Gardening: A step-by-step guide to reseeding your lawn
Each spring, when daytime temperatures warm and lawn grasses begin to turn green, most homeowners head outdoors to start working on lawn maintenance tasks, including reseeding bare spots in the lawn and sometimes a complete renovation of the home lawn.
Unfortunately, hot and dry spring and summer weather are not the most conducive times of the year for grass seedlings to develop root systems and become established before the ground freezes.
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In Greater Columbus, the absolute best time of the year to plant cool-season lawn grasses is in early September. And the weather that we have been experiencing the past few weeks, with adequate soil moisture and cooler soil and air temperatures, means that conditions this September are just about perfect to reseed bare spots or even completely renovate home lawns.
Cool-season plants
It is important to remember that lawn grasses are cool-season plants, which means that they thrive in the cooler temperatures and moist soil conditions of spring and late fall, as opposed to the hot, dry summer months. That explains why you can hardly keep your grass neat and trim in April and October with a weekly mowing, but can stretch out that mowing to every 10 days or more during the dog days of summer, when cool-season grasses can stop actively growing.
If you are seeding Kentucky bluegrass, planting by Sept. 15 is optimal. Other species of cool-season lawns grasses such as perennial ryegrass or fine fescue can be planted as late as Sept. 30. Most homeowners will seed a mixture with a blend of these grasses, so aiming to seed by Sept. 15 should be your goal.
For a complete listing of different turfgrass species for home lawns and their characteristics under different environmental conditions and management strategies, go to: go.osu.edu/turfgrassspecies.
Preparing the seedbed
In order to get new grass seedlings off to a good start, be sure to remove weeds and thatch from the area to be seeded. If the areas to be reseeded have large populations of weeds, consider applying a contact herbicide such as glyphosate to kill the weeds, and then remove the remaining weed stubble. If you are overseeding into thin stands of desirable grasses, mow these stands down shorter than you normally would to allow for good seed-to-soil contact and maximum sunlight for seed germination.
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Bare soils, which may be crusted over or even compacted, should be scored by scraping the top one or two inches of the soil surface with a bow rake or garden hoe. A thick layer of compost can be added to the top of the soil surface before seeding for added fertility and organic matter. Straw is not needed to cover most new seedings and can actually impede germination when applied too thick.
Be ready to irrigate
Although rainfall has been adequate the past couple of months, and rainfall is typically more predictable in the fall months, new grass seedings require adequate soil moisture each week so that they can develop root systems and root reserves needed to survive the coming winter. If soil begins to dry out and rainfall is not received, be sure to use a lawn sprinkler to adequately water new seedings each week. New seedings will require about 1 inch of rain or irrigation each week. This is especially important if air temperatures reach the high 80s or even 90 degrees, which is not uncommon in September and October.
Don’t be afraid to mow
When new seedings grow to a height of 2 ½ to 3 inches, mowing of these stands should commence. This is typically three weeks after seeding if soil moisture has been adequate. You want to be sure that you mow new seedings before new plants begin laying down on the ground forming a mat. Be careful when turning the lawn mower, particularly with riding mowers, as young grass seedlings can easily be torn from the seedbed before their root systems are fully established.
It is best to mow new seedings with a sharp blade, so get that mower blade sharpened now, and you will be ahead of the game for next spring.
With a little effort this fall, your lawn will be lush, green, and healthy next spring and you’ll spend more time on your patio swing and less time caring for the lawn.
Mike Hogan is an associate professor at Ohio State University and an educator at the OSU Extension.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Fall is the best time of year to reseed your lawn. Here's a guide
