In this article, I’m going to show you how easy it can be to turn a bare patch of land into your very own lush green lawn.

This step-by-step guide will give you all the tools and information needed for sowing grass seed: choosing from high quality seeds and understanding when they need to be planted into the ground to preparing the soil there is no weed interference.

How to Sow Grass Seed

The process of planting a lawn is simple, as the video below from Rolawn explains. However, something that isn’t covered in this video are tips for watering soil in preparation of sowing new seed.

Water the ground to a depth of around 6 inches before sowing your lawn seed; once done, watch the video below for an overview of the seed sowing process.

Learn more: A Simple Guide To Preparing The Ground For Sowing New Seed.

Step 1: Spread the Lawn Seed at the Specified Rate

The specified spread rate for many lawn seed mixes is 35g per square meter.

It’s best to do this with several passes, ensuring you spread the seeds as evenly as possible. If you have a small yard and time permits, it can be done by hand fairly easily; however, I still recommend using a lawn spreader because they tend to provide more coverage than just spreading them manually.

Be careful not to get any seed onto paths / borders. Take care at edges where it’s a good idea to add seed by hand.

Step 2: Rake the Seed into the Soil

Take your landscaping rake and gently mix the seed into the top 12mm – 25mm of soil. Be careful to keep a flat surface, you don’t want any bumps.

Walk the area to ensure the seed makes good contact with the soil.

Step 3: Keep the Ground Moist

It is critical that you keep the soil moist while trying to plant grass seed. If not, there’s a chance it won’t germinate. Too much water though and it could be washed away when watering too forcefully.

To avoid this problem, you can use a sprinkler with an adjustable spray setting and use one which emits a fine spray instead of large streams.

You only need to keep the soil damp to encourage germination. If there is no rain, water for 4 – 5 minutes every day, in the morning and evening. This will give your seed enough moisture so that it can grow without rotting away.

Seeds should start to germinate within 10 – 14 days.

Step 4: Watch Out for Weed Contamination

Weed seeds can be a real problem when you’re trying to grow new grass for your lawn. They become windblown which means that they’ll land on the ground and take root.

The first step is knowing where weeds are most likely to spread from – in this case, we know that weed seeds blow across open spaces such as fields so keep an eye out for any areas of dirt near your home.

Remove any sprouting weeds by hand and never use a weed killer, as your new seeds are too delicate at this stage. Also take care when walking across this area so to avoid damaging the newly cultivated lawn.

Step 5: Mow the Grass

After 5 – 8 weeks, your lawn will start to take shape. Don’t worry if it looks scruffy because that is normal at this stage.

Wait until the grass has grown to 6 cm – 8 cm high and then cut it at its highest setting on your mower which only takes off the top layers of growth. Mowing like this encourages grass shoots to grow sideways for a thicker lawn.

Keep removing any weeds or weed grasses that have snuck into those lush green blades by pulling them up before they spread their invasive roots.

Step 6: Spread More Seed (If Required)

By autumn, your lawn should be looking pretty good.

If you see that there are still some patches of barren soil, don’t worry. You can sow more seeds during the autumn or winter if it isn’t too cold outside.

Grass will germinate at temperatures between 8-12 degrees Celsius so feel free to take advantage anytime over these next few months to sow more seed as required.

Final Verdict

In this guide, I’ve shown you how to plant grass seed and create a new lawn. The process of sowing the seeds is easy but can take weeks or even months depending on what type of seed mixture you use and weather conditions.

Laying turf may be tempting in some cases, but if you’re trying to grow an ornamental lawn, this is the only way as ornamental turfs are not easily found.

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