When landscape workers tilled the wrong section of our son’s sloped yard, he prepared to create a new lawn. The salesperson at the feed and seed store recommended immediate planting due to rain in the forecast. My husband and son sowed ryegrass seed onto the upturned soil and topped it with wheat straw. Before they finished, a soft rain began to fall. Although sprinklers provided water for the newly planted seeds on several sunny days that followed, no evidence of growth appeared. In less than a week, however, bright green shoots popped up through the wheat straw. Gentle rain and…