Re-seeding a patchy lawn

BigAl81

Hi,

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....

BigAl81

Laying the seed

Compost
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.

BigAl81

Day 1 Update

I 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!

BigAl81

Day 2 Update

A 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...

looksee

Fair play OP. I think you won't see much sign of seed growing for about 10 days, in fact in your circumstances you probably won't notice it at all as the other grass will come on and make the lawn look greener. I think your man on the left needs a bit of help though...

BigAl81

looksee wrote: »

I think your man on the left needs a bit of help though...

Ha, they sure do :pac: I think it's snow mould but not sure. Maybe some of my seeds will blow over the fence and help them out haha!

BigAl81

Day 3 Update

Not 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!

how.gareth

Thread followed with interest, best of luck!

BigAl81

Day 4 Update

A 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...

BigAl81

Day 5 Update

No 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...

how.gareth

Day 5 is still early for germination I reckon, hopefully by Monday ye might see some movement

BigAl81

Day 6 Update

Not 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!

how.gareth

Id leave the compost alone, any seed or existing grass should make their way through it I reckon

BigAl81

Day 7 Update

Grass seems to be getting greener but I don't see any new grass yet. No rain in last 24 hours so another going over with the hose this evening to keep the compost moist. Here is a day 1 to day 7 side by side...

BigAl81

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

embraer170

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...

embraer170

Do you have a link to the the tool for weeding? It is showing up as an invalid image for me.

how.gareth

Great job, you got near perfect weather for it to be honest, still a bit of warmt in the sun left this year and plenty of rain. All your preparation will pay off big time and it should be class looking by next summer

BigAl81

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

BigAl81

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

BigAl81

how.gareth wrote: »

... All your preparation will pay off big time and it should be class looking by next summer

Next summer, I was hoping it would be looking class by next weekend haha :P

embraer170

Thanks, that’s great!

how.gareth

BigAl81 wrote: »

Next summer, I was hoping it would be looking class by next weekend haha :P

Ha no I mean it should be well established and looking fine after a few proper cuts! The new grass will take a while to blend in with the original stuff

BigAl81

Day 9 Update

Much 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!

New Home

Your neighbours will soon be green with envy, 'cause they'll have valid reasons to say that the grass is greener on the other side.

BigAl81

Day 10 update

Coming along nicely....

BigAl81

Day 11 Update

Plently 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!

kyomi

Your grass looks lovely. I did the same thing with my lawn last Sunday but I didn't water it as I wasn't sure whether the hosepipe ban was still in place and I thought it was going to rain soon - and then it didn't. The seeds got a good soaking on Thursday and Friday with all the rain, but it might have been too late - we'll see if anything comes up next week.

BigAl81

kyomi wrote: »

Your grass looks lovely. I did the same thing with my lawn last Sunday but I didn't water it as I wasn't sure whether the hosepipe ban was still in place and I thought it was going to rain soon - and then it didn't. The seeds got a good soaking on Thursday and Friday with all the rain, but it might have been too late - we'll see if anything comes up next week.

Good luck with it, it took 8 full days for me to see any new grass at all and that was with a good bit of rain and some warm days. Hope it works out for you!

Outkast_IRE

Looks great,



I have done something similar but alas i have a female dog who will wee at random spots on it so it will never be perfect, and will always have a couple of patches.

BigAl81

Update from day 12

A 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 then

BigAl81

Update from Day 14

Hi sorry for the delay in posting this, but here is the update from back at day 14. This is a day 7 by day 14 side by side...



Plenty more growth to report, and the first batch of new weeds have popped up! The grass is getting thicker, but still a few patches with the compost still sitting on top of the old grass.

BigAl81

Day 18 Update

And here is the update from Day 18. The grass is finally greener on my side

New Home

\o/

Congratulations on your new, luscious lawn!

how.gareth

Excellent stuff, well done!

notfromhere

Re-seeding a patchy lawn, is it still to late to start this, Well done BigAl81, am jelous.

GreeBo

BigAl81 wrote: »

Day 18 Update

And here is the update from Day 18. The grass is finally greener on my side

Looks great....time for a mow!

BigAl81

notfromhere wrote: »

Re-seeding a patchy lawn, is it still to late to start this, Well done BigAl81, am jelous.

I'm no expert, but the weather for the next 10 days looks good for grass. Highs of 17 degrees and lows most days of 8ish with some rain.

I see Saturday night will be cold, but looks like it could be worth a punt! Be sure to keep the seeds moist on the days it doesn't rain and keep the birds away!!

Good luck!

BigAl81

GreeBo wrote: »

Looks great....time for a mow!

Hum, I was wondering about that. I would normally mow it at that length, but I'd be nervous about pulling up the new thin grass. It will be 3 weeks tomorrow that I sowed the seed.

If I mow it it will be at a high setting.

Would I be better leaving it to grow and get stronger, or would mowing it allow more light down to the smaller new grass do you think?

GreeBo

BigAl81 wrote: »

Hum, I was wondering about that. I would normally mow it at that length, but I'd be nervous about pulling up the new thin grass. It will be 3 weeks tomorrow that I sowed the seed.

If I mow it it will be at a high setting.

Would I be better leaving it to grow and get stronger, or would mowing it allow more light down to the smaller new grass do you think?

It looks primed for a mow in my opinion.

Mowing will encourage it to grow and wont damage it in any meaningful way.
Anything with that has rooted will be fine, anything that hasnt is dead anyway.

uncommon_name

Great job. I need to do my own lawn too, its a new house and the builders done a terrible job of the back lawn. I have got them to rip up the front and put tar mac down as the front was an even worse job.
This thread will be very helpful for me as I didn't really know how to approach it. So thanks for sharing the process.
(",)

BigAl81

Update from Day 25

Time for a mow last weekend. I did it on the second highest setting of the mower. Here's the before and after....

Before...

After....

Pretty happy over all, I'll do a better before and after pic later on. Still a few patches where the compost is sitting on top of old grass so I might put a bit more seed down in those patches and hope for the best!

Thanks,
BigAl.

GreeBo

Looks good, but I reckon you could go a good bit lower with the mower, still seems pretty long (albeit from a wideshot)

BigAl81

GreeBo wrote: »

Looks good, but I reckon you could go a good bit lower with the mower, still seems pretty long (albeit from a wideshot)

Yeah I mowed it high as I didn't want to take too much off the top of the new grass.

My working theory (completely made up by myself) was the longer the blade of grass, the more photosynthesis it can do, and the more energy it can put into root growth?

Do you think I should mow it low-ish over the weekend so? Would that let the light down to the smaller grass then is it?

Thanks for the advice,
BigAl.

GreeBo

BigAl81 wrote: »

Yeah I mowed it high as I didn't want to take too much off the top of the new grass.

My working theory (completely made up by myself) was the longer the blade of grass, the more photosynthesis it can do, and the more energy it can put into root growth?

Do you think I should mow it low-ish over the weekend so? Would that let the light down to the smaller grass then is it?

Thanks for the advice,
BigAl.

You never want to remove more than 1/3 of the length in a cut as it will over stress the plant.

Whats your desired cutting height and whats the current height?

helimachoptor

this has been very informative, my garden (about 5500 sq foot) got really patch during the summer so will need to replicate this, thanks op!

BigAl81

Hi all,

Just to reiterate, I'm by no means an expert and this was more of a trial / experiment and (appart from the flower bed you can see in the photos) was my first go and anything in the gardening space.

It seems to have worked very well and I'm very happy with it, but others may have different or better ideas as well.

I'll cut the grass when it's dry and I'll get another photo up then.

Thanks,
Al.

BigAl81

Quick update,

Hasn't be mowed since mid October, I haven't been home for a dry enough day! Looking good, certainly much better than before!

It's come a long way

eoin.d

I was looking forward to an update ,Well done it looks great.

BigAl81

Hi,

Would there be any harm in leaving it a bit longer and not mowing it?

My thinking is the more length there is in the grass, the more sun each blade will capture and the more energy it can soak up and the more the roots will grow? This might allow the newer grass to get more established? Or maybe I'm overthinking it!

The fuller grass might also drown out the weeds?

Or would long wet grass not be good over the winter? I've spotted the odd mushroom growing in there already!

Thanks,
BigAl

viewer

What is it looking like this year?