Overseeding lawn

Hello All

I have started to take an avid interest in caring for my lawn so am effectively a newbie even at my ripe old age (mid 40s).

I have a question to ask to poll general opinion regarding whether to use fertiliser or not after I have over seeded the lawn this coming weekend.

So far I have carried out the following and am now ready to seed:
- scarified
- raked to remove moss and thatch
- applied lawn sand to kill moss/encourage grass growth
- raked a second time to remove dead moss and remaining thatch
- applied fertiliser slow-effect (up to 3 months effect) granules in early May
- cut weekly since early May

This weekend I will:
- spread lawn dressing
- sow seeds to bare patches and generally over seed entire lawn
- gently rake to push seeds into dressing/grass
- roll to compact
- water lawn, and subsequently for 2 weeks to encourage seed germination

My question is should I also apply liquid fertiliser from a back knapsack I have invested in? I have read up and advice seems to be to fertilise post sowing seeds. However, my gardener tells me I risk damaging the lawn and preventing seeds from germinating if I fertilise again - too much of a good thing he says. The grass is a nice green colour, but I would be fertilising to encourage new seeds to grow,not to keep the grass green.

All advice will be much appreciated.

Regards, S

 

Welcome to GC Spider!

The process you've worked so far is fine. New grass should not be fertilised in it's first year as it needs time to create root growth. If you feed it - it will outgrow it's strength. Once you have laid the seed make sure it's watered every day until it is well established.....unless it rains of course.

 

I wouldn't apply a liquid feed. I might apply a granular fertiliser, which would then be available in the soil for the germinating grass seed, but given that you added slow release a month aog I'm not sure I would add any more.

You can always apply it post-germination if the lawn looks like it needs it.

 

The sort of thing I was thinking of is this:

http://www.bostonseeds.com/products/8/Fertiliser/35/Granular-Fertiliser/#product1325

but as I said, I think overkill given that fertiliser has already been applied recently

 

Thank you Sheal.

So what if I was to fertilise the lawn prior to sowing the grass seed? So that the existing grass gets some treatment for fduring the summer. Would this not also help the seed to germinate?

I also have some root growth fertiliser - would it be worth putting this on the lawn even if I do this only and skip the other fertiliser?

Many thanks, S

 

Kristen thank you, that's interesting, as I think the root growth fertiliser I already have is a phosphorous feeder. I will check. If so, do you think it would be fine to apply it later that day that I sow the seeds?

S

 

Need incorporating into the final preparation of the seed bed.

 

If you applied slow release granular fertiliser last month then it is still present in the soil and its nutrients will help your new seed establish.
So I am firmly in the do not apply liquid fertiliser at this point.
Trust your gardener!

 

Thank you all.

For my info, is it a) potentially harmful to over apply fertiliser or b) just a waste of product/money if its not needed for a while?

 

Too much is not good, particularly for young plants / seedlings. Likely to make them outgrow their strength, or muck up their metabolism - in effect poison them I suppose. Some plants will happily be overfed (and benefit from it), but most plants will be adversely effected.

 

So further to my opening post on this thread, yesterday my plan was to carry out the following:

- cut grass to short length
- spread lawn dressing
- sow seeds to bare patches and generally over seed entire lawn
- gently rake to push seeds into dressing/grass
- roll to compact
- water lawn, and subsequently for 2 weeks to encourage seed germination

However, having cut the lawn very short, I could see moss so decided I need to deal with this now. So instead of carrying out my plan, I spent the afternoon and evening raking the lawn for what is the 3rd time now (plus having scarified it in April), but my thinking was if the prep isn't right the lawn won't look as I want and I will regret not putting in the hard graft earlier on. After raking I cut it again to collect what was left on top. It's incredible how much thatch/moss I removed yesterday having thought the lawn was ready for over seeding. I must have the lawn with the most thatch in England....

My neighbour must think I'm potty cutting the grass twice in a day, and then to be outside watering the lawn until 11PM.....hopefully I'm in good company on GC though when it comes to garden pampering..... ;-)

It is looking a little battle scared this morning, but I'm hopeful that once the new seed has taken then in a few weeks it will look much improved.

If anybody has advice on what I can do additionally to improve the lawn/my plan I'd be very keen to hear - am very keen to learn and perfect my process and in doing so the lawn

S

 

It is now 2 weeks since I applied top dressing and new seed to the lawn, so I will be cutting the grass this weekend.

I'm happy to mow the grass which I over seeded using the mower, but for the bald areas that now have new grass growing - should I cut the new blades with shears as I would be worried about running the mower over them and probably crushing them. Is this the best option?

Also, how often should new grass sown from seed be cut to encourage strong and healthy growth?

S

 

Are you saying the new grass has already grown to mowing length Spider? If it has then cut it with the mower but on a high cut for the first three times just taking the top off. If you have a cylinder mower then it may be a little risky but if you have a rotary mower then that won't be a problem as long as the blade is sharp enough not to rip it out. New grass is better being mowed/slightly crushed as this will encourage it to create new stems.

Cut the grass as often as it allows growth wise as above. After those first few cuts and it seems strong enough you can lower the cut by a notch then gradually progress to a normal cut when it has established fully.

 

Thanks Sheal.

Well I have cut the grass this afternoon taking special care over the newly sewn patches. It seems to have worked very well, taking the top off of the new blades of grass and it doesn't seem any the worse for having a 50kg mower go over it.

Overall I'm very impressed - comparing the photos I took only 2 weeks ago after it looked heavily battle scarred after having raked the life out of it, it now looks transformed, a great improvement.

Thanks for all the advice and tips you have put my way, much appreciated.

But this is just the start - in time I'm hoping to have a beautiful lush lawn... ;-)

S

 

I'm glad the mowing went well. I would like beautiful lush lawns too but just don't have the time to spend getting them to that point. I've laid turf and seed down the years in previous gardens of mine but the one I have at the moment is hard work, not helped by the fact I garden on sandy soil here, my previous gardens had clay.