p.s. Considering tall fescue.

Hi, 

At this point in the year, it is too late to plant tall fescue. Even if the temperatures and soil temperatures are ok, the daylight isn't long enough for the seeds to germinate. You can use wood chips/mulch or a combination of straw and burlap pinned down to help with soil erosion and protect the area from winter weed seeds traveling in or even sprouting from the seed bank in the soil. You will just need to remove them before installing next spring. 

Even using a cover crop at this time of year is probably too late for it to germinate. 

If you can find sod, you could try that, but again, the day length is most likely too short to get any root growth. In the spring, it would be better to sod the area as opposed to seed, but if you're just seeding a small area and not the entire lawn, it should be fine. You will just need to make sure it can stay watered and probably through a lot of the summer if we have times of drought, since the seed will be new. You can always aerate and overseed again in the fall. 

Emily

You're welcome, and we're happy to help! - You can also look for erosion control blanket, ideally the kind without the nylon/plastic netting, which doesn't really break down over time. You may or may not be able to find some with seed in it, which probably won't germinate, and all in all is most likely more expensive than wood chips/straw/mulch/burlap etc. Just as another option for you to be aware of.

Emily

Ideally, you want to sow grass seed for tall fescue lawns in the fall, usually in the September time frame. You can until about mid-October, but after that, the daylight is too short for good germination. 

Since you have a large area and you don't want weeds to take over that area, you can sow in the spring, once hard frosts have passed. You will just need to be monitoring for water, especially through any dry periods during the summer. The roots of the new grass area will be too young to sustain themselves through heat and drought. You may also want to touch up with seeding in the fall, depending on how the spring seed fills in and germinates.

Here are some links to our resource pages that will help explain seeding methods, as well as a maintenance calendar for tall fescue lawns.

• Overseeding
• Lawn Maintenance Calendar - for tall fescue grass

Emily