Is it too late to reseed?

My garden has been flooding in heavy rain to a depth of about 9ins ever since I moved into this house about 6/7 years ago, the concrete path used to drop down about 18ins then near the end of the garden it then levels off to the same high as when is starts.

So my son-in-law built up the path so it is flat all the way to the end of the garden. (Looks great)

On the one side it is about 14 foot from the new path to a hedge, but the lawn near the hedge has always been a lot higher than the path. He has put down a covering of topsoil over the lawn, to bring the level of the lawn, to the same level as the new path, but to level it off, weâ??ve put down the topsoil to just over half way to the hedge. So I have a mixture of topsoil and lawn.

Because he could only work on my garden on good weekends, we are running very late, and we are giving it this week hoping that the rain will bed down the new soil and bring any stones in the topsoil to the surface for us to clear, before we reseed.

So my questions are, are we too late to reseed now?

Does anyone know the best grass seed to use because their will still be a lot of water just below the surface? (We are hoping the extra 18ins of soil will soak up most of the water, but underneath is a bed of clay. I've dug down over 4 foot and not got through it).

We are thinking of getting a roll of fleece to lay over it to help the seed to germinate but still allow the water to go through it, do you think that would help?

Any help would be appreciated,

Cheers,

Trevor

 

"are we too late to reseed now?"

I don't think so. Autumn sown grass is stronger, to compete with the weeds [next year] than grass sown next spring will be.

If there are patches you can sow some more seed next Spring (there is a cost to this, of course, so may not be advice to suit everyone!!)

If the garden is on a slope I would put in some perforated drainage hose to help drain the garden, if its permanently wet. That's quite a lot of work, dig a trench, put the pipe in, cover it in about a foot of gravel ... plus the water has to be able to run out of the end of the pipe, of course.

"We are thinking of getting a roll of fleece to lay over it to help the seed to germinate but still allow the water to go through it, do you think that would help?"

I can't see how the fleece would help, but others may have advice.

 

Sadly I doubt the drainadge issue has been cured, kristens aproach is what is needed.

There is however nothing to stop you seeding now and adding drainadge later indeed it will help stop the top soil being washed off. You can hire trenching machines at reasnable cost at a later date that will make laying land drainadge less labour intensive.

Fleece is used comercially on golf courses and by some turf growers to raise and maintain the soil temp and increase germination. You are sowing at a marginal time and the soil temprture will be decreasing therfore I would sudgest using it.

 

Thank you very much both, I will try the fleece, but as to the drainage, I think I'll wait until all the work is finished and the grass has grown to see what is happening, my son-in-law is sure that it will take away my flooding problems and as he will be doing all the work, to be fair to him, I have to let him carry on.

One thing I have not said about is the other side of the new path, in an area of about 12 foot by 14 foot, a membrane has been put down and he is going to cover the area with chippings about 18 inches deep, where he said all the excess water will go and be hidden until it slowly evaporates, if that don't work he plans on sinking a small automatic pump and pumping the water to the nearest drain.

As I'm over 70, he is trying to make my garden as easy to maintain as possible, he has taken out of the lawn 2 small cherry trees, to make it easier to cut the grass, (It was driving me nuts trying to use the mover around them, it took twice as long to cut).

The only worry I had was if it was too late to seed and if as Kristen said, "autumn sown grass is stronger" I think things will work out great.

Thank you for your help.

Trevor