Sowing grass seed in November

cheezums

Hi, my new lawn will be ready for seeding 1st week of November. With our mild winters, is it okay to sow this late? I read you just need >5 degrees soil temp for grass to grow which we should have right up until December.

Jim_Hodge

You'll end up with a lot of dormant seeding. You need continuous temperatures above 5c for an extended period. Personally I'd wait until next March. We'll have ground frost by the third week in November - we had some last week.

Living Off The Splash

I reclaimed some raised beds two weeks ago and turned the area back to lawn. Mainly to make less work for myself going forward. I will have less angles now to move my lawn mower around. More straight lines type of thing. Anyhow I have sown the area with some "old lawn seed" that I have found in a box in my garage about a week ago. Still no show. This week I bought a box of new lawn seed from Woodies (didn't think it would be so expensive) and I have covered a different area with that.

I expect germination to take about 10 days. It will be interesting to see if any of the old seed is still viable. I will be disappointed if the new seed does not take after spending so much money on it.

I

cheezums

if I leave it until spring, will there be much weeds to sort out?

phormium

I scattered around some grass seed last weekend in two areas of the garden, one very shaded and the other gets a bit of sun, I was away for the week and just checked it today to see if anything was happening and the seed in the sunny part is just coming up but the shaded parts look the same as the day I scattered it!

Now mind you we had a lovely mild week so that probably helped, I think I'm actually going to buy seed suitable for shade at this stage as it's practically impossible to keep it growing in the shady parts of garden.

Red Hare

The ground temp is unusually warm. If it was me I'd fling seed around and see what happens. It's not that expensive a mistake to make to have grass seed fail to germinate . If it works it avoids you having to deal with a riot of weeds next spring.

DukeCaboom

I would go for it. Fortune favours the brave!

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118067679#Comment_118067679

A fortune in grass seed wasted too though

I'd say the window for seeding a lawn is probably just about closed for this year.

You'll end up with an uneven and rutted lawn if you sow now. There's no issue sowing as it will just do its thing when it can, but the rain over the next few months will damage the exposed surface and cause rivulets and indentations. Better off waiting, raking out and levelling again in March or April and you'll have a better lawn then. Either way, you won't have a full lawn until next summer so you're better off waiting.