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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...

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images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSbsI8Lcs_s9w8d9BJh_T6JN8sJ7qqY945p5MOa31ox3se3ygRi

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.

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aerator-yemm-GARDENING_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqqVzuuqpFlyLIwiB6NTmJwfSVWeZ_vEN7c6bHu2jJnT8.jpg?imwidth=450

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....

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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

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

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

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

embraer170

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

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...

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

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...

how.gareth

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

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

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

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...

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...

how.gareth

Thread followed with interest, best of luck!

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!

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!

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

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...

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

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.