To Kill or Not to Kill

[Starman]

I’m in the process of planning a lawn renovation this coming spring. My intention is to replace the existing turf with another type of turf. A couple of years ago, I started off by using Round-Up to kill the turf, mowing low and roto-tillering the soil. Like the residential homeowner that I am, I seeded using “off the shelf” lawn seed by Scotts and their Starter fertilizer. The project came out great, but now I want more.

This time my project involves a larger parcel and I plan to have the soil tested and do what I have to do to balance it out.

I have several questions that I’m still unclear about:
1. Should I still kill the turf (approx ¾ acres) with a product like Round-Up or would roto-tillering it be enough?
2. I live in Western Massachusetts (Zone 7) and am interested a Kentucky Bluegrass (i.e. Midnight, Midnight II or Bedazzled). Should I be looking at a blend vs. going with a straight Kentucky Bluegrass?
3. Where are people buying their seed? Does anyone have any experience purchasing from www.turf-seed.com ?

[Popper357]

Make sure you have a good irrigation plan if your summers are hot because cool season grass like Kentucky take a while to become heat tolerant. If the area gets full sun, kentucky will be fine. Fescue stays green in the winter and is nice for that reason. Almost one hundred percent of the homes in my area, zone five, use a kentucky, fesuce mix. I like all kentucky if theres full sun too.

Yes you should kill the existing plants or there will be some more reemergence than usual. Do get the soil tested and get that area right. Scotts' brands are very expensive but work well. I'd use lesco starter and seeds, but other may have a different opinion. Lesco is much cheaper and a good quality.

[Coffeecraver]

You missed the boat for killing and starting over.That should have been done in the fall.

At this time you should just work on killing the weeds until next fall.

Roots establish over the winter to withstand the doughts of the summer.

:)