Round-up before reseeding?

[W.D.]

My front lawn is 90% crabgrass and I'd like to start a new lawn this Fall with either a heat resistant fescue or a heartier variety like Bermuda or St. Aug (I live in Atlanta & get almost full sun). Two questions:

1. should I just use Round-up to kill everything off first or is a weed-killer a better choice?
2. Can either Bermuda or St. Augustine be started from seed and what are the pros/cons of these varieties?

Thanks,

W.D.

[Newsgroup]

I suggest you use a sod cutter and lay down some good soil, rather than use Round Up. If you stray it, you'll need to wait till Spring to seed it.

[trader4]

"I suggest you use a sod cutter and lay down some good soil, rather than use Round Up. If you stray it, you'll need to wait till Spring to seed it. "

Use a sod cutter to re-seed a typical front lawn? What are you smoking? You can use Roundup and re-seed a week later. From a practical standpoint, allowing about 2 weeks works better to allow time for the existing vegetation to completely die off.

[Kyle Boatright]

Roundup is a fine choice for killing off your old lawn. You need to wait at least a week before re-seeding.

That said, it is very late in the season to re-seed Bermuda in Atlanta (I'm on the northside myself). I'd wait until late next spring to seed Bermuda. I don't think St Augustine comes in a seeded variety, but I could be wrong.

If you're thinking Fescue, go ahead and do the roundup thing, wait a week, till (or rake, or dethatch, or do something to disturb the soil for seed), smooth, and seed. Keep the area damp and you'll have grass in a week or two. Next spring, you'll have a nice lawn.

Personally, I've always found it very hard to keep a decent fescue lawn here. If you use enough pre-emergents to prevent crabgrass and other weeds from taking over, you'll have germination problems when you overseed with fescue, which you need to do every year. Also, fescue is a very fragile grass in this climate. Almost any post-emergent crabgrass product you can name will cause serious injury to Fescue. It's a real catch-22. That's why I'm transitioning to zoysia.

Speaking of which, if you're the patient type, you could seed with Zenith zoysia late next spring. One of my in-laws has it, and it looks very nice.

I'm a fan of sod myself...

KB