How to Sow Grass Seed for a Beautiful, Healthy Lawn

How to Sow Grass Seed

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Have you purchased some lawn seed? Let us take you through some easy-to-follow steps on how to sow grass seed and germinate effectively.

Prepare Your Seed Bed

Remove Weeds

Before you consider planting your grass seed, you’ll need to prepare your seed bed. Doing so has a huge impact on your new lawn as well as helps to speed up the germination process. If your soil isn’t healthy, how can you expect the grass seed to grow to its full potential?

Prepare your lawn by removing any weeds and moss from the area. If you have a lot of weeds in your garden, invest in an effective weed killer two weeks before you intend to begin seeding a lawn. Bear in mind that you don’t want to direct the weed killer onto plants, so target the weeds’ roots or leaves. You can even apply the solution to a sponge and then rub it directly onto the weed to prevent killing your beautiful flowers.

Drain the Soil

Before using grass seed, it’s important that your soil is moist. However, that doesn’t mean that a more moist lawn provides the best results. Draining your lawn first can prevent flooding or lawn diseases. To do so, you’ll need to aerate your lawn to allow water to be absorbed in the soil at an optimal rate.

Sow Your Grass Seed at the Right Time

When seeding grass, don’t begin at any time of the year that suits you. Instead, you want to consider the weather for the best results. In the UK, this is in spring (or between March and September) when the temperature is around 10 degrees. However, you should check a weather forecast before you sow because you won’t want it to be too cold or too warm, where the seeds could potentially dry out and then die.

Sowing Grass Seed

When you’re comfortable that it’s the right time of year for using seeds, follow the below instructions for the best results. You can plant seeds by hand without needing a special device. Although, you can use a hand spreader if you’d prefer.

Scatter the Seeds

Simply throw the seeds onto the ground. But don’t just scatter them in any fashion. Sow the grass seed at 50g per square inch and use a light layer. If you’re sowing a new lawn, ensure that you dig the soil to a depth of up to 30 cm, removing any additional weeds that you find along the way. Then, add some soil on top and rake the area to create a level and healthy bed.

Rake and Stomp

After you’ve accurately scattered the seeds on the grass, lightly rake the seed into the soil, ensuring that you’re careful and not too rough to prevent damaging the seeds. Then, stomp onto the area firmly with your foot or use a roller for excellent soil contact.

How to Sow Grass Seed on a Patchy Lawn

If you’re considering laying seeds onto a patchy garden, there are some things you’ll need to know along the way.

Soil Contact

Similar to when seeding a lawn that’s new, you’ll need to have good soil contact when sowing a lawn that’s patchy. Begin by raking the soil to a depth of up to 30 cm. This depth also prevents birds from eating the seeds.

Place the grass seed inside the patchy area, and, using the rake, gently mix the soil and the seed together. For existing lawns, you may want to add fertiliser into the soil at the same time to increase seed germination while adding more nutrients to your grass for a greener, healthier result.

Distribute Evenly

When laying grass seed, it’s important that the seeds are distributed evenly onto any patches areas on your grass. Like the previous method, decide whether you want to some by hand or use a spreader for less contact. For the best results, send the seeds in four different directions for even distribution.

Water Your New Lawn

Whether you’re revamping a patchy turf or creating new grass in your garden, you’ll need to focus on proper aftercare, which involves watering your lawn regularly to increase the moisture levels. Lightly water your lawn twice a day (or more if it’s summer to prevent your turf from drying out) for the first two weeks. Ensure that you evenly distribute the water to prevent large puddles of water from forming on the lawn.

When these two weeks are over, switch to watering your lawn once a day and then every other day if the temperatures drop. However, you should bear in mind the temperature and conditions in your area because some lawns might require more frequent or heavier watering if you don’t seed the seeds sprouting up. Within the first six months, new lawns are at a higher risk of drying out and becoming brittle and brown. So watering is key. You can also add a rich fertiliser to the turf to keep the ground in tip-top condition.

General Aftercare Tips

After all of that preparation and hard work, it’s time to maintain your garden with regular upkeep. Here’s some advice on caring for gardens:

  • Keep on top of weeds (these will often sprout through new grasses).
  • It can take up to 12 weeks to notice seeds sprouting on your lawn. Don’t be disheartened, and continue to water the soil regularly.
  • Mow slowly for the first few times, and keep the blade on the highest setting since new grass blades are tender.

Start Sowing Grass Seed

Now that you’ve learned how to sow grass seed, it’s time to work on your garden. Remember that preparing the soil is as important as sowing the seeds. Also, to maintain your new beautiful lawn, water and mow it regularly. Some lawn feed would also do some good.

Share your tips on sowing lawn seed and caring for a new lawn in the comments.

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