Planting grass seed is an efficient way to create a fuller and greener lawn that gives your home an appealing look and provides a lush environment for outdoor fun. However, you can’t throw down seeds at any time and expect perfect results. Grass seeding should be completed at the right time to ensure proper germination and growth in your lawn.
For many people, springtime is the season for completing yard work and other outdoor projects. You’ll need to know the proper time for grass seeding in the spring to get the best results. Read on to learn more about the factors that influence seeding times, how to prepare your lawn for planting, and how to maintain growth throughout the year.
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Factors That Influence Seeding Times
While many homeowners have a lawn care schedule in the spring, it’s not enough to just complete seeding at any point during the season. To ensure proper growth, you should consider your location as well as the type of grass you have, as these factors influence the right seeding conditions.
How to Prepare Your Lawn
While timing is important when seeding your lawn, preparation is also key. Readying your lawn ensures that your soil is ready to promote new grass seed germination and growth. Preparing your yard consists of multiple steps, including actions like leveling your lawn, testing your soil, and aeration. Take a closer look at each step of the process below.
Level the Lawn
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Before planting new seed, it’s important to remove any inconsistencies in your lawn, such as rocks and debris. Additionally, be sure to level the various peaks and valleys in your yard with a soil mixture that consists of sand, topsoil, and compost. Don’t just use topsoil, as this fresh mixture may contain weed seeds and other harmful nutrients.
Address Bare Spots
Bare spots pop up in lawns for a variety of reasons, such as heavy foot traffic, drought, and insect infestations. Once you’ve identified the brown spots in your lawn, you can prepare them for overseeding by digging up the area, mixing in new topsoil, and using a rake to level the ground. From there, the bare spot is ready for seeding. To help prevent future bare patches, you can apply a pre-emergent herbicide in conjunction with a fertilizer to prevent weed germination.
Test Your Soil
Much of a seed’s growth depends on the pH levels of your soil. Since every lawn’s pH is different, testing your soil is important to determine if it’s acidic, neutral, or basic. Based on these results, you’ll know which minerals and nutrients your soil is missing. Many home improvement stores, such as Lowe’s or Home Depot, sell simple five- or six-step DIY soil testing kits. If you prefer to use a professional, many full-service companies will do it for you.
Try Aeration
When your soil has become stagnant and compacted, it’s time to aerate your lawn. This loosens your tightly-packed soil and helps with weed control while fighting the stress from droughts. Try simple DIY methods like garden forks or aerator shoes for a lower cost of aeration. However, for more tightly compacted soil, you may want to use lawn care professionals.
Use Fertilizer
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Fertilizing provides new lawns with concentrated nutrients needed while establishing a strong root system. Cool-season grasses should be fertilized using a spreader in the fall, while warm-season grasses can be fertilized throughout the summer. Many homeowners choose a starter fertilizer, which uses nutrients to meet the needs of growing seeds until the root system develops.
Our Conclusion
Timing is everything when it comes to seeding your lawn. If you have cool-season grass, aim to start seeding in late summer or early fall before freezing air and soil temperatures hit your area. Start the seeding process in the late spring or early summer for warm-season grass.
No matter which type of grass you want to grow, be sure to continue lawn care even after the initial planting. If this process sounds too time-intensive, you may want to consider a lawn care service to seed, fertilize, and maintain your yard throughout the year. Our recommendation is TruGreen, a provider that offers comprehensive services and seeding.
Frequently Asked Questions
Our Rating Methodology
The This Old House Reviews Team backs up our lawn recommendations with a detailed rating methodology that we use to objectively score each provider. We review lawn care plans and packages, navigate the provider website and speak with customer service representatives, request quotes, and analyze customer reviews for each provider. We then score the provider against our review standards for plan options, additional benefits and customizability, availability, trustworthiness, and customer service to arrive at a final score out of 100.
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