8 Easy Steps To Overseed Your Yard
Overseeding your lawn is just an eight simple steps exercise, which include Dethatch and Aerate the Lawn, Mow the Lawn Short, Rake to Remove Debris, Add Enriched Topsoil, Spread the Grass Seed, Fertilize the New Grass, Water Your Lawn Generously and Avoid Mowing or Heavy Traffic. Overseeding mostly deals with spreading a grass seed layer over the existing yard without disturbing the lawn or adding topsoil to it.
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With time, you can find the turfgrass becomes thin, which is a natural process especially when your lawn gets good traffic. The process of overseeding helps in retaining the glow of your lawn by making the grass dense and lush. In this article, we will discuss the main simple steps of overseeding in the right way so that you can get the best results.
What are the steps to overseed your yard?
Overseeding your existing lawn, you need to carry out a few steps, let us discuss them to let you know where and how you do it all!
1. Dethatch and Aerate the Lawn (If require)
For effective grass growth in your lawn, the seeds should reach the soil. Aerating and dethatching your lawn before you spread the seed can help in doing it. This step may be optional though, doing it will only lead to effective seed germination.
First of all, you need to dethatch your lawn if you find the thatch layer to be dense enough to hide the soil beneath. Once you detach, you need to aerate the lawn with the help of poking holes in the soil with the help of a core aerator machine. You are supposed to aerate only if you have not done it earlier.
2. Mow the Lawn Short
Once you plan to overseed your lawn, you have to do a few things. On the chosen day, you have to start with cutting the grass by keeping it an inch or even shorter. Mowing the grass can help in getting a better access to the soil underneath. The grass clippings after mowing act like a way of the seeds.
3. Rake to Remove Debris
Once you mow your lawn, you now have to rake it. It helps in getting rid of any loose grass clippings, twigs, fallen leaves, or any other debris that are found in the soil and seeds. Rakes help in digging the ground to some extent allowing the top layer to become loose. This helps a lot in the overall overseeding activities.
4. Add Enriched Topsoil
Enriched topsoil is often a blend of soil and nutrient-rich compost materials. It helps in growing the grass thick in no time. It helps in designing a topsoil layer, which is around ¼ inches thick on the top of your existing grass. However, as a caution, you can note this point.
You can find a few seed mixtures having topsoil. If you plan to use any of these mixtures, you can think of avoiding this step and switching over to the fifth step of spreading the seed.
5. Spread the Grass Seed
Before you select a grass seed mixture, you need to know your grass type. You can use seeds as per your grass type which you have in your lawn or with any compatible grass type. Generally speaking, compatible grass type only means cool season grass type with several other warm season grass types.
Now, all you have to do is to fill your fertilizer spreader as per your selected grass seed blend. Start moving the spreader over the lawn in the given rows by following the same pattern you have used for mowing your yard. The label on the fertilizer will guide you about how many seeds you should use so check the package label before you proceed.
6. Fertilize the New Grass
Once you start using the fertilizer spreader again, you can think of spreading the lawn starter fertilizer at all the places where you have added the seeds. The starter fertilizers are designed only for new grasses, which helps the seedlings to settle down strong with their roots and gain faster germination.
So, when it comes to choosing any fertilizer you can avoid the combination of weed and feed. The herbicides with the weed and feed option would prevent the new grass from growing. However, you can skip this step if you have a seed mixture having fertilizer. For such cases, you can directly switch to the watering step.
7. Water Your Lawn Generously
Once you spread the fertilizer and seeds, you can start watering, however, it should be deep to enter the roots. Once you complete watering deeply, you can continue adding water lightly every single day to keep the soil moist when you see the new grass establishing well. Keep on watering until you see the new grass becoming an established grass.
It is always a good idea to water during the morning times especially before 10 am. This will prevent the water from evaporating with the sun’s heat during the rest of the day. Also, you need to check the signs of overwatering including spongy and puddle soil. In case, if you notice all these signs, you can immediately get rid of the same.
8. Avoid Mowing or Heavy Traffic
The last step is all about taking precautions to reap better results. You need to try to reduce traffic in the areas where you have carried out the overseeding process till the grass grows thick and grows 1-2 inches tall. Also, you have to wait for a while to mow till we see new grasses reaching the same height. Once you find the grass reaching this level, you can often resume your usual yard care activities.
Why You Should Overseed Your Lawn
Overseeding has several tangible benefits for your lawn, which gives you enough reasons to consider it. If you do it correctly, you reap the benefits given below:
- Prevents the bare patches and filling in thin
- Helps to make the grass grow thick
- Makes the grass growth tolerant by making it hard thus preventing them from pests, diseases, and heat
- Allows the grass to grow thick
- Helps to prevent the weeds
- Keeps the lawn green for the entire winter
When should you overseed your yard?
You should overseed your lawn during its growth phase. However, the active period of cool and warm season grass differs a lot, hence have to act accordingly as per the grass type. Now, have a look at these as under:
- Cool Season grass – These are found mostly in the northern areas of the US. The active growth periods of this grass type is during the fall and spring season and they fail to grow during the summer season. Some of the common cool season grasses include perennial ryegrass, fescues, and Kentucky bluegrass. So you should overseed during the springs as this grass grows more during the springs. However, some experts suggest overseeding during the fall as there are limited weeds in the yards to compete with the grass for soil nutrients.
- Warm-Season Grasses – This type of grass grows actively during the late springs and summers amid the heat. Some of the known warm-season grasses include Bermudagrass, Centipedegrass, St. Augustinegrass, and Zoysiagrass. If you are planning for overseeding grass with the same grass seeds, you are recommended to do it during the late spring or the early summer season when you find the temperature is around 90 degrees.
How Often Should You Overseed?
You may find too many lawns suffering a lot from ailments and droughts. These may suffer a lot to become thin too often. Hence such lawns should be overseeded once a year. However, for the majority of lawns, you will have to overseed once a year. Monitor the lawn, once you find it becoming too patchy you should start overseeding it.
Should you consider rain for overseeding?
It is always good to overseed when the soil is dry. So, when you do not find any sign of heavy rain and have a clear weather forecast, you should consider such days for this activity. Opting for overseeding just before heavy rainfall will wash away the seeds even before they start the germination process.
Can you mix different types of grass seeds?
Yes, you can mix the different grass seeds. Doing this is better than planting a single grass type. You can easily combine the strengths of different grass types for making your lawn tolerant of traffic, sheds, heat, or drought. It is often recommended to stick to a cool-season grass type or warm-season grass type with exceptions like ryegrass.
In conclusion, overseeding will lead to a thicker and healthier grass provided you do it correctly. Effective lawn maintenance has too many more things to do, it require expertise and experience to accomplish this job. You need a pro to carry out this job. With Eden, you search for a competent landscaping service provider comes to an end. Call for more information!
Enjoy a beautifully manicured lawn with our timely yard work services that care for your yard according to the season. Call us today!