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Re-seeding a patchy lawn
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12-09-2018 10:30am#1Hi,
I moved into a new house the the grass was a bit patchy and yellow in areas so I decided to have a go a reseeding it. Posting here in case it helps anyone else thinking of doing the same / if anyone has any tips. After a lot of online research here is what I did...
Pre Work:Weeding
I went up and down the full lawn by hand and pulled out any weeds by the roots. It's amazing how many there were when I got down close to the lawn and really looked. I found this tool to be fantastic for getting all the way down to the roots...Mowing
First I mowed the grass short. I wanted to get the seed as close to the soil as possible and didn't want it sitting on top of taller grass. I'm not sure if that's correct, I made this bit up my self! Here's how the grass looked then...
Aeration
As my soil is very compact and clay like (would be great for tennis but not growing plants!), i tried to aerate it. I got a manual aerator in B&Q for a tenner.
This didn't really work for me, the spikes got clogged up every time, so I was making holes, but more so by pushing the soil down into the ground, and possibly increasing the compacting ;(
I did about 1/3 of the garden like that, then I switched and used a garden fork for the rest.Thatch
Next I used a steel rake to remove the layer of dead grass / thatch that I could see below the green grass. I was surprised how much the rake pulled up as it didn't look like there was so much there. There is a better / proper rake for this, but I just used the one I had.
That's all the pre-work, the garden is ready for the seed now....6
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Laying the seedCompost
I got nine 75 liter bags of compost to cover my apx 50 square meter garden. I ended up using 7 of the bags in the end...
I tried to spread an even thin layer (1/2 an inch, 1.5 cms) or so over the whole garden. I did this by emptying the compost into a large garden bag to break it up, then scattering it by hand...
Here is how it looked after about half the lawn covered...
Fertiliser
I don't think this step is strictly necessary as I have the compost for nutrients, but I added a lawn pre-seed fertiliser that I got on Amazon. It was a "6-9-6" make up. The middle number is the phosphorus, and it's important that this is the highest number as that will promote strong root growth apparently. Too much nitrogen and you'll get a surge of green grass, but poor roots, so I'm going for the longer slower but better option... I hope!?!
I spread the fertiliser by hand, it was in a bag of granules, so I just scattered it on top of the compost....
Grass Seed
I got my grass seed on Amazon as well. It's a blend of 43% Dwarf Amenity Ryegrass, 40% Creeping Red Fescue, 12% Chewings Fescue and 5% Brown Top Bent.
I believe a blend is the way to go as some grass will do better in some conditions, so having a blend means some of it should hopefully take!
The bag was to rated to cover 35 meters squared, and I used two bags on my 50 meters squared. Again I scattered it by hand. I had bought a hand spinner broadcaster thingy, but I found scattering by hand was fine.
I put a liberal coating of seed down as I heard it's better to over seed than under...
Rake, water and role
The last thing I did was to rake over the whole lawn to try and work the grass seed into the compost. There was still some seed on the top, but I got most of it covered.
I then watered the lawn. I believe this is very important. The compost must remain damp (but not soaked) for the first week at least. If the seads dry out they will die. It's rained every 12 hours since, but if it looks like there's no rain coming for a while, I'll water it again. Watering is done from our rainwater system, using a mist setting on the hose so as not to disturb the ground too much.
I then used the roller on the back of the lawn mower to roll the top of the compost. I basically walked up and down as if mowing the grass without the mower plugged in if that makes sense. I think the idea is to get as much seed as possible in contact with the soil.
It was a lot of hard work, so now I play the waiting game and hope the soil doesn't dry out and the birds don't eat all the seed. Serious curtain twitching going on here keeping an eye out for the birds!!
I'll post a daily photo of the grass progress, I belive 7 to 10 days before I see the grass, and another week or two of growth depending on the weather before I can mow it.
I believe it's key that the temperature doesn't fall below 8 (or 6 at the very lowest) to allow germination of the seed. Also September seems to be the good time to do this, as the heat to rain ratio should be good and there's less weeds around.
All comments / suggestions welcome
Thanks,
BigAl.0 -
Day 1 UpdateI did all the work above on Monday. It rained over night and here is how it looked on Tuesday...
The rain has washed some of the compost down into the original grass, and some of that original grass is poking up through the compost now as well. I didn't have a 100% covered lawn, but there is much more green (from the pre-existing grass) there today than yesterday.
No sign of any birds yet and there seems to be a good amount of seed in the compost still, phew!0 -
Day 2 UpdateA bit of rain last night so nice damp soil this morning. Very sunny day with a high of 17 degrees (great for September!) so the compost is beginning to dry out by lunch time! Time to get the hose (from the rainwater system) out again and give it a quick once over as no rain forecast for the next 2 days.
No sign of any seeds germinating yet but no sign of any birds eating them all either
Here's the lawn on day 2...
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Day 3 UpdateNot much change today. Watered the grass twice yesterday and once today but the compost is still starting to dry out a bit in places. Gotta keep it damp!
No sign of any seeds germinating yet, a few more days hopefully.
The weather is looking perfect for a bit of grass growing, warm with rain for the next few days
No sign of any birds eating all the seed yet either thankfully!0 -
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Day 4 UpdateA nice bit of rain overnight and a high of 16 degrees today makes for some great grass growing weather (I hope!)
Spotted "a few" birds on the lawn next door the other day...
Funnily enough they swooped down en mass next door, hung around for a bit then all took off and I've never seen them again. Serious curtain twitching going on here just in case haha!
No green shoots yet! Here's the lawn this evening, a bit more green coming through as the original grass pops back up and the compost gets washed down into the soil a little more...
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Day 5 UpdateNo rain in the last 24 hours so out with the hose again as the compost layer was starting to get a bit dry.
No sign of any seeds germinating yet, but there are a very small few that seem to have split open and have a little bit inside...
A lot of dark patches still where the compost is sitting on top of the old grass, hopefully it pops up soon and doesn't get smothered!
Here is Day 5 photo, definitely greener than day 1, just need some new grass to start growing now...
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Day 6 UpdateNot much changed today. I think the old grass is a bit greener?
Perhaps the rain has washed some of the nutrients from the compost and fertiliser down into the original soil?
There are a few patches where the compost has formed an unbroken layer over sections of the grass. In these areas no old grass has poked through and I'm worried it might get smothered or not get any sunlight.
Do you think I should rake these patches over to break them up, or would that disturb the new grass seed that is hopefully about to germinate?
Here is the day 6 lawn, I've high hopes for this time next week!
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Day 8 Update
Success at last Lots of new grass popped up today!! This is the first new grass I've seen and I was starting to wonder if anything would ever pop up at all... phew 
Here's the full day 8 picture, quite a bit greener than even yesterday so very happy with that
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embraer170 wrote: »Do you have a link to the the tool for weeding? It is showing up as an invalid image for me.
Strange. That was a link to some web image, here it is as a local upload...
Hopefully that works for you now! I'm sure there are plenty of other tools, I just find this one really good at getting down into the soil and getting the roots. If the soil is very dry it's a bit harder, and it's slow manual work, but I enjoyed it 0 -
embraer170 wrote: »Great post and guide. I really need to do the same to my lawn but thinking it might be too late in the season to start doing it...
Despite the storm today, the weather forecast for the next 10 days looks good. Temperature average of about 15 degrees and some rain. I believe the key is not to let the seeds dry out so if you go for it keep an eye on that.
Also, it's more of an experiment than a quide I've never done this before, and this is just my learnings from a lot of online research. It seems to be working tho 0 -
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Day 9 UpdateMuch the same as day 8, looking well but more to go. Thankfully no ill effect from the storm, I was worried a strong gust would lift all the compost and seeds and dump it in the neighbours garden
New grass peeking up (the thin grass)...
The full lawn...
Hopefully by the weekend the dark compost patches will begin to disappear into the new green grass that's popping up!0 -
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Day 11 UpdatePlently of rain lately so no need to use the hose for a good few days now. Plenty of new grass popping up. It's quite thin and narrow so I guess it will thicken up as it gets more growth. The broader grass in this pic is the original grass, the thin grass is new. It's only a few days old but getting tall
From an aerial view you can see a bit more of the compost patches. I was hoping this would brake up more in the rain and get washed down into the soil, but a good bit of it is sitting on top of the old grass still. I hope the old grass pokes through eventually!
And of course the full lawn view, a bit greener each day and a good bit of length in the grass now. If I hadn't new grass growing I'd be thinking of mowing it, but I'll leave that for a few weeks to let the new grass get more established....
Bonus points if you noticed the new hanging basket
More rain and warm weather predicted so looks like I got very lucky with that! Looking forward to another weeks growth to really let the new grass take hold!0 -
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Update from day 12A day late with this post, sorry! Here is day 12's update.
Seem to have a bloom of clover (shamrocks?) in 2 large patches. I don't mind it too much as I believe it's good for the bees in the summer, but I don't want it to take over...
Grass is going well, had to walk up and down it a few times today so hopfully it will spring back up! It's not what I'd call 100% coverage and there's still a few patches of compost that kind of look like a cow pat, but getting there...
I think the rate of change is slowing down so I'll do a post every two days. The next post will be day 14 so exactly 2 weeks of progress to report then0
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