Peat or Straw or something else for minor renovation

[nutshellml]

I'm up in Northern NJ, I know I'm late with seeding but wanted to put some down, what is the best "covering". I have been told Peat Moss and Straw and some have said nothing but the seed and the "new seed turf builder". Any thoughts?

[HoosierLawnGnome]

Use peat moss - it's sterile. DON'T BELIEVE FOR A SECOND EVEN WEED-FREE STRAW OR HAY IS 'WEED-FREE'

[Marinegrunt]

Use peat moss - it's sterile. DON'T BELIEVE FOR A SECOND EVEN WEED-FREE STRAW OR HAY IS 'WEED-FREE'

I strongly second that. There's a small sloped area on the side of our garage that directs water towards the ravine. Only about 10' of it is ours and the rest is the neighbor's front yard. I cut down some half dead pine trees and brush so it needed seeded. Part of the neighbors also needed seeded due to lack of sunlight and grass not growing. I did the work but they adamant about using straw. Since we only have about a 10' strip that you can't really see I didn't push the peat moss too much. They're in their 70's so I doubt I could've talked then out of it. I can tell you for a fact there were hundreds of not thousands of weeds that germinates. Tenacity didn't help because the weed seeds were on top. We're only talking an area that's maybe 15' wide and 80' long. That was in the spring. I ended up killing off the whole area and seeding again in August. I didn't top dress at all this time but have only seen a couple weeds. They thought I was crazy for not using straw on my 9500k reno I just did. I would've have more weeds than grass. Definitely use peat moss. I know you realize it's getting late in the year but try and get that seed down asap. Even a couple days can make a difference. What seed are you using?

[kevreh]

In my area I can get something called Leafgro. It basically composted leaves with a little shredded fines in it. I like it better than compost since it has a little nutritional value, and provides more for the soil than just peatmoss. It has the consistancy of topsoil.

[MfanIN]

i'm in the process of a 15K reno using Award, Bewitched and Prosperity. Although I did the soil leveling and preparation- I had a lawn installation service slit seed. They use Straw (likely due to cost, and equipment that they own).

I have a couple thoughts- being 30+ days into the renovation:

1) The straw did help significantly when we had a few hours of torrential downpour, 3 days after seed down (the slit seeding probably helped even more). I have pop up drains that created a few issues for me- as the water cut away a lot of soil I had put down.
2) I had oat germinate from the weed in the straw. The seeds are huge and sit on top of the soil, but with enough straw on top- they do germinate. I ended up hand pulling 99% of them over a course of a few weeks, even though my lawn installer said they would go away on their own. I keep doing so as I mow with the reel mower. I would guess I've pulled a thousand weeds. I have a nice black and blue mark under my right thumb nail from pinching.
3) Weeds germinate much more from where the straw is put on heavy
4) Broadleaf weeds were most present over the places I used topsoil to level the existing lawn.


Had I to do it over again- I would have insisted on the use of peat moss.
For a small area- I would think straw would be fine. You just have to pick out some weeds.