The Grass Doctor

can i plant grass seed over a sod yard with mulch with out tilling?

i live in sc, half of front yard is weeds ( soil is sand based ) half is sod...i am going to rip out weeds and hand till weed half and then add scotts grass mulch fertilizer with grass seed...the sod half is too difficult to till by hand...if i rake all dead sod out and throw scotts mulch and grass seed over sod will it become real grass ? will the grass replace the sod ? ...if i water , throw good soil down with seed covering completly the sod will grass grow eventually overcoming the sod.....sod is ugly, it stays brown until spring....a good grass stays green all year....please help me ...looking for someone with very good knowledeg and exp. for my answer...thank you everyone !

Public Comments

1. You should be OK on the non-sod half with the Scotts mulch/seed. On the sod half seed will have a very hard time overtaking the established sod--and probably never will. It is better to rake out all the dead spots in the sod and try to get a Scotts seed mix that matches the sod. It sounds like maybe your sod is zoysia grass which is really difficult to get other grass to grow in. Zoysia is the 1st grass to brown in the fall and the last to green in the spring. Some people love it and some hate it. Sounds like you hate it. If you do the best way to get rid of it is to wait till it's active and spray that half with roundup to kill it. Then rent a sod stripper at Home Depot or some other tool rental place and strip off all the dead sod. Then add some good topsoil to build it up to the level of the rest of the yard and then seed it with your preferred seed. Your local L&G tech should be able to help you with the details. I know it's a lot of work but if you don't do it right you'll end up having an ugly lawn, with some of the zoysia maybe coming back. Face it, lawns take a lot of work.