Summer or September? When is the best time to set down new lawn?

Q: My sister and brother-in-law have rented a home in the Rio Communities area recently. It sat empty for over a year and the yards were left to go to seed, so to speak. Weeds everywhere and not a stitch of turfgrass. They have worked very hard and thoroughly to clean up the yards, and they look great! Brother-in-law wants to seed the area in the backyard now to grow a lawn. While he was showing me the space, I said that it would be best to wait until September to seed the area because the watering alone this time of year would be pricey. He was not happy with this suggestion, and I’m hoping you can help me convince them to wait to attempt a lawn from seed this time of year. Thanks! — H.T., Rio Communities.

A: I agree with you wholeheartedly when suggesting waiting to seed the area with turfgrass. I can offer a few more reasons to help convince them to wait, too.

You are correct about the watering if attempted now. It’s already hot, and it’s not going to cool down anytime soon, for sure. A seeded lawn would probably need to be watered three, maybe four, times daily to keep the seed viable. If it were to spike hotter and the baby grass weren’t dampened enough, it would probably crisp right up. Not a good thing at all.

Next, you said the area they are wanting to grow turf was an ocean of weeds for several seasons. To me, that suggests lots of weed seed has been dropped and is just hanging around waiting for an occasional rain or having water offered to them. If a lawn from seed was planted now and the area gets a lot of water, well, they’ll be surprised by how many weeds are going to germinate along with the grass seed. I’ll bet it’d be a ratio of at least 5-to-1 in favor of the weeds.

So I’ll suggest watering the area, maybe every ten days or so, to get the next crop of weeds to start to grow. Then your sister and brother-in-law can eliminate that crop of baby weeds without allowing them to mature. Do it again and again, several times throughout this hot part of the year.

If they are itching to get out there and work in the yard, maybe consider laying a very small patch of sod. That way there’ll be a bit of green to keep their seeded turf lawn dream alive.

The soil in that neck of the woods is fairly sandy, too, isn’t it? I would rather see the family grow several rounds of weeds, and then closer to the end of summer add soil amendments and start to turn the area. If anyone offers manure, beware! It could be chock-full of weed seed in its own right, and they’d just be adding to the weed population with it.

Compost, garden soil, heat-treated manure, perlite, vermiculite and finely-milled dried leaves would be great products to add to the soil in the yard. For the time being, watch the sales ads for any smokin’ deals on bagged products and store them until the time is more right to work it in. Be on the look-out for bagged new lawn starter fertilizer, too. Working the fertilizer into the area, not too deeply, just before the seeding would be a great help.

I’m with you that it would be a fairly expensive time of year to start a lawn from seed just now. Grow and eliminate several rounds of young weeds for the time being, and save the water money so they won’t have to apply nearly as much when the seasons turn. I believe lawns started in the early fall are usually more successful than ones started in the heat of the growing season.

Happy Diggin’ In!

Tracey Fitzgibbon is a certified nurseryman. Send garden-related questions to Digging In, Albuquerque Journal, 7777 Jefferson St. NE, Albuquerque, N.M. 87109, or to features@abqjournal.com.