Can you sow grass seed in November?

My daughter lives on Jersey, Channel Islands - she has asked me some questions I can't answer - can anyone help?

Can you sow a large area of earth with grass seed in November or should she wait until the Spring?

What is a good grass seed for a Shady area?

What is a good grass seed for a Sunny area?

She has three young boys so it would have to be quite a tough type of grass.

Many thanks in anticipation of your time and answers.

 

I wouldn't sow grass seed in Suffolk now, but I might if I was in the Channel Islands.

My preference is to Autumn sow as the weeds are shutting down and the grass will have a head start in the Spring when the weeds get going - if you sow in Spring then the grass has to compete with the weeds.

I just buy a packet labelled as "Shady" or "Quality lawn" / "Hard wearing" depending on my need, but there are places on the internet to buy from of course - I'm fairly sure there was a Which? report recently which had one particular site recommended (and I think it may have been mentioned on Gardeners World a month or so back, might be on the BBC website - in which case it would be on the Gardener's World Program Notes from that episode)

 

Thanks for the reply Kirsten and John - I will pass your advice on to my daughter - Happy Gardening - lets hope for better weather here!

 

Might be a bit late to contribute to this, but our local council did some work on the grounds of offices very recently and sowed some grass seed on the bare ground. I walked past it thinking, no way will that grow now. But I walked past it yesterday and it's growing, even with all the rain we've had recently.

We are in Sussex, so the Channel Islands should be fine, as others have said.