Your once green and luscious lawn has started to develop bare spots and dead areas of grass. All of a sudden, your meticulous care and watering doesn’t seem to be helping it as much as it used to. Weeds have started to creep into your turf. What happened to your lawn? The question you should really be asking is “what is overseeding?” Just as people grow old and tired, your lawn ages with time and begins to thin out as its reproduction rate starts to drop. But don’t fret! You can rejuvenate your lawn back to its former lusciousness in a process called overseeding.
What is Overseeding?
Overseeding is the process of adding new seeds into an already existing lawn. Contrary to many homeowner’s beliefs, fertilizer itself cannot solely sustain a lawn; the grass actually needs to be revitalized every five or six years. Overseeding allows for new grass blades to thicken up your lawn and defend against harmful diseases, keeping your lawn luscious throughout the next couple of years.
How Do I Overseed My Lawn?
The first step is to mow the area with your lawn mower on the lowest setting. After mowing the area, you’ll need to thoroughly rake the area to expose the bare soil, removing all of the old grass clippings. This will help expose the dirt that you’ll be sowing the new seed into, and will also ensure that your new seed germinates (it will not germinate if it is not in direct contact with the soil).
If you live in northern climates, you should look to purchase Kentucky bluegrass or fescue, while southern climates should look to purchase Bermuda or Zoysia grass. These types of grass seeds will have low proportion of weed seeds, ensuring that your reseeded lawn will have few weeds when germinating.
Lastly, you’ll want to water the new seed daily for an entire month. The goal at this point is to keep the seeds moist so they’ll germinate. Instead of watering once a day, spread the watering out into sessions (such as two 30-minute sessions) to be more effective.
Additional Help
Overseeding is an incredibly important process for your lawn, though it is quite labor intensive,and may require commitment and hard work. If your lawn is infested with weeds, you’ll need to kill off the existing lawn before you continue. If you are not looking forward to doing this work, then contact a professional landscaping company to overseed your lawn. TalkLocal can connect you with the highest quality local landscaping companies in your area in just minutes. You’ll have your lawn back to its luscious green in no time!
