Fescue – Wheat Straw

Q: I recently aerated my lawn, scattered some topsoil, overseeded with fescue and then covered the area with wheat straw. A neighbor told me that using wheat straw was a bad idea. Why?

A: It is a common landscape practice to cover newly planted fescue seed with straw. I foresee no problems unless you covered the seed too thickly (more than a bale or two per thousand sq. feet).You’ll see a few wheat seedlings in the lawn in May but you can mow them down and they will soon die.