Skip to main content

Seeding Your Lawn, Laid Bare

I’ve never laid carpet, tiles or lino but there is one floor I do know how to lay and that is the carpeting for the outdoor room. I speak of course of the most popular garden ground-cover the lawn.

Prepare before you sow

The best time to sow grass seed is between early April and early September, however you must firstly carry out some preparation. Ideally sometime between March and August you must “burn off” any unwanted growth. Achieve this by spraying all weedy soil areas on a dry day with a herbicide containing the active ingredient Glyphosate. Apply according to the manufacturers instructions and heed safety warnings.

Grading the site

A minimum of 1 month must elapse before you start to grade or level the site, this will allow the spray to reach the roots of weeds such as docks and dandelions. Ensure nothing but light rainfall occurs when you are carrying out soil movement and grading whether it be by hand or machine. This will prevent creating a pan in the soil (a layer of smeared soil or subsoil that water cannot drain through). You must grade the site to an acceptable level without bringing subsoil to the surface; subsoil on the surface has ruined many the new lawns by causing hungry looking brown patches. When grading your soil remove any half buried timber and old tree roots as they will lead to toad stools in the established lawn. Also remove any concrete blocks and large stones; basically remove any debris bigger than your fist.

Fallow before final cultivation

Leave the graded site to settle and regrow any dormant weeds for at least a month then spray the weed growth again with a Glyphosate based herbicide. For the final cultivation give the soil a shallow rotovate or lightly dig it over with a garden fork whilst breaking clods with the back of the fork. Rake to an acceptable level whilst removing all surface debris down to the size of a 1 euro coin including weed stems and roots. The soil should have a nice fine tilth like the texture of cake crumbs; it should not be fine like powder as this will prevent seed germination.

Seed sowing secrets

The ideal situation would be to sow the seed before you get the next heavy shower of rain as at that stage you will begin to loose the soil tilth. You will need approx 40 to 50g of seed per square metre, which can be broadcast by hand or use a wheeled spreader Divide the seed into 2 lots and spread half the seed whilst walking up and down, with the other half being spread whilst walking left and right across the lawn When spreading any seed avoid spreading onto drives, patios and beds.

Lightly rake the seed into the soil with a sprung rake, do not drive it in or bury it. Follow this by lightly rolling the area with a half-filled water roller; the idea is to get firm seed and soil contact to ensure germination. Have some extra soil and seed to hand as a hollow or two may show up when rolling, you can then top up the soil and give it a shake of seed. Depending on the weather conditions your seedlings will begin to appear within 2 to 3 weeks.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Spring Planting Tips

Spring means that the garden centers are packed with people, and car trunks are packed with plants. Everybody has dirt on their knees, dirt under their nails, and is excited about gardening. To make certain that this excitement yields positive results, let's discuss the basics in this article of spring planting tips.   Installing new plants and having them grow successfully is not difficult, nor is it as complicated as some would have you think. Is it as easy as just digging a hole and setting the plant in? Yes, it certainly can be. I won't get into bed preparation, as I have covered that in other articles that are available at http://www.freeplants.com Let's start with B&B plants. B&B is short for balled in burlap. Closely examine the ball on the plant that you have purchased. Did the diggers wrap twine around the ball to hold the plant secure? If they did, you should at least cut the twine and lay it in the bottom of the hole, or remove it completely. Pay close at...

Lawn Care Tips

A beautiful lawn does not come without some effort. Depending upon what type of soil you have, the amount of effort will vary. For instance when raising trees and shrubs, sandy or a gravel base soil is great. Landscape plants like well drained soiled. A lawn on the other hand is different. Lawn grasses grow constantly throughout the growing season, and need an ample supply of both nutrients and water. The most basic of lawn care tips includes regular watering and fertilization is required to keep a lawn beautiful. If you’re lucky enough to have a lawn that was originally planted in good rich topsoil, you won’t have to work near as hard as somebody like me, who has a lawn that is planted in sandy gravel. The soil at our house has little nutritional value, nor does it have the ability to retain any amount of moisture. By mid May my lawn starts drying out. It is very difficult for us to keep our lawn looking nice.   Lawns are one area where a little clay in the soil is a good thing. Of co...

Orchid Flowers Basics

Orchids are a thing of beauty, one of the most impressive flowers you can have at home is an orchid. Because Orchids come from a very large family there is a huge variation in the different types of Orchids available on the market. Orchids are not the most difficult flowers to take care of, but they do need some attention, you can have a significant effect on the orchids you grow. Wild orchid is simply a wonderful flower that everyone should own, a wild orchid has a unique look and style of growth. Wild orchids have an amazing verity of species, each with its own beautiful shape and coloring. Orchids in general and wild orchids in particular require that you decide where you think you will place the orchids before you actually buy them, the care needed for orchids demands that you provide them with enough humidity and air flow, and there is a huge difference between placing an orchid at home or have a wild orchid in your garden. As a person who knows the importance of flowers for stres...