Landscaping: Seeding Time

Fall is the best time for seeding to renovate lawns or completely start over, depending on the conditions of your lawn. If you're completely starting over, you'll need to kill your old lawn off completely, August would have been the best time but do what you can.

There are two main types of lawn, warm weather grasses and cool weather grasses. Warm weather grasses; zoyzia, bermuda, and buffalo grass being the most common. Cool weather grasses are comprised of blue grass and fescue, either individually or blended. Cool weather grasses or mainly repaired and renewed via seeding. The best times for seeding for these are late summer/early fall, followed by spring as secondary seeding time as necessary.

Best seeding procedure for cool weather lawns: to seed a fresh lawn, you will need: your seed (10 pounds per 1000 square feet), starter fertilizer, an area spreader (whichever preferred, push type better for larger lawns), verticutter (power rake), and an areator (optional). Once you have your materials and equipment, prep your area for seeding by first (optionally) areating, first pass in one direction and the second pass in the perpendicular direction. Next, do one pass with the verticutter and then spread your seed, if the verticutter kicks up excessive amounts of thatch (more on that later) you'll need to rake out the thatch. Then do a second pass with the verticutter perpendicular to your first pass, spread your starter fertilizer. Next hand seed and rake in any corners that did not get good coverage. That's pretty much it. Water according to seed directions (generally watering lightly up to 3 times a day until sprouting, then once sprouts are over an inch watering once a day up to a quarter inch, once you've mowed the new grass twice, you can reduce watering to weekly).

To reseed a lawn, the process is similar but not identical. You will need: your seed (7 pounds per 1000 square feet), starter fertilizer, verticutter and/or areator, and area spreader. Once you have your materials and equipment, prep area for reseeding by either areating OR using the verticutter one pass. ONLY DO BOTH IF YOUR SOIL HAS COMPACTION ISSUES. Then spread your seed and then your starter fertilizer. Water daily until the seed sprouts, once it's sprouted water every other day until after it's tall enough to mow. Previously existing grass will help it maintain moisture.

Warm weather lawns do not normally need reseeding. The only real maintenance to be performed in the fall for warm weather lawns is dethatching. This can be performed with either and areator, a verticutter, or using a dethatching blade on your mower. Dethatching breaks up the dead organic matter that had built up on top of the soil but below the growing grass over the year. Thatch will inhibit moisture and nutrient absorption into the soil and ideally should be broken up on an annual basis.

Additional notes on reseeded lawn care: do not allow leaves to build up on the newly seeded lawn, as it can kill the new grass before it can become fully established. Last winter was very dry, as a result, lack of watering over winter caused death of lawns by spring. DO NOT FORGET TO WATER YOUR LAWN IF THERE IS LOW MOISTURE LEVELS OVER WINTER. Remember, cool weather grass do not go dormant in the winter, they merely slow their growth which is why they remain green and can die over dry winter.