New lawn from seed - advice needed please

Hi,

I'm sure this has been asked before, but I couldn't find it in any recent posts so apologies for any repeats.

I want to sow grass seed on an area roughly 10ft x 20ft. I'm in the process of levelling the soil and removing stones and will be ready to sow in a week or two.

The garden is south facing and the lawn area isn't eclipsed by trees particularly. There are no pets, there will be children but they can be kept away.

I would like to know:

1. Any recommendations for seed
2. Should I fertilise before sowing, any particular kind of fertiliser?
3. I assume I need to put netting over. What kind of netting and how best to support it over the largish area.
4. Any other tips

Many thanks

 

I've seeded several lawns ... this is my method (others may advise differently)

use a garden fork and turn the soil as deep as you can ..

remove the stones/debris, then add some compost (you can get 3 bags for a tenner)

turn the soil again with the compost ... and level off as best you can

sow the seed and use a garden rake to gently rake some of the seed into the soil

water well, then water once or twice a week .... (try and keep the area damp, but not too wet) ... the seed should germinate in approx 10-14 days (if the weather stays warm)

don't apply any fertilizer yet .... wait till the lawn is 2-3 inches high before mowing

then, mow 1/3 off the top using a new/sharp lawnmower blade

after that, you can apply a general lawn fertilizer, or a liquid lawn fertilizer
no need for netting, and I prefer using this seed:
http://www.bshamenity.com/product-detail.php?product=a7_(olympic_sportsground)

(not sure if you can buy this in small quantities, but I have also used the B&Q luxury blend which is also good)

and dont use any weedkillers for at least 6 months .... if there are weeds, remove them by hand

 

Thanks, sounds good.

Just one question: why no netting? I thought the birds would be after the seed, does this not happen?

 

Nah, sow some for the birds too. I've never netted newly sown lawns, and the birds aren't really interested. Although they may use it as a dust bath, which will leave bald patches ...

Some thoughts additional to what *Dim* said:

(First prepare the soil)
Its not a big area, so maybe not needed, but I level mine with a ladder - tie a rope around a rung at each end and tow left-and-right across the plot. If its skates over the surface put some blocks on the ladder to add weight.

Tread it down to make the seed bed. Wellies on, first foot down, other foot a half-foot in front so heel fits into instep of other foot. First foot forward half-a-foot. Sort of like a shuffle-step. Repeat.

Then rake over to make the seedbed.

Sow the seed using a seed sower. Very uneven doing it by hand. Get an old, large, plastic bag - split it open to get maximum area - or use a tarpaulin. Put it in the garage / out of the wind. Run over an exactly measured length with the sower 10 times (well, the more the better, but count how many times). Carefully tip the grass seed into a container and weight it. Work out how many passes you need to get the required sowing rate. My seed-sower is useless, hardly any seed gets through its little holes! so I have to make about 10 passes ...

Make half the passes front-to-back and the other half left-to-right ... that will even out any bits you miss on a single pass. If you have to make 4, or more, passes then do the front-to-back ones moving the seed sower by only half-a-width each pass - so they overlap.

I put a bucket at each end, and then just walk aiming for the bucket. When I get to the end I move the bucket the width of TWICE the row width (so twice the width of the seed sower if you are only doing 2 passes (front-to-back and left-to-right), ONCE x the width for 4 passes, and so on. After you've been across it a couple of times you won't be able to work out where the wheel tracks are!!

If you see any significant stones you missed, whilst you are sowing, pick them up and chuck them in the bucket at the end of the row

Gently rake over after sowing (I use a springbok rake) so it is a bit covered.

I water it (with a sprinkler) immediately after sowing to "hurry" up the germination (well, actually, I try to sow just before forecast rain ... but if no rain then water it), rather than waiting for rain. I water again every 4 days if no rain in between. It will have germinated in 10 - 14 days, then you can water less frequently.

Once the grass is up a couple of inches, before the first cut, I roll it (mower with a roller with the blades help up, or set high, will do). This makes the grass "tiller"

You need to get a wiggle on, its getting late to sow, and the later you sow the more you will have to water to keep it going in its first summer. If you are in a hosepipe-ban area it would be better not to sow at all, but to wait for Autumn (lawn will establish better if sown in the Autumn because the grass will germinate but the weeds son't, at that time of year, so the grass will have a head start by next Spring). But needs must ...

If you have a hosepipe ban it might be better to turf it, I've seen something that water companies allow watering of Turf for 28 days after laying to get it established. Turf will need watering every couple of days to start with (well, if the weather is Sunny & Warm ). Make sure you water it thoroughly so that the ground UNDER the turf is watered, rather than just the turf, so that the roots go down in search of water. Soil preparation is the same as for seed.

 

P.S. Don't use "luxury bowling green" grass seed unless you want a very smart lawn, and in particular don't use high quality lawn seed varieties if the lawn gets a lot of traffic, you'll struggle to keep them looking good, and a more hard wearing variety would be "easier" (and "essential" if you have kids using it as a foot ball pitch, for example!)

For "luxury" with nice stripes you need a cylinder mower, preferably with a roller, rather than a rotary mower. Its not essential, but you are unlikely to get a smart effect without it, and would be better off not attempting it and going for a seed mix comprising harder wearing grass varieties instead.

Never cut off more than 1/3rd of the height of the grass - i.e. cut if often enough that you can maintain it by only cutting off 1/3rd of the height. If it gets long and shaggy 9whilst you are on holiday) then reduce the height gradually over a couple of weeks by setting the mower blades higher.

 

Wow Kristen what excellent advice

I liked the info on leveling the lawn, ladder weighted and rope, excellent
(I have scratched my head on how to use one of my scaffolding boards to level the soil, when a ladder was staring me in the face all the time)

Cheers

Jack McHammocklashing

 

Thanks again. I tried the ladder thing (weighted with large rocks) and it worked well. So far birds haven't shown any interest. Watering shouldn't be a problem given the rain, hail, snow combination we've just had. Hosepipe ban also not a worry as I'm in Scotland.
Now we wait...