Overseeding a lawn

briancarr82

Hey folks. I'm looking to overseed my lawn. I have a dog in the back yard and the lawn is a bit lumpy/patchy. I'm looking to get it into decent shape so that my toddler can walk around on it in the summer. Here's what i plan to do and any advise on products etc would be very much welcome.

1. Cut lawn very short, have already cut it but plan to cut it shorter this weekend
2. Rake up any surface grass.
3. Airate the lawn. I don't have a machine for this but i'm guessing if i use a pitchfork to make holes this will do (lawn is not very big).
4. Throw down and spread my compost (any suggestions on type).
5. Put down my lawn seed (any suggestions on type).
6. Roll garden to get it nice and flat and to press seeds into holes.
7. throw down fertiliser (any suggestions on type)

After this how often should i be cutting while the grass is growing? Is it ok to cut it every week?

Also is there anything i'm missing, any further tips?

farmchoice

If you really want to get it in top shape I would recommend scarifying it after you cut it. You can rent scarifiers from tool hire places. This pulls out all the moss and dead grass and scutch grass ECT.

After that over-seed it. Most people will recommend a number 2 grass seed it's a middle of the road seed, not too fine (think bowling green), but not too course (think farmers field)

I did this last year on my lawn and it came up lovely, now I have very big lawn ( about 3/4 of an acre) and it was a big job that took time and hard work but on a small lawn it you could get it all done in a day.

Some people would advise against rolling your lawn as it compacts the ground.
I rolled mine with a light enough roller after I over seeded it just to bed the seed in a bit.

After the seed has started to grow and you have taken al least one cut feed it with a high nitrogen fertilizer, don't use the feed and weed stuff the first time as the new grass is fragile and it might kill it.

The high nitrogen fertilizer makes it grow like hell and once the summer comes you will be cutting it a lot but it will make all the difference to the appearance.

You can use the feed and weed stuff later in the summer if you have weeds.

If the lawn is not too big after you have scarified it you could top dress it with top soil or a topsoil and compost mix, this will level out any little lumps and bumps, and there are good videos on you tube explaining how to do this. By the time you have all this done you will not let the child or the dog or the wife or anyone else near it because you will be so proud of it and afraid they might damage it.