YES! You did do it wrong, but nobody ever writes in about it. Thank you THANK YOU!! Sorry to take advantage of your situation like this, but examples of the problems associated with doing the wrong thing are hard to find.

Grass seed belongs ON TOP of the soil and pressed in with a water fillable roller (or your feet for small areas).

Here's what else you did wrong, not that you asked, but it will help prepare you for the upcoming season. Actually this is much worse than raking rather than rolling. This is a pretty big problem...You seeded in the spring. Spring is the wrong time of year for grass seed. The reason is the care you give to your ungerminated grass seed is exactly the same care you need to give if you want to sprout all the crabgrass seed in your soil. Not only that but grass seed sprouted now will not have a very good root system developed by the time the heat of summer hits. When the grass dies, the crabgrass, being opportunistic, will fill in.

All is not lost. I suggest you continue to nurture your seed as if it were only grass seed. When the crabgrass comes in, ignore it completely or pretend it is the nicest grass you could have. It does cover the soil and prevent other weeds from coming in. And it is green, sort of a yellowish green. But to these other three things and you can minimize your crabgrass until the fall when it is the correct time to reseed.

1. Water deeply and infrequently. Start this after you mow the grass for the second time. Start to back off so that you are watering no more frequently than once a week in the summer heat. Since weed seeds need continual water to sprout, allowing the soil surface to dry completely between waterings breaks the germination cycle.

2. Raise your mower deck all the way to the top and leave it there until you want to seed in the fall. Tall grass goes further to prevent weeds. Tall grass can even push crabgrass away. Tall grass is also necessary to make it through the summer heat.

3. Fertilize after you mow the second time. Then don't fertilize again until Labor Day. Oop! Canada. Whatever holiday you have at the end of summer will do.

Then in the fall, scalp the grass down to nothing and reseed with the seed of your choice. This time roll it down or use a slit seeder.

dchall -

How is using a slit-seeder different from "raking the seeds into the soil", as our neighbor to the north did?

Thanks,

Gags

Good question. A slit seeder creates shallow slits through grass, into the soil, and drops the seeds down into the slits. The seeds are not buried under the soil. They still have sunlight hitting them. They just sit there in the tiny furrows. The idea of the slit seeder is to get the seed to touch the soil instead of sitting on top of grass. You can seed into soil without exposing the entire surface. Interestingly, if you slit seed with fescue, you will have rows of plants that still do not spread together to form a dense sod. A sod-forming grass like Kentucky bluegrass will spread and form a mat between fescue plants.