Great Northern Landscaping

A landscaping firm (Land Escapes) was hired to re-work a portion of my backyard. They sub contracted the actual seeding to Helena Hydroseed. Brian came out to see the area prior to the actual seeding so he knew the new grass would be under automatic sprinklers, with small to larger Ponderosa Pines that would provide partial shade at various times of the day, would not be subjected to even moderate human or pet traffic, and was only very slightly sloped. The area was a portion of an existing yard that was being torn up and reseeded to lawn grass. The workers came as arranged and proceeded to spray the seed, fertilizer, and biodegradable paper mulch. I was not aware of the problem until the seed began to grow. Very soon, I (and a couple of friends) realized that undesirable grass had been part of the seed mix. I had specifically and repeatedly requested of Land Escapes that there be no bunch grasses used on the lawn, but it was obvious that a significant amount of the seed was a bunch grass. It was so significant that when I returned home after a 10 day absence, the "lawn" was nothing more than a weed infested pasture. The broadleaf weeds had been brought in by Land Escapes in the manure they worked into the area, and could fairly easily be handled with chemicals. However the bunch grass was over 12" tall and it took several mowings at different mower heights to get some control over it. I called Brian to complain about it and he said that it was a grass mix that they used a lot, they seeded two other lawns that day, and used the same mixture. I really don't care what anyone else finds acceptable, I want (and paid for) a lawn without this nasty stuff. He said he thought the objectionable grass was perennial ryegrass. After I did a little research and discovered that perennial ryegrass "is a highly competitive bunchgrass", he changed his tune and said it was annual ryegrass that should die out over the winter. He has never told me exactly what it is. As I explained to him and to Sam (Land Escapes), if this annual ryegrass goes to seed, it will be back next year. One website cautioned that it can become a weed problem if allowed to go to seed. I contacted two other landscaping companies and asked what they use to seed lawns and they both said a mixture of Kentucky bluegrass and creeping red fescue. Both of them said to NOT use any ryegrass. When I said that the work had already been done and that the ryegrass had been in the mix, one landscaper advised me to kill it and reseed. As he put it "ryegrass has no place in an ornamental lawn". A horticulture specialist at Montana State University (MSU) responded that "we used seed mixes that had ryegrass in them all the time, but not in lawns necessarily, usually more for native grasslands". When I explained the nature of the project (prior to admitting the work was already done) , a second MSU horticultre specialist suggested seeding with a blend of Kentucky Bluegrasess. A county extension agent responded that "annual ryegrass is very common to put in the mix because it establishes quickly where Kentucky Bluegrass tends to be slow. That way you have some green the first year. If it is annual ryegrass, it won't come back next year unless there are some ungerminated seeds in the ground". Since my contract was with Land Escapes, I pressed Sam for a written guarantee that if this stuff came up again next spring, they would rip it out and re-seed with a non-bunch grass mix. He skirted the request by saying that "I am confident that the information I have already given you is correct. In other words, annual rye grass is used in this part of the country to provide soil stabilization and as a cover for the bluegrass. About 90% of it should be gone by next spring. The remaining rye grass will be choked out by the bluegrass the following year, provided you maintain your yard with proper watering, mowing, and fertilization. Because all of the variables just mentioned are outside of my control, I have to stress that the health and beauty of your lawn are now dependent upon you. Regular maintenance is the best way to ensure that the rye grass, as well as a multitude of annual weeds, will not come back in the Spring and the bluegrass will take over. My feeling is that if they had used the correct seed mix for the application, the monkey would not be on my back. If I were to use either of these two companies again (which I probably won't if the nasty grass comes up in the spring), I would get the seed mixture to be used in the written contract, and a written guarantee that if something other than the specified mix was used, these companies would be on the hook to kill the grass and re-seed...at their expense. I hope they are correct and this will not be a problem next spring, but at this point, I feel they have left me twisting in the wind.