New lawn patch dead?

I seeded a new lawn patch in the spring and I thought it was coming ok. I was watering everyday by hand for 15-20mins. The lawn was growing till it became about 6 inches tall and then I mowed it. After mowing it, it never grew again. We had quite a bit of rain this summer so I didn't think additional watering was required. I added 32 bags of top soil prior to seeding, from my calculation this should be about 1 cubic yard. How do I fix this? Do i need to removed everything and start over? If so, how do I do this? When I first seeded, I just added top soil and seed over top and then rake and compacted soil by walking on it, I didn't have a roller.

 

How much of the grass seed you planted was Annual Rye Grass, which may have lived long enough to go to seed and then died ?

Almost looks like your patch has gone dormant, as it would under drought conditions . . . . but I can see that the adjoining turf is doing fine, with the same climate and moisture.

I would try over-seeding the same area with a Fescue this Fall It might be worthwhile to check the pH of the soil in your patch and make sure it's in the range of 6.5 to 7.

 

It definitely started to grow, mowing would not kill the grass but if it got hot and you did not continue watering then that may have been the problem.

New grass seed needs help for some time, also the type of seed is important. The junk they sell at the big box stores is not as good as quality seed that I buy at my full service landscape store!

 

It almost looks like annual rye the way it's died out so reliably. I would confirm that you are planting something like tall Fescue. And, now is the beginning of the best time to start new grass so it can get established before winter.

 

It may simply have been that the grass was not yet strong enough to survive the heat of the summer. Cool season grasses are best sown in the fall after the peak heat of summer has broken. For me, that window is now open and I will be seeding this weekend.

 

So I should water and reseed? Do I just seed on top of whats there and that's it? Or do I rake the new seed?

 

My question was what the proportion of annual ryegrass was put down earlier . . . . and my suggestion was to check the pH of your soil BEFORE doing any more work on it.

Fall is the best time to put down new seed , , , , preferably a perennial type,

 

I would give the area a thorough raking with a garden rake to loosen the top bit of soil then over seed. You can water it very frequently to hasten germination or just let it be and Mother Nature will do the work for you.