Hey, Callum here, and today I’m going to help you improve your tired worn out or just plain ugly lawn with as little work as possible by a technique the pros use.
I’m going to go through and tell you how to overseed a lawn or overseeding as us pros call it.
You can overseed at different times of the year… today tho I’m going to show you how to overseed your lawn in the springtime.
How To Overseed A Lawn In Springtime
This is the way that most professionals overseed lawns today because we get a good result and it takes the least amount of time.
I’m going to adapt it a little because most of you won’t have the same gear as us. So this way you can do it yourself at home and get the same great results and ultimately give you a better lawn.
Overseeding your lawn is a real professional secret to having it looking great.
The reason why this works is that your lawn is not just one plant. You have to treat it like its a mini forest comprised of millions of individual grass plants.
And just like in a real forest as some trees die, some get diseased or damaged.
On your lawn that results in things like bare spots, yellow grass, and other problems.
So when you overseed you’re lawn you are introducing new plants throughout your existing lawn.
Getting Started
So to do this job just like a professional do we know all the tricks.
We’ve learned how to save time by combining the process of core aeration or lawn aeration with overseeding.
Now if you’re not familiar with aeration, you really should be because aerating your lawn is an excellent thing.
Essentially you’re poking holes in your lawn, but it’s for a good reason.
These holes are going to allow things like water, air, and nutrients to get deeper into the roots and the holes are only temporary.
They will close up in just a few weeks.
But while they’re open, they really help also loosen up the dirt.
And now for the real magic to begin.
When you’ve finished aerating your lawn you are going to go back to your lawn using a regular garden spreader.
This time you’re going to load it with grass seed.
When you spread that grass seed across your lawn many of those seeds will go right into the holes that you just made with that aerator.
In doing it this way can be done at lightning speed and you can still get great results.
The reason is those little holes you just made act like little pot planters for the grass.
They also protect the seed because things like birds cannot get their beaks down deep enough in the holes to eat it.
Birds can be a real problem when seeding your lawn.
A huge population of birds in the area can treat your lawn like its a smorgasbord.
So this is a great advantage that overseeding your lawn after you aerate can really provide.
You can do this entire process and literally just an afternoon and you really can get great results.
When you water your lawn after overseeding with aeration, the water goes directly into those holes.
This does a better job of keeping those new seeds moist also protects the seed from washing away from heavy rains.
Now the best time for the best results for seeding is in the fall because the fall is going to usually offer lower temperatures and more rainfall.
You can overseed in the spring as long as keep an eye on the temperature.
If the temperature skyrockets, you’ll want to be ready to make sure you’re applying enough water to keep the seed moist so that it can grow and germinate.
The other consideration is around weeds because of weeds like the spring better than they like the fall but it doesn’t mean you can’t overseed in the spring.
You totally can, you’ve just got to overseed your lawn and then keep an eye on the weeds and many cases you may not have a lot of weeds at all.
But if you get a huge amount of weeds popping up in those spots you can go ahead and treat them with post-emergent weed control.
That just means that you’re going spot spray the weeds after you see them.
For this, we use a spot sprayer herbicide called Tencity. It works for most weeds included Clover, crabgrass, dandelion and many more.
There are pre-emergent weed controls you can put down with those new seeds.
In my experience, I wouldn’t bother and most professionals don’t either when they’re overseeding an existing lawn.
So save the time and money and just treat the weeds that pop up if any.
This is perfect if you’ve got a lawn that needs a lot of loven and you don’t want spend a lot of time or effort.
You do need to higher the aerator for the day and if you don’t have a seeder one of them too.
Now, you might be thinking about those seeds that didn’t fall into the holes.
Did you just throw your money away because they’re never going grow at all, or the birds are going to get them?
Well, the good news is that many of those seeds will grow on their own.
This is the way most of us professionals do it and get great results.
But if you want to help even more of that seed germinate you can do one last trick now, you’re not going to see many professionals do this.
But as a homeowner, this is something you can easily do.
Just grab your garden rake and you want to go around the lawn.
Don’t rake those cores up don’t even touch them because they will break down in their own due time.
What you’re trying to do is just scratch the surface a bit just so those grass seeds that didn’t fall into the holes will benefit from a little bit of scratching in.
Once you rake a bit those seeds will touch the soil even more and you’ll get a better germination rate.
It’s an extra step you can do but personally, I don’t rake it.
I just allow the overseeding in the aeration holes to do its job.
That concludes how to aerate and overseed lawn
The reason that so many Pros use this method is that it just plain works.
It combines two great processes into one.
Aeration is always good for your lawn and overseeding is the secret to having a great lawn throughout the year.
Now, there are other ways to overseed your lawn.
You can bring in truckloads of dirt tear it up and spend your life to be a slave to your lawn.
If that sounds like you go for it, but for me, that’s not what I want to do.
I want to have a good-looking lawn with the least amount of work, and that’s why I love this method.
So hopefully this has given you another option or some good ideas and a better way to overseed your lawn this spring.
