Jonathan Green Black Beauty Sun & Shade Grass Seed - 7 lb

Jonathan Green Black Beauty Sun and Shade Grass Seed is the best grass seed I’ve ever purchased. I live in central Illinois where we have rainy springs, hot humid summers with little rain from late July through October. Lawns in central Illinois look green and robust through the spring but by August the summer drought has kicked in leaving lawns burned up, brown and dry. This includes watering once or twice a week. You just can’t beat the summer drought. This year I’ve decided to really try & have a nice looking lawn. In March I started raking up all the dead grass & debris from 2025. I have a 1/2 acre lot with most of the yard shaded. I raked the entire lot. After raking the back yard it looked like an apocalypse came through. I put down 10-15 bags of top soil plus peat moss. Very thin layers of each. Then I took my grass seed spreader & reseeded the lawn with Johnathan Green Black Beauty Sun & Shade Grass Seed. I did this in late March. Once I reseeded it I gently raked any bare spots to make sure the seed made contact with the dirt. After that I watered every day for 3 solid weeks. Every day I would look at my yard & nothing. No sprouting, nothing. Around the second week of April the grass seed started to sprout and the bare spots started to fill in. By the first of May my entire lawn looked 95% better! We’ve lived here 40 years & it’s the best spring lawn we’ve ever had! We are so pleased with this product! Moving forward I plan to stay on top of watering 1-2 times a week. In August-September I plan to reseed the entire lawn again focusing on any bare spots that don’t survive the summer drought including where squirrels dig holes in yard looking for whatever they are looking for. I hate squirrels. The lawn looks so good & then the squirrels invade it and dig small chunks of yard for some reason. So my lessons learned this spring are raking up all the dead stuff, amending the bare spots with top soil and peat moss where needed, watering every day through germination and not giving up. Things take time. I’m very happy with this product & anxious to see what my lawn looks like after the summer drought.

This spring, we repaired several bare spots in our lawn using Black Beauty Sun & Shade grass seed. We also tried two less expensive brands, Pennington and Scotts, and found no comparison in performance. Black Beauty germinated in roughly half the time and produced thick, lush growth that quickly filled in the bare areas. The photo shows one of the patches after about a month of growth. Regular watering is important for achieving the best results. In our experience, the higher price is justified by the superior germination and overall quality.

I've had incredible results with Jonathan Green seeds. Sun and shade, Founder’s Choice, and dense shade all have performed well and the color is dark green. Great for spot seeding and especially performs well where others have failed. I highly recommend JG!

This grass seed is pretty good. The growth rate is OK and the grass looks great once it starts growing. It is sometimes a little hard to get started and wants to die, but if you consistently water and use good topsoil you’ll be good. The price on this seat is very good compared to local hardware store stores.

I bought 2 bags of the sun & shade mix and one of the dense shade mix. I did a small area about 6 weeks ago in the sun. There was new Black Kow fertilizer put on the ground and mixed with the existing soil. I had set up a watering system. The seed was raked in lightly to the soil. A very tiny amount actually grew, but died the week after. Then I tried a larger area 3 weeks ago, also in the sun for seven to eight hours each day, shaded in the late afternoon and evening hours. Patch is about 30' x 50' that I did. In a few areas, the seed started, but very splotchy, there is more dirt showing than seed growth. Maybe 25% of the area is showing any signs of growth. Blades are very thin like Rye grass, none are any taller than 1-1/2", some just look like fuzz on the ground, and I am seeing areas where the new growth is already disappearing. The third section I seeded, I used the dense shade bag, this was also 3 weeks ago. This area gets maybe a couple hours of direct sunlight and about 10+ hours of shade. Same result, very fine blades, barely 25% of the seed taking. There is nothing thick and green about this. And with Black Kow in the soil, it should be zooming upward. Black Kow makes everything grow strong. Either I got some bad bags of seed, or this kind of seed just does not grow well.

I’ve had issues with my grass growing in and handling the sun and shade along with heat. I used Scott’s grass seeds and didn’t really do much. A friend of mine uses this product and his lawn looked amazing. So I purchased this grass seed and it has grown and look lush, green and full. I seed once a year to keep my grass thick to block out weeds and heat from burning the roots. I had a lot of bold spots and this did the trick. Great quality and price I would recommend to anyone and I am going to continue using this product.

You got dead patches or if you’re like me spray the crap out if the weeds but also kill your grass?? Buy a bag of this!!! There’s no fillers like the Home Depot crap. All seeds here my friend!! You’ll be glad you did. I also bought them because it’s supposed to do good in the shade. Here between my neighbors, you hardly get sun. The darker patches are from the seeds! It used to be just dirt after i killed the weeds. Now you can see…the seeds are working. That Home Depot crap never sprouted and it had a stinky odor.

I put down a mixture of two different bags of seed in my back yard. Was concerned that I didn't put down enough, so I bought a bag of this to put down in the thinner areas. Guess what areas are littered with weeds? Furthermore, I have used this for several years now, and had weed problems. Was able to knock them back late fall/early winter with Spectracide, but this year, I have no weeds in the areas that I did NOT use this seed. Hmmm.....

Best seed product I’ve ever used.