Jonathan Green 10323 Black Beauty Ultra Mixture, 25-Pound

Marvelous grass seed. My large lawn needed a spring refresh and a bit of patch repair after the winter weather. In my research for grass seed, finding quality uncoated seed at an acceptable price was a bit of a challenge. Black Beauty Ultra has the right mix of grasses, it is not coated, it has a high germination rate, and a very low weed percentage. Although a bit spendy, the 25lb. bag is the best value. From my results, I found this product to be an absolute winner! As a cost-cutting measure, most major brand grass seeds available from the big box stores are coated with a green spray-on clay coating. This is marketed as an aid to germination, but frankly it is not nearly as effective as advertised. The industry is well aware that clay coating is far cheaper than grass seed per pound. The clay adds lots of weight to the bag... but does little to retain moisture. In my experience with patching and reseeding lawns, doing this during moderate spring weather is ideal and avoids the intense heat of summer and poor germination rates. The best results have come from first checking the soil pH and adjusting accordingly. Then, rake up the thatch on bare spots and lay down enough seed to fully cover the patch. Thoroughly cover the reseeded bare spots with a quality potting soil or topsoil. This is important... and works much better than a spray-on clay coating on the grass seed. Keep the area frequently watered throughout the day for at least two weeks until growth is established. While germinating, do not let the seeded area dry out and do not walk on or mow while the new seedlings are beginning to grow. Wait about four weeks after reseeding before mowing. Once mowed, fertilize with a low to moderate nitrogen lawn fertilizer. Newly planted grass is a bit sensitive for the first 3-4 months and can burn easily if stressed by high nitrogen fertilizers. It is now eight weeks since patching and reseeding my lawn with Black Beauty Ultra. The patches are completely filled in and the entire yard is evenly green, vibrant, and very attractive. Check out this excellent grass seed for yourself. You'll be glad you did.

I overseeded my backyard this spring with Jonathan Green Black Beauty Ultra Grass Seed and I’m extremely happy with the results. This is a quality seed mix with no junk fillers — just good, hearty grass seed that actually grows. It came up fast and thick. Within about 7-10 days I started seeing nice green sprouts, and after a few weeks it filled in evenly and looks lush. The grass is dark green, strong, and has that premium look you want in a lawn. It’s handling the summer heat and foot traffic from my kids and dogs. Spreading was easy with a basic broadcast spreader, and the germination rate was excellent. I followed the simple instructions on the bag and kept it moist until it established, and it really delivered.

This is a great quality grass with a deep green color. It seems to retreat significantly in the winter, and also seems like it's slower to come alive in the Spring, but it's a great quality grass. Very nice underfoot, and the kids tell me it feels nice in barefoot. Once alive in the summer, it fills in nicely. This is a lower-growing grass compared to others, but neighbors constantly tell me how nice it looks. I was using Pennington Sun and Shade, which I liked a lot, but this is better. Recommended. UPDATE October 2019: Here in Virginia, we have a problem with Buttonweed, which left to its own devices, will grow in thick, heavy matts, crowding out even zoysia (and I didn't think anything crowded out zoysia). I tried various weed killers with 2-4-D, but they only annoyed the buttonweed and didn't kill it off. I finally decided I had enough of this menace, after trying unsuccessfully to hand-pull it (complete waste of time). So I picked up a weed killer called Celsius, which was known to kill off buttonweed for good. It was expensive, and the Celsius certainly worked - however..... There was warning that Celsius will kill off "warm weather grasses". I had no idea if Black Beauty was warm weather grass or otherwise, given it was a mix of different seed type. But it wasn't long before I found out. After my Spring fertilizing, I told a neighbor that after 15 years, I had finally gotten my lawn where I wanted it. The BB seed created a beautiful, lush, thick green lawn - as good as high quality sod, perhaps even better. But then my new seed started to slowly die off. By mid-summer, my lawn had large patches of dead grass almost as if insects had attacked it. It was obvious Celsius was the culprit. As a consolation, the Celsius definitely killed off the buttonweed. By the end of the summer, I saw only a handful of lonely buttonweed plants in a few spots in my lawn, and these were easily hand-pulled. However, I had to rebuild my lawn as a result. So I ordered more BB, and seeded right after our Summer 2019 7-week drought started in Virginia. The chips seemed to be stacked against me, but I watered regularly, and the seed came in nicely. The fact that the lawn died back is not the fault of the BB seed, but of the treatment I applied. Given a choice, I would absolutely do it again. Anyone with buttonweed in their lawn knows what I'm talking about. You need to get rid of it completely, but you should do it one season first, THEN re-seed with this seed the following season. The fact that I bought more BB seed demonstrates that I'm extremely happy with the quality of this seed, its appearance, and its desirability, and still highly recommend it. I wouldn't consider putting anything else in my lawn at this point.

In my considerable experience with trying different grass seeds over the years for both newly seeding an area as well as over-seeding the existing lawn I have found no better grass seed than this Black Beauty grass seed. It's percentage of successful seed germination is second to none, the grass seed grows into a lush deep green carpet of the most beautiful grass you've ever seen. I couldn't be happier with this grass seed both in its end results as well as in comparison to other top line grass seeds from other manufacturers. No grass seed I've tried in the past has had results even close to this grass seed. While this seed isn't cheap when you see the end results it is very cost effective compared to other brands that end up leaving you with bare spots where seed didn't take. Like any grass seed it's important to properly prep the area regardless if you are newly seeding a lawn or over-seeding your existing lawn, the rate at which you get seed germination is dependent on how well you prepare the area, not to mention keeping it evenly moist until the grass takes and you've mowed it twice, after that you can cut back on the frequency of watering but make sure you water deeply and before you know it, you'll be on your way to having the nicest lawn on the block. When preparing the area for grass seed it's important to loosen the soil so that the seed has something to bond to. It's also important to use a seed starter fertilizer. I find fall to be the best time to plant grass seed here in the northeast, the soil is still warm but the daytime temperatures are cool making for a perfect balance to get your grass off to a good start. You can also seed in the spring but make sure you get it started long before the dog days of summer begin. I give this grass seed my highest recommendation, I wouldn't dream of using another grass seed in my yard and neither will you after you give it a try.

Got this seed last year, put it on my lawn. Didn't water. Of course it didn't work. Before getting upset I asked a few experts, and they recommended specific watering plans. Turns out that's exactly what Jonathan Green has on their package for these seeds. I tried again this year and started with 3 times a day watering for a week, then twice a day for another week, then daily for a few weeks, then once or twice a week. The difference was night and day. Started seeing growth by day 5, and 2 months down the road It's tall and healthy. The grass looks great and is growing very nicely. Not too thick yet, but I don't think I put enough seed down initially. Will over-seed next year and see what happens. Also, fertilize, this seed needs food so you must fertilize, any good "lawn" fertilizer will work. Put it down the same time you seed. Then fertilize again a few weeks later. Timing... I experimented with planting some mid-summer, it worked initially but the grass died off. Now I'm trying in the fall, as per the instructions on the bag, and getting much better results. Easy if you just follow directions it seems. The grass color also seems to be a dark green, I guess that's why they call it Black Beauty, right? A bit different in color from the rest of my lawn but doesn't look too bad. I'm mainly just trying to re-grass areas where the old grass died, mostly near trees.