Jessica Paster The Future is Green
Seeing bare patches on your lawns can be frustrating. Lawn overseeding offers a smart solution to bring back an even and lush lawn in your outdoors. That becomes the question, how to overseed a lawn the right way? If you don’t want to call a professional, learn how to do it here.
Before Starting Your Project
Preparation before overseeding is essential to optimize the final result. When your lawn has a compact layer of soil and grass, you will need to consider aerating or dethatching. Spreading grass seeds on thatches won’t work well as the seed can’t reach the soil and germinate.
Dethatching your lawn is a simple project that you can do with a rake. Simply remove thick thatch on your lawn using a rake until you see some bare soil. Meanwhile, aerating means making holes in the lawn to help water, nutrients, and air penetrate the soil so that new grass seed can take it.
How to Overseed in Easy Ways
Once you are done, you can start overseeding the lawn. How to overseed a lawn is relatively simple but there are a few steps to follow. Mowing the lawn is the first step to make sure the grass seed reaches the soil. Mow grasses short enough to ensure a higher chance of germinating.
Rake the lawn to remove grass clippings, sticks, rocks, and anything that can catch the seed. Next, apply soil amendments to make it suitable for grasses. You can use wood ash or manure to improve the acidity of the soil.
After preparing the soil, you can spread the grass seed either manually or using an overseeding machine. Not only does a seed spreader promise even spreading, but it also improves your work efficiency. Set the spreader to distribute 16 seeds per square inch or as desired.
How to overseed a lawn after spreading the seed? The next step will be applying fertilizer. Choose a fertilizer based on the type of grass and your property. Put the fertilizer into a spreader to make sure it reaches the edges of the lawn.
The last step is watering the lawn. The best time to water your seeded lawn is in the morning as it can optimize the water intake. Avoid overwatering the lawn because it can prevent germination and promote thatch.
How Often Should You Overseed the Lawn?
Overseeding the lawn is ideally performed twice a year. The first overseeding should be in the spring and the second should be in the autumn. Spring overseeding is aimed to prepare for the summer while autumn overseeding helps repair damages caused by the summer heat.
In addition, weeds tend to be less active during the autumn, so you can germinate grass seeds with peace of mind. You may also need to fill patchy areas before the moss grows to prevent its appearance.
Overseeding a lawn can keep your outdoors in good shape. How to overseed a lawn is quite simple with a little know-how. Prepare the soil before spreading grass seeds and apply fertilizer following seed spreading to ensure healthy growth and a lush lawn.