Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Selecting a site Best way to grow grass on dam?

I don't know that any advice I can give you will help, because our locations and soils might make local practice of "what works" different.

But will tell you what I did and why I did it and you can determine if the information is useful or not.

We usually get very dry spells in the summer. So for us, establishing grass in the spring is very difficult. I know, I know. Spring is when all the grass seed is prominently displayed in the stores and when a person would think would be a good time to seed grass. And if a person can add supplemental water, it probably is. The problem, in our area at least, is that the grass comes up, gets started but still has a very weak root system, then dies during some two or three week hot dry spell that invariably happens during the summer. Perennial grass, fescue at least, starts out as a very small seed and very weak root system till it gets established. Once established grass is pretty tough, but not in the beginning.

So for our area at least, late summer/fall is by far the best time to establish grass. I seeded my pond dam in the spring, knowing it probably would not "take", and sure enough it did not. Got the pleasure of doing it again last fall.

So what I did to my son's and will do on my daughter's ponds that I cleaned out and refurbished, is spread some temporary cover seed to help with erosion control, then seed the grass this fall. I use wheat as temporary cover because that is what I had in the grain bin, but there are probably other "annuals" that are not too expensive and would work. Oats comes to mind.

But that is "here" in a farm environment. "There" may be completely different and in an environment where you can string a garden hose and water the new grass, entirely different.

So use the information filtered with your own judgment and at your own risk.