Every homeowner dreams of a garden with the perfect lawn. Sadly, the reality for many is more like a nightmare. Bald spots, patchy growth and stubborn weeds are just a few of the many problems that keen gardeners are often plagued with.

The problem is that many novice gardeners don’t know that soil type, seed type and local climate (the typical weather patterns for your area) have a significant impact on the quality of any lawn.

Regardless of your garden or how you tend it, we’ve tested the best grass seeds available for every lawn type, whether you need a lawn that is hardwearing or purely ornamental.

In a few short months, you’ll be the proud owner of the lawn you’ve always dreamt of.

SUPERSTAR Grass Seed

The Grass People SUPERSTAR Grass Seed

Best Overall

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GroundMaster Lawn Seed

GroundMaster Grass Seed

Great Value

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GBW Premium Grass Seed

GBW Grass Seed

Great Alternative

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Best Grass Seed UK Reviews

If you’ve researched grass seed, you will have discovered there are hundreds of different seed mixtures and products available.

My recommendations are based on grass type, price, germination rates and appearance. I also have years of experience buying and using grass seed.

Here is my list of the best grass seeds you can buy right now:

The Grass People SUPERSTAR: 10kg Grass Seed

The Grass People’s SUPERSTAR seed is an all-purpose grass seed that is suited to most climates across the UK. This means that it grows in wet, dry and even shaded environments throughout the year.

This seed has been specially cultivated for the lushest and greenest of lawns that are also hardwearing, making them perfect for children and pets.

This is achieved through a mixture of 80% Perennial Ryegrass and 20% Strong Creeping Red Fescue. Once sown, it germinates in less than a week (in wet soil, dry soil and shade) and is usually ready for the first cut in less than 5 weeks, making this a great product for those who need to transform their lawns quickly.

The 10kg bag of sowing grass seed offers good value for money and is sufficient to cover an area of up to 200m2, more than enough for most homes in the UK.

If you’re looking for an all-round grass seed that won’t disappoint, we recommend The Grass People as the SUPERSTAR is the best grass seed you can buy for most gardens.

GroundMaster Hard Wearing Premium Lawn Seed

This fantastic seed from GroundMaster germinates quickly and begins to come through in a matter of days to produce a dense and healthy lawn.

Similarly versatile to the SUPERSTAR seed, this one is suitable for a variety of conditions including the typical shade as well as dry conditions due to its Perennial Ryegrass / Strong Creeping Red Fescue mix. We found it to germinate at around 5 to 10 days before continuing to grow and produce a full lawn in up to 6 weeks. The result? A lush green hardwearing lawn that will withstand anything your dog or other pets have to throw at it.

The 10kg bag provides coverage for an area of up to 300m2 which is great value for money and should ensure you have a little leftover if you need to “top up” in the future. A strong candidate for the best lawn seed available.

GBW Premium Grass Seed

GBW’s grass seed is tailored to the UK climate and works particularly well in wet and shaded areas.

This grass seed is a mix of several species which give it a few additional characteristics over the first two products. The most important being its ability to grow in the most difficult of conditions and environments. Additionally, this seed produces a fine soft grass that remains hardwearing and will stand up to frequent use.

The specific seed blend comprises of 43% Dwarf Amenity Ryegrass, 40% Creeping Red Fescue, 12% Chewings Fescue and 5% Brown Top Bent. Perfect for both droughts and the wettest of conditions as well as being one of the best grass seeds for shade.

Due to the small 1kg bag, you are best using this seed to reseed an existing lawn or for patch repair purposes if you’re experiencing bald patches and spots. If you are using this for a new lawn, the coverage area of 35m2 is enough for smaller gardens.

If you’ve struggled to grow a full, healthy lawn in the past, give this seed a go and let us know how you get on.

Speedy Seed Grass Lawn Seed

Speedy Seed’s hard-wearing grass seed comes in a 1400g packet which makes this a good grass seed for gardeners looking to create a small lawn or large lawn or revitalise and refresh a small to large sized lawn.

The common lawn seed blend of Perennial Rye Grasses and Strong Creeping Red Fescue results in a healthy looking green and durable lawn. This seed grows as quickly as most others and soon thickens in coverage to provide a dense, thick area of grass.

This is the best grass seed for small lawns and works well for patching and thickening your existing lawns.

Speedy Seed Lawn Seed

A1Lawn Top Quality Grass Seed

Our final product is a grass seed that provides exceptional value for money and a lawn you’ll be proud of for years to come.

This is achieved through a grass seed blend of 50% Dwarf Perennial Ryegrass and 50% Strong Creeping Red Fescue. Once grown, it feels softer than some of the higher ryegrass blends and that’s a feature we love. The end product is a lawn that will withstand frequent use by children and pets but is soft and luxurious enough to lie on when the weather allows.

The delivered 10kg bag of seed contains enough to cover 285m2 which is where much of the value comes from. Depending on the size of your garden, you won’t have to buy another bag of seeds for years.

A great value for money pick that will provide dense grass growth in most British weather and soil conditions.

A1Lawn Grass Seed

Buying the Best Grass Seed for Your Lawn

The type of grass seed you need depends on both the soil conditions of your garden and climate of your geographical area. Certain species of grass thrive in wet conditions whereas others prefer a drier climate.

Whether your lawn is shaded or has dircect sun exposure is also important as some grass seeds grow better in shade.

The phrase ‘best grass seed’ can mean different things to different people. The best for one garden or lawn might not be the best for yours.

So how do you choose?

There are four main types of grass seed and each is different. We’ve covered these differences in more detail in other articles on this site.

To put it simply, these are the factors you need to consider;

How You Use Your Lawn

  • If it needs with withstand regular play by children, choose a hard-wearing seed mix.
  • For a more luxurious lawn that will also withstand moderate wear and tear, a multi-purpose lawn seed will be the most suitable.
  • If you have an ornamental lawn that is purely aesthetic and won’t see much use, choose an ornamental seed blend.

Your Lawn Environment

What is your soil type? Is it loamy, sandy soil or clay? What is the pH level?

How is the weather and climate where you live?

If you don’t know or aren’t interested in finding out, choose a lawn seed mix that contains rye grasses as they grow in most types of soil and weather conditions. A multi-purpose or hard-wearing seed mixture is going to be best.

Do you want or have an ornamental lawn that contains fescues and bent grasses? These grass varieties grow better in sandy, more acidic soils.

Is your lawn covered by shade, whether buildings, trees or bushes? A shady lawn seed might be your only choice unless you can increase the amount of light the lawn receives.

Grass Seed Quality

Lawn seeds are simply seeds and no one seed is better than any other. When we refer to quality, we’re referring to the purity of the seed mixes.

If an ornamental seed mix claims to contain 50% Browntop Bent (Common Bent) and 50% Chewings Fescue, then it really should only contain those grass species.

EU regulations legislate that a grass seed mix should be at least 70% – 80% pure. That of course leaves up to 20% – 30% of potential contamination from other grass types and / or weed seeds.

Poorer quality seed mixes only tend to meet the minimum requirements. We suggest avoiding these products as they could result in growing lawns that aren’t as you expected.

The best quality seed will meet the Higher Voluntary Standard drafted by the Seed Marketing Regulations Act 2011. That means it will have a purity of around 96.5%.

To put your mind at ease, all of the seeds I’ve recommended here are of the highest quality and have been formally approved by DEFRA and / or the Sports Turf Research Institute.

Weed Control

If you’re currently battling the growth of tough weeds, it’s a great idea to remove them before laying new grass seed. Strong weed killers are readily available online and from retail stores so make sure to get rid of those weeds and give your new lawn the best chance at growth.

If you find that moss has started to appear throughout your lawn, you will need to use a lawn scarifier as well as a good moss killer to remove it and ensure it doesn’t return.

Mowing Your Lawn

Cutting your lawn is a vital part of keeping it healthy as blades of grass have an ideal length depending on season or time of the year.

Be sure to buy a decent mower by taking a look at some of the best petrol lawn mowers available.

Feeding Your Lawn

Providing your lawn with a high quality source of nutrients is just as important as sowing new seeds. Once your lawn has matured if recently sown or you’ve filled in all of the patchy areas, you should feed it with a good lawn fertiliser.

We reviewed the best lawn feed in one of our lawn care guides. Once you’ve bought yours, feed your lawn every three months so that it can benefit from nutrients such as nitrogen and potassium. You will quickly notice that your lawn grows thicker and is greener than ever.

Final Verdict

Enjoying the use and beauty of a respectable looking lawn shouldn’t be difficult. We all want a healthy and vibrant green lawn but finding the best grass seed for your garden can leave even the most enthusiastic lawn owners confused.

We know that gardeners often struggle with growing a lawn they can say they’re proud of but the seeds we’ve tested here will make that process much easier.

Hopefully this guide will have helped you choose the best lawn seed for your requirements and gardening style. You can either take our top pick or choose the seed most suited to your needs, but we guarantee you’ll end up with the best-looking lawn you’ve ever had.

Remember, different grasses can be added to an existing lawn to give it a different look or improved characteristics such as better resilience.

As an example, you can add shady lawn seed to patchy areas of your lawn that are in shade for most of the time. You could also add ornamental seed to a general-purpose lawn to give it a finer, higher quality appearance.

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