Get out your lawn mower; spring is here!  At least it is this week, next week may be another story but I feel we’ve turned the corner on Old Man Winter and we’re leaving him in the dust.  If your lawn is looking sparse, you’re over seeding after raking out moss or you’re starting a new lawn then have I got the product for you!

Last spring I seeded my new septic field.  Well, it’s not really new, it’s a few years old but I put off seeding it because I just didn’t want another 2000 square feet of lawn to mow.  Why I did that, I’m not sure because I’ve spent the last couple of summers sitting on my wheeled garden cart going up and down the thing pulling weeds.

Well, last spring I discovered a different line of grass seed and it sounded so perfect that I immediately thought it would be the ideal product for my septic field.  One of my employees also had a new septic field so we both tried it and we have nothing but good things to say about Eco Lawn.

Made up of fine fescues, Eco Lawn is a slower growing grass and thrives in both sun and shade.  Once established it requires little if any water and for those who don’t like using chemical fertilizers on their lawn this may be the thing for you.

My area was mostly sand with about an inch or so of Sea Soil on top.  After leveling the area I hand seeded because the seed is so fine that the spreader was just taking too long.  I used a roller to make sure the seed came in contact with the soil.  Then came the watering.  When you seed grass you must keep it moist otherwise the seed dries out and doesn’t germinate.  Between the seed drying out and the birds helping themselves to a free meal I found that it would’ve been better to add another dusting of soil on top but I persevered.  Another option would have been to rake the seed and the soil together a bit then roll it.

I started to see green in about fourteen days.  After a few weeks, in spots that were patchy, I did another over seed and this time added a thin layer of Sea Soil on top.  Again, I watered until I had good growth.

It’s amazing how quickly the Eco Lawn thickened up.  A year later my grass is lush and dense (that’s it in the photo above).  There’s an odd tuft of grass leftover from the weed field before I seeded that stands six inches higher that I will go around and pull out.  Other than that the grass stays fairly low.  Low enough that if you like a meadow look you could get away with not mowing it.

And it’s so soft on bare feet.  The kids love it and okay, I admit to running barefoot once in awhile if my knees allow.

I’ve also discoverd another advantage that the Eco Lawn has over typical grass seed.  Cornell University has found that the fescues that are in Eco Lawn emit a natural, pre-emergent herbicide that prevents other plants (weeds) from germinating.  It’s totally natural and safe.  A built in herbicide, how can you beat that?  I have to say that I don’t notice much in the way of weeds in my new lawn.

Yes, you can use it to over seed an existing lawn.  Apparently if you over seed using Eco Lawn every year for 3 to 4 years it will crowd out the old lawn.  Besides the weed thing, Eco Lawn’s benefits include less water, less fertilizer and less mowing.  It’s a little more expensive than your average lawn seed but when you factor in all the above I don’t really see how you can go wrong.

Shirley Eppler

April 2009

Update:  In 2011 we moved into our newly built house and I’ve used Eco Lawn for all my grass areas.  I seeded part of the back yard in late October 2011, thinking it wouldn’t germinate well when we got hit with a cold stretch of weather but it did and was a nice full lawn by the following summer.  This photo was taken in August 2012.