Are you Planning on OVERSEEDING your LAWN? Watch this First.
In this video, We will show you 7 Stupid mistakes that most beginners make when Seeding their Lawn.
When grass seeding a lawn it is important to mow your lawn short right before you overseed. By mowing low you will give the new grass seeds a head start to germination by reducing the risk of overcrowding the existing grass. Depending on what grass seed you are seeding such as Kentucky bluegrass, perennial ryegrass or tall fescue, it can take anywhere from 3 days to a couple weeks to for the seed to germinate.
Also it is important to rough up the soil before you seed / overseed. The absolute best way is to use a hallow tine lawn aerator and/or a dethatcher . Aeration is good for a couple reasons, first being in relieves compaction in your soil and can increase seed to soil contact when overseeding. Dethatching will open up the canopy of the grass and help the seed fall directly into the soil. If you had to choose only one out of the two than I would recommend aerating as not only will it open the soil up but it will also break through the thatch layer as well.
Most people think they have to till there soil before the seed or overseed their grass. Preparing soil for grass seed does not include tilling it. Tilling will leave you with soil that will settle unevenly and cause extreme bumps and lumps in your lawn over time. Not to mention tilling will alter the water structure of how clay your clay soil has settled. If you till it will force the soil to recompact and can make water sit on top of the compacted soil.
A lot of people like to throw down fertilizers that are nitrogen heavy before they overseed but there is really no need for it. Adding nitrogen when you overseed will give your existing grass a surge of growth causing it to choke out the new seedlings, this is especially true when overseeding Kentucky Bluegrass WITH Kentucky Bluegrass. Instead I like to apply a pure phosphorus fertilizer called TSP aka Triple Super Phosphate will has all the benefits of traditional starter fertilizer minus the added nitrogen.
One annoying thing about seeding is accidentally throwing seed in places it shouldn’t go such as your mulch beds. One way to avoid this is by using a drop spreader around all perimeters of your lawn. A drop spread will give you much more control when laying down seed. Once you throw down you seed, you should roll it in to increase seed to soil contact.
The most important factor in having a successful overseed is proper watering. It can be challenging to keep up with it especially if you don’t have an irrigation system. Do not give up on watering midway through your project. The best way ive found to have consistent watering habits is by using the Hunter Mp stake irrigation system. It is fully diy and requires no digging. It hooks up to your hose line and uses a bluetooth controller that you can control from your phone in order to set up schedules for watering. I will leave a link below to a video I made about it.
