Fall Is The Best Time To Reseed And Restore Lawns

Well, it is about time. The hot weather of summer is over and it is beginning to cool down in preparation for Fall.  As you walk around your garden and look at your lawn you see that some spots didn’t do so well during the heat of the summer.  There may be some brown spots with dead grass or weeds and even though you tried to maintain your lawn there is always areas that may be sparse and can use a revitalization.  Remember, Fall is the perfect time to work on your lawn and prepare for next Spring and Summer Season.

Read our article 15 Fall Projects That Take Only 15 Minutes…for more on what you need to do Now.

What I Did Today

Today was  a beautiful day, sun shining nice cool air and I started to work on those bare or damaged spots on the front lawn.  I purchased Scotts Turf Builder Grass Seed the Northeast Mix.  This is a Watersmart Plus coated seed that helps it germinate, has fertilizer to get it started and absorbs more water to help the germination.

The other reason is it is a nice mix of grass seed including Kentucky Blue grass which is the grass I have on my lawn.  Kentucky Blue can take weeks to germinate but the other seed in this mix can begin to germinate in days.  This helps fill the spots and eventually helps to build a stronger lawn.

1. I removed the weedy grass that looked like a lawn, but was actually a weed.  I had killed most of it with a weed killer previously so getting it up with a straight edger shovel was easy.  I could even tear out the remaining spots that were already dead with my hand.
   
2. I loosened the soil with my hand cultivator, you can do this with your shovel, a rake or by other means.  I than filled in the area with some nice Scotts topsoil which is quite inexpensive and was sure to break up any clumps.  I raked it smooth.
3. Now I looked at the package directions on the grass seed bag and it said to set my hand spreader for 4.5 which I did.  In the past I simply tossed some seed out, which never seemed to take, probably because I put down too much seed.
4. I put a very thin topping of topsoil on top of the seed. You don’t want to put too much, these delicate seeds have a hard time emerging if placed too deep.
5. I watered the spots I seeded.  Not heavy, but enough to wet the areas down.  You don’t want to flood the area now, you need the seeds to stay in place. I will have to water these areas every day until the seeds are up and healthy.  If not, they can die and you will have to start all over again.

Other Areas I Seeded

I have other spots that are just that bare spots where there once were weeds. When I killed the weeds the healthy grass was able to fill some of those spots, but others were still bare. Using the cultivator which I like for this reason, I was able to actually roll over the areas and all the dead grass and clumps of dead sod came up.  I raked it, followed the steps above and now these spots will be good to go and next year will come up the same as the rest of the lawn.

Final note…this seed has enough fertilizer to give it a start. In a few weeks you will want to give it some Scotts Starter Fertilizer to help it grow strong roots before the winter.

Remember, when you do your fall fertilization with weed prevention, be careful to avoid getting any on your newly seeded areas.  It can burn them out fast.  You can start to fertilize and treat the lawn after 4 cuttings, which can be 4 weeks.

Necessary Maintenance and Preventative Care

A lawn is like a child.  It gets sick you have to find out what made it sick and treat the symptoms.  Does it have a disease, is it malnourished or dehydrated?  Is it being attacked by all sorts of bugs?  If you think of your lawn as a child you will be able to keep it healthy and watch it grown and bring you joy each year as it grows older.