Pennington Smart Seed Sun And Shade Mix 3 lb

For 30 years I have had trouble keeping grass growing in our front yard. I’ve tried multiple grass seeds over the years just to be let down. After a lot of “review” reading and research on grass seeds for the North East in zone 6B and 7A I choose Pennington’s Sun and Shade. Different sections of our lawn are in and out of the sun all day long. Pennington’s Sun and Shade is a blend of Tall Fescue, Perennial Ryegrass, Kentucky Bluegrass and Fine Fescue.

Pictures 1 through 6 were taken on the same day, the Friday of Labor Day weekend 2024.

Pictures 1 & 2 is what the lawn looked like after removing all the dead grass and before I started prepping. I started removing the dead grass in early August after every mowing. In total I probably raked out three wheelbarrow loads of dead grass over the course of August.

Pictures 3 & 4 is a fresh rake of the yard to loosen up the dirt. I got lucky as there was a light rain early that morning so the soil was soft.

Pictures 5 & 6 is how it looked after everything was completed. These are the steps I took.
1. Removed all dead grass and debris before hand.
2. Raked and loosened up the dirt.
3. Threw down fresh top soil on top of the loosened dirt.
4. Thew down starter fertilizer by hand.
5. Thew down grass seed. Seed is a blue/green so it’s easy to see where you are placing it and how much.
6. Thew down peat moss over the whole yard.
7. Used the sprinkler system to wet everything down.
8. Set the sprinklers to come on for 10 minutes every morning at 5am and every night at 6pm.

I saw seedlings within 5 days.

Pictures 7 & 8 were taken yesterday afternoon 18 days after seeding.

I ran out of seeds and thew down some Scotts EZ Seed in the back corner and it did not come up as nice or as full as the Pennington’s.

So far I’m very happy with the process. I’m praying that this grass will make strong roots and last through next summer. Only time will tell.

UPDATE, it took much longer than I thought, but we have lift off. Some areas are very fertile but others took a while to catch up, a long while. The growth is very thin and im not sure how it will blend in with the rest of the lawn, but it did grow so I give it more stars.
ORIGINAL REVIEW, I’ve taken great pains to keep my seed watered adequately. I followed the directions to a t. I even used fertilizer. I’ve got nothing but empty patches of dirt. I am on a limited income so I can’t just buy more.

This is the second time I ordered this grass seed. I noticed this second time the seeds are not as well coated in the feetilizer as before; a lot of the fertilizer is just blue dust in the bag that flows around when you spread the seeds. Another thing you might want to remember that for 32 bucks a 7lb bag this grass is seriously too expensive. If you buy Kentucky blue grass that has seeds thar are at least 4 times smaller for 60 bucks, you will be paying way less for virtually the same end result of having a great grass. And the bluegrass also has a tendency to aggressively spread out naturally. Another issue with this product is that this is a mix of sun and shade varieties, but the package does not tell how much of seeds in the bag are preferring shade and how much are preferring the sun. I’d quite frankly recommend buying shade varieties and sun preferring ones separately. Otherwise, you are diminishing the chances of having good grass coverage everywhere you want.

Please don’t interprete this review as necessarily negative. You might as well have a variety of grasses growing on your lawn rather than a monoculture. Buy some large seed varieties like this one, then small seed varieties such as bluegrass or zoisia, and see which ones eventually grow better on your lawn. Insted of growing what you want, grow what is growing best, and for that you would want to experiment a bit… or hire a specialist who would do the work for you but for a much higher price.

Wort it. Grass looks amazing

I had high hopes for this seed but it did not germinate. I am an experienced gardener and followed correct sowing and watering as I have done successfully with other grass seed from Home Depot in previous years.
Was this seed improperly stored or contaminated in a way that damaged it, or is it just a terrible product? It was shocking to see how poorly it performed. Three months later, I can still see some of this grass seed lying dormant in a corner of the yard but the flower seeds nearby were able to germinate and are growing. It’s not a problem with the soil in my yard.
Buying this was a very expensive mistake. I sure would like my $65 dollars back to spend on better seed.