Taking care of the lawn is essential to routine exterior home maintenance. A green, thriving lawn in good health may enhance any property’s aesthetic appeal and monetary value.
The best way to restore the appearance and vitality of your grass and bring it back to its former glory is to overseed it. This is true even if you spend a lot of time in your yard tending to it and keeping it healthy.
Table of Contents
What is overseeding?
If you want to thicken up your lawn and cover up bald spots, you can do what’s called “overseeding.”
Many factors influence which types of grass you should use.
- Which types of grass do best on your lawn?
- How many hours of sunlight does your lawn receive daily?
- What kind of soil do you have?
- Preferred cutting length: how short would you want the lawn cut?
- How often and for what purposes do you use your lawn?
Tips for Lawn Overseeding
What You’ll Need:
- Lawnmower
- Enriched soil
- Rake
- Sprinkler
- Grass seed
- Seed spreader
Here’s how to overseed your lawn the right way:
- Prepare the area.
Remove any debris, sticks, or rocks from the overseeding area. Then, trim the grass to a height of half an inch to an inch.
- Loosen the soil.
You can’t just put grass seed on top of compacted soil and expect it to grow. You can roughen the soil’s surface using a claw-type cultivar, garden rake, or stiff-tined leaf rake.
Think about renting a power tool, like a dethatcher. It uses fine tines to help rough up the soil’s surface if you need to work on a large area.
- Make sure you get good grass seed.
It’s essential to do some preliminary research because some types of grass do better in specific environments than others. Do you want your new grass to look like your old lawn?
Do you desire a green lawn even though it’s winter?
How much sun or shade will it be exposed to?
Is it going to be in a busy area?
Find out which grass varieties are best for overseeding based on the answers to these basic questions. You can save money and ensure a high-quality result by purchasing weed-free grass seeds.
- Sow the seed.
You can use a broadcast spreader for larger areas or use your hand to scatter seeds in smaller areas. The desired density of the seeding is about 16 seeds per square inch.
After loosening the soil, rake it to disperse the seed evenly within the top quarter inch. After that, gently tamp it to improve seed-to-soil contact.
- Fertilize
Consider using a combination of sowing mulch and fertilizer products. This is to help shield the seed while it germinates in open areas.
If you have big open areas that you need to overseed, consider preserving the seed while it germinates with products that combine fertilizer and seeding mulch.
This will ensure that the seed gets off to a good start and will completely biodegrade into the soil, so there’s no need to clean up.
- Watering
The important factor in ensuring the success of seeding is maintaining a steady surface moisture level in the soil as the seed germinates.
Newly developing grass plants have delicate, shallow roots that need protection from drying out and dying.
Plan on watering the new grass once or twice a day until it reaches a height of 2 inches. For the first season, reduce the watering frequency to every other day or as needed (when the surface dries).
- Avoid heavy traffic or mowing
Keeping foot traffic to a minimum in the overseeded areas is best until the new grass is at least an inch and a half tall.
Only mow the lawn once the newly planted grass has grown to the same height as the older grass. Once that’s done, your regular lawn care schedule can be reinstated.
Is there any value in overseeding?
After properly seeding your lawn or having it done by experts, you can reap the benefits of overseeding:
Decreased erosion
When you allow grass to grow to a greater thickness, its root system grows to absorb more iron, nutrients, soil, and water. This eliminates soil loss and the run-off of pesticides and fertilizers that could harm pets and other animals if you aren’t careful.
Reduced weeds and pests
Because new grass seed is more robust, it is far less susceptible to pest invasion. In addition, overseeding results in an increase in the lawn’s root system and density, both of which have the potential to overpower invading weeds that are competing for sunlight and nutrition.
The best month to overseed my lawn
Overseeding lawns is best done between the middle of August and the beginning of October. The ideal seed germination and growth conditions reach the correct levels when the atmospheric temperature and soil are warm.
If you give the young seedlings sufficient fertilizer, sunlight and moisture, they will have a good foundation before the weather turns cooler in the fall. The grass seedlings also have a greater opportunity to thrive now because weeds are less of a threat.
To be precise, you can overseed the lawn whenever the soil is warm enough to encourage growth, which could be any time of the year. However, completing this task in the spring or fall is more convenient.
The climate is ideal for plant growth: the soil is warm and moist, the air is humid, and there is regular rainfall.
Overseeding is best done after aerating and scarifying
Before deciding when to overseed, think about the current state of your garden. Overseeding your lawn in the spring will prevent the young seedlings from being harmed when the leaves are raked up in the fall.
Seeds planted in the fall will be hardier and less likely to suffer damage from the extra foot activity expected at your summer gathering.
Should soil be wet or dry when overseeding?
You should water the lawn so the soil is damp but not drenched. Overseeding is best done on dry soil, so irrigating the area the day before is best.
When the soil is wet, go over the grass with a core aerator a few times.
Should I fertilize before or after overseeding?
- Fertilizing before overseeding
This is as simple a procedure as it gets. After aerating, fertilize the soil and overseed it within three days.
- Fertilizing after seeding
Overseeding should take place as soon as possible after aeration, preferably within a few days. Add fertilizer after this process is complete or within 3 days.
You should also rake in some compost at this point. By doing this, it helps fertilize your newly planted seeds. It will also act as an insulating layer to keep them from drying out too quickly.
Do you water lawn after overseeding?
When to water?
Watering the lawn well after overseeding is essential for the success of the grass seeds.
If you want your plants to thrive, water them this way.
- Fourth-week water visits are reduced to every other day.
- Water the grass 3 times a day for the first week.
- Once the grass is established, you only need to water it once or twice a week.
- Water twice daily during the second week and once daily during the third week.
- For at least 30 minutes, water the overseeded area. The seed will be washed down into the ground this way.
The time it takes for seeds to germinate depends on the soil and watering. Small weeds will sprout alongside the grass, so you must be ready to pull them out immediately.
How much to water after overseeding?
The root zone of your lawn should always be moist. Soaking the soil to a depth of three inches is necessary because that’s how deep the roots go.
A small core of grass and soil can be dug up to reveal how deeply the water has permeated the ground. After watering the lawn for a full day, you should perform the check.
If you’ve noticed that the water level isn’t where you want it, you should water for longer. Lawn watering schedules are dependent on the soil type and the amount of precipitation.
After overseeding, you can water according to a professional’s recommendations and the soil test results.
How many times a year should you overseed your lawn?
Your grass should be overseeded twice a year, in the spring and fall. Overseeding in the spring is necessary before the heavy traffic and wear of summer. Over-seeding in the fall helps fix the damage and bare spots from the summer.
In addition, the autumn months saw a decrease in weed activity. As a result, there will be fewer weeds because grass seeds can germinate without interference.
Conclusion
Lawn overseeding should be a regular element of your maintenance schedule. It’s a quick fix for a lawn you can be proud of in the long run.
Overseeding your lawn with fresh grass seed is a quick and easy way to get the thick, lush lawn you want, whether you need to revitalize a tired lawn or keep the one you have looking great.