Scotts Turf Builder Zoysia Grass Seed & Mulch, Grows a Tough, Low-Maintenance Lawn, 5 lbs.

I tell you what - I am the most popular neighbor on the block. I have been here 6 years, and I was always told that it was impossible to have grass in our yards due to the trees and shade. I seem to have proved everyone wrong. This stuff started growing in about 4-6 days, I couldn't believe how quick. This is with VERY little direct sunlight, but good daily watering and NO fertilizer (until it had grown a couple weeks; nothing to help start the growing).Grew faster than any grass seed I have seenGrows in shade amazinglyMakes me the yard man on the block******UPDATE:I obviously got excited last summer when I wrote that. I just laughed when I saw it. This stuff sucks so bad, there are no words. Ok, alright. It grew. It seemed promising, but out of nowhere, the grass turned into a 30something year old man's thinning, receding hairline. Grass completely went away. So I said to myself "I'm going to try this again" (this summer). I even tilled the yard and through some fancy bagged dirt to help the grass grow. It did dramatically less this year. I even kept it watered.This crap is beyond worthless and beyond any logical of economical. It isn't even all seed - it's mostly mulch! Do yourself a favor - compare the bag size (weight) to other grass seed and watch your head spin at the price difference. And then remind yourself, this bag is mostly NOT even seed!I would like a refund from Scott's.

Updated Update: I have used other Scott's products that have worked. This one did not. However, they stood by their product in a relatively painless way. Because of that, I will have no problem buying (other) Scott's products in the future. THAT is how you run a company.Update: They are saying they will work with me to fix it. Let’s see if they do and then we may have to modify the review some.Used 4 bags for what should have taken 1 according to the instructions. Still, nothing but weeds and tufts of the old grass. Prepared properly, bought some bag of prep stuff, watered, had sun and temperature, but nothing. I knew it when I opened the first bag and it looked like mostly mulch and very few seeds. That’s why I bought more bags. Called them about it and they gave me a case number. I told them I would be patient and wait the allotted time. When nothing grew, I called back and gave my case number. Interestingly, within a minute the rep claimed not to hear me anymore and said she would hang up and I should call back. I called back and left a number for them to call back and they never did even though they said it would be about a minute. I think they know that this bag of expensive mulch and no seed is a scam and doesn’t work and they don’t care. I can’t see myself ever buying Scott’s products again.

Ordered this and planted per instructions 6 weeks ago. Watered twice daily faithfully for 3 weeks and not one blade germinated! Did some more reading and a couple of places said to not cover it more than 1/4 inch deep as the seeds "need a little light" to germinate. Had covered with maybe 3/8 inch of topsoil the first time so I ordered a second bag and reraked the soil, spread the seed/ "mulch" and covered with about 1/4 inch of peat moss this time. Once again I have faithfully watered at least twice a day (except a few days when it rained) to make sure the seed never dried up for three weeks and once again NOT ONE BLADE germinated. Have now spent $70 on seed and another $15-20 on water and still have no grass in these areas. Had read that zoysia is difficult to grow from seed and that is an understatement. Area is partial shade so zoysia should do well there (it does in similarly shaded areas in my yard where I grew it from plugs) but I give up. Bermuda does not do as well in shade, but I am giving it a try now.

WARNING: If you are just looking for some grass seed to make a quick & thick lawn, zoysia is not what you want. It is slow to grow and takes a lot of prep and initial oversight to be successful.I've been working on a full zoysia lawn in piecemeal fashion (as finances and time allow) for more than a decade. I have used plugs bought from a local grower and bought this seed from Amazon. Both methods work, but you must be patient and persistent. This is not plug planting, so I won't go into those details, but I may try to give reference to help you make a choice if zoysia is the way you want to go for your lawn. I'm not an expert, in fact I kill plants easier than grow them. I'm just a guy with some years of experience, experience that I'm pleased to say it has been worth it.As noted in the headline, this will cover 2000 sq ft if used for "infill". I spread this back in 2013 within existing grass and thought it was a dud. I didn't see any signs of it for years. It was only last year, 2019, that I saw some large areas of weird grass. At first I thought that somehow some nearby zoysia that I had transplanted had worked its way across around/under a sidewalk. But it didn't look the same; my transplants were a darker green and thinner blades than this strain. Then I came to realize that the zoysia seed had been growing underneath the other grass & weeds the whole time and finally burst through. How it got enough light to prosper is beyond me, but it shows how resilient it is.Once I saw it had actually worked, I decided to try it on my backyard but this time as a new lawn. I had sprayed the backyard with a liquid emergent weed killer (BioAdvanced Season-long Weed Killer) that is safe for zoysia...pretty much killed everything, even what looked like grass, but left my existing zoysia intact). Once it was good and dead, I raked up the detritus and used a small gas tiller to dig into the soil a little and break it up. Here is where I noticed the sq ft difference not shown in the specs or package photos here. So to plant 2000 sq ft will require 3-1/2 bags of this seed. It is alot to sow and tend at once, so I am doing it in stages. The area I'm trying to cover is roughly 80x20 ft.I spread the seed using a hand-crank spreader (using the packaging spread setting) over a area roughly 27x20ft (1/3) then raked it over to get good contact. Then I watered, and watered, etc. The package specifies to keep the area moist...not easy in summer sun. It also states temps should be between 70-90 degrees F. I would use a hose on it in the morning and evening, not soaking it but just enough to get it good and wet. For the extra hot days, I'd do a third watering midday where it looked dry. After about 10 days, I am starting to notice some growth of tiny blades I hope is the zoysia and not any leftover lawn.The bag contains one part seed and four parts mulch/filler to aid spreading. Different than other grass seed because zoysia seed is so small. But don't kid yourself, it isn't really a useful, covering type mulch.Ratings:EASY TO GROW - Takes a little more work and prep to get it to sprout. As I said, you need to be persistent/diligent in watering to succeed.THICKNESS - Once it is fully grown in, it is nice and thick (based on my first 2013 planting), but it is SLOW growing. For my new areas, I don't expect a lush lawn until at least next year. It is also a lighter color than the plugs I have used, but still nice. Blades are wider, too. Some weeds still poke through, like dandelion, clover, and weird branchy rapeweed. Usually easy to treat with the above weed killer or manual pulling.WARMTH - What does this mean...does it mean color? It is a lighter green shade. Or maybe climate warmth? If so, I'm in southern MD and it is growing fine. It does green up from dormancy later than other grasses though.