new garden using seed

Just bought a new built house and I'm as broke as can be, I have a 10x5 metres garden with fresh topsoil and south looking garden. I can't afford turf so bought bone meal, good quality seeds and a spreader, I've read a lot to find best technique to sow grass in mid-october and I was all set to do it today, but people just keep telling me sowing grass is not possible, my FIL keep telling us ''YOU DONT WANT SEEDS ON THAT GARDEN, GET TURF'' to what I reply: I'd love to, but I'm broke, and he keeps repeating it over and over. He is demotivating me and now I feel like not bother with the seeds at all, just leave the topsoil bare and forget it. Why is everybody saying that? Is it really impossible to sow a 50 square meters garden?

 

Thanks JWK, you've given me a lot of motivation to hear from someone with experience, I have bought bird nets and bamboo canes to protect the seeds, I will also add some CDs because I heard the shine scares birds away

 

Sorry, but that is Bull.

Ground preparation is the same for both Turf and Seed, so nothing to be gained by one over the other.

Turf is much more expensive, and requires stripping off an inch or two of the best fenland topsoil and transporting it across the country (well, it "depends" a bit ) so very environmentally unfriendly.

Grass Seed sown in the Autumn does well (better than Spring). Weeds are shutting down for the winter, so not much competition for the new grass seed. The grass has 6 months to et established before the growing season is here, and possible drought, so much less watering needed [next Summer] than Spring sown grass seed or Spring laid turf

Only down side I can think of is that you should not walk on it until established - that is a shorter time with turf, than seed. If that is a problem (you need to get across the new lawn to a shed / clothes line / etc.) then lay some planks to walk on, and roll them over to cover a new patch every couple of days.

 

So glad to hear that! We don't have kids or dogs, only adults so it shouldn't be hard to stay off the grass :-) thanks for the planks tip

 

Don't forget to water the seeds! Much quicker germination if you do.

 

Hi luiza.

Welcome to the forum. I used seed for my back lawn, it is about 80 ft by 15 ft and I had no problems, apart from the birds, but I just over seeded it at a later date. I got a 20kg sack from B&Q for about £30. Much more cost effective and as already posted by others now is the time to do it so it will have a strong root system for next year.

Rusty