Having to wait a almost a full year to get back to my renovation window, I've made a large (crazy) number of test squares in my lawn to figure out the grass I wanted to install and the method of installing it.* Testing the seeding methods was interesting. Not surprisingly, the just throwing it out there, uncovered method was the least productive. One of the biggest reasons I noticed was 'washout,' that is, movement of seed by an external force. Rain washout was a big contributor to this, but I also noticed simple, gentle watering moved the seed visibly; as did our 'normal' days of 20-30 mph winds here in Oklahoma. Not only did that make the squares come in uneven, a lot of times I'd notice the lowest spot in my lawn consistently germinated the most seed... and I didn't even seed there. While I'm almost certain the high winds dried out some seed between waterings, those seeds likely then blew off the square anyway, so I never saw any 'dry seed' in the test square. Covering with fabric, or in my case, tablecloth material (the large, wide bolts used for weddings and gatherings), worked well to retain moisture, position of the seed during watering, rain but the wind still got under there Covering with peat moss, or even just loose dirt seemed to do the best, especially once moist, because not even the wind got to it. Rain can be an issue though, because once it rained enough to get the dirt, peat to move, it just wanted to wash down, with the seed, to that, now lush, low spot. Raking in the seed seemed to do best when hand-spreading the seed. Rolling seemed to do better when broadcast-spreading the seed. I almost felt like raking took out the evenness of the seed spread that I got with the broadcast-spreader. All in all, considering most people new to grass seeding will have a hand, a rake and some loose dirt, as opposed to a spreader, a roller and fabric; hand seeding, raking and covering with dirt would definitely be the way to go. *For what it's worth, a 'spreading' Turf-Type Tall Fescue and Creeping Red Fine Fescue mix seems to be winning the day here in my area for hardiness; not so much for the 'spreading,' interestingly, but that's neither here nor there.
i wish i saw this video before I spent 8 hours hand pulling up all the old grass by hand. By then, I was just tired and just threw seeds everywhere and called it a day. With full sun. the very top dries out while I am still watering.
most of the time I cover with peat moss although I'll probably be switching over to coconut coir this season as it's easier to store compressed (takes up less space).
Yes raking it in and covering the seed is usually best practice. Only reason I can see for not raking it in is if you tilled the soil a little and for not covering it someone may argue that it will still germinate and grow which is true but the environmental conditions would have to be ideal for a long period of time and that typically does not happen. Why risk not doing these things?
very true, not all birds will eat seed but certainly many of them will and the longer the seed is on the ground uncovered then the more likely you are to lose some seed to birds.
Having to wait a almost a full year to get back to my renovation window, I've made a large (crazy) number of test squares in my lawn to figure out the grass I wanted to install and the method of installing it.*
Testing the seeding methods was interesting. Not surprisingly, the just throwing it out there, uncovered method was the least productive. One of the biggest reasons I noticed was 'washout,' that is, movement of seed by an external force. Rain washout was a big contributor to this, but I also noticed simple, gentle watering moved the seed visibly; as did our 'normal' days of 20-30 mph winds here in Oklahoma. Not only did that make the squares come in uneven, a lot of times I'd notice the lowest spot in my lawn consistently germinated the most seed... and I didn't even seed there. While I'm almost certain the high winds dried out some seed between waterings, those seeds likely then blew off the square anyway, so I never saw any 'dry seed' in the test square.
Covering with fabric, or in my case, tablecloth material (the large, wide bolts used for weddings and gatherings), worked well to retain moisture, position of the seed during watering, rain but the wind still got under there
Covering with peat moss, or even just loose dirt seemed to do the best, especially once moist, because not even the wind got to it. Rain can be an issue though, because once it rained enough to get the dirt, peat to move, it just wanted to wash down, with the seed, to that, now lush, low spot.
Raking in the seed seemed to do best when hand-spreading the seed. Rolling seemed to do better when broadcast-spreading the seed. I almost felt like raking took out the evenness of the seed spread that I got with the broadcast-spreader.
All in all, considering most people new to grass seeding will have a hand, a rake and some loose dirt, as opposed to a spreader, a roller and fabric; hand seeding, raking and covering with dirt would definitely be the way to go.
*For what it's worth, a 'spreading' Turf-Type Tall Fescue and Creeping Red Fine Fescue mix seems to be winning the day here in my area for hardiness; not so much for the 'spreading,' interestingly, but that's neither here nor there.
i wish i saw this video before I spent 8 hours hand pulling up all the old grass by hand. By then, I was just tired and just threw seeds everywhere and called it a day. With full sun. the very top dries out while I am still watering.
Would say rake in grass seed over rolling it? Or maybe both?
What do you cover it with ?
Peat moss or topsoil?
most of the time I cover with peat moss although I'll probably be switching over to coconut coir this season as it's easier to store compressed (takes up less space).
I used Bird netting from Ace hardware it worked great, unfortunately 1 bird got caught and died.
I always rake mine into the soil a little. Better seed/soil contact.
even a little bit of effort like that goes a long way!
Yes raking it in and covering the seed is usually best practice. Only reason I can see for not raking it in is if you tilled the soil a little and for not covering it someone may argue that it will still germinate and grow which is true but the environmental conditions would have to be ideal for a long period of time and that typically does not happen. Why risk not doing these things?
if you don't cover the seed, a good chance birds will eat a lot of it
very true, not all birds will eat seed but certainly many of them will and the longer the seed is on the ground uncovered then the more likely you are to lose some seed to birds.