons we recommend a Ryegrass and Red Fescue seed mix is because these two seed types grow alongside each other very well. They are not highly competitive and so can be planted together in most situations.

Taking notes and saving them when putting a project like this together will help you track, replicate, and alter your procedure of execution as necessary to achieve better results in the future.

How do I gain control over weeds?

When picking the location where you want to establish a Ryegrass and Red Fescue seed lawn try to find a place where populations of weeds are not abundantly growing. If there are large populations of weeds and the option is available, try to plant in another, more suitable area. Pick a place where the soil has a high quality of nutrient content, drainage and is at an appropriate elevation. If you cannot avoid planting in an area that contains poor soil composition, you can try to improve the quality of bedding by placing approximately one or two inches of sterile potting soil, fine sawdust or peat moss on top of the inadequate soil. This can provide a clean seedbed where weeds have not established themselves, as long as the topsoil you spread is not mixed with the low quality soil beneath it.

Where limited populations of weeds are found and the ground contains well drained soil you can remove weeds by hand or by using a non-selective herbicide. Once removed, you can then prepare the ground as described in the previous paragraphs.

If seeding beds are prepared properly, minimal weeding should be required during and after plant establishment. After some time has passed, while waiting for the seedlings to fully establish themselves, you may find that small weeds have begun to sprout. If this occurs, you need to remove them as soon as they are discovered. There is no possible way to prevent all weeds from germinating, so you should always expect to watch for and pull any that show up.

Keep in mind that there are many dormant weed seeds that rest just below the soil surface at all times. If that surface is opened to a depth of more than one inch those seeds can often come out of dormancy to germinate and grow in your lawn. Removing weed seedlings before they develop and drop their own seeds to replant themselves is an essential part of keeping control of any lawn. Often this is the only available option that can be used, even by professional farmers, to retain control over fields and plant beds alike.

Tools Needed

• Lawn mower or something to cut the tall vegetation
• Thatcher blade for your lawn mower if you choose to use it
• Garden Rake
  Leaf Rake
• Tiller or small tine tiller to scratch the top 1″ of soil
• Backpack sprayer and measuring cup with incremented ounce readings if you choose to use an herbicide
  Hoe or pair of gloves for pulling weeds
• Spreader for broadcasting seed and fertilizer