Overseeding established grass

dave 27

Hi all, just looking for tips if anyone has experience doing overseeding on existing lawn.

I have approx a quarter of an acre garden and while the grass isnt too bad ive never put anything down or treated it before. My plan for the grass to overseed is as follows;

Cut the grass but not too short, scarify the grass (within reason as i only have a plug in so it will take ages!!), then once the thatch is up i have bought No.1 lawn seed, i will use a spreader for this, i also got shaded lawn seed which i will use for the bottom quarter of the garden as its nearly always shaded there.

I will cut a pallet in half and drag up and down the garden in order to settle the seeds, then water.

I know its good to put topsoil or sand down but the garden is too big for that.

I also have autumn lawn care, will i wait for another few weeks to put that down?

thanks

Dr4gul4

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058206815/overseeding-established-grass

There's a lot of factor's to take in to account here, but speaking from experience, i too have 2500 sq/ meters of lawn, of which it was never really tended to before my arrival.

This year, in March I scarified 900 sq meters, with a petrol device, and i removed tons and tons of debris, and i do mean tons, were not talking 5/6 we talking 15 / 20 min

If you really want to make a go of it, and the over seeding you need to expose the soil, and then obtain proper seed to soil contact, the pallet idea is good, but if your seed does not reach the soil, you'll be throwing money away.

Alt plan, Roundup now, wait 6 /8 weeks, reseed with No.1 lawn seed, given were in autumn now it's a prime time to kill it and reseed it. however !! If you have a thick layer of thatch when you kill the lawn off, you would be as well to scarify off that layer and expose again the soil.

You're comment about toil soil is correct, it's almost impossible to accurately cover it all, in a cost effective a manor.

I hope that helps, or partially helps, You'll need help with the scarifying either way, and TBH i'd rent a petrol machine. but hats just me, I have no knowledge of your lawn.

dave 27

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117840621#Comment_117840621

Thanks for the help, i used aftercut on it back in late april which killed a lot of moss so i scarified a portion of the grass but your rite its some serious job! I think i will see how my electric scarifier goes before renting a heavy duty one. As you say the hardest part is raking up the thatch!