While you are out looking over your sprinkler system and getting your garden ready for the coming winter, why not reseed your lawn as needed? If you only need to repair small areas, this is also known as overseeding and will help you make your lawn healthier and uniform by filling in any spots that are bare or otherwise problematic.
Why Reseed your lawn This Fall?
Autumn is a good time to get new grass growing and repairing your lawn. As long as you are not doing it at the end of fall, there should be enough time for a strong root structure to be formed and give the grass a chance to store away nutrients for the coming winter dormancy.
You do want to keep an eye out on your local forecasts for frost and be aware of your average first frost date of the year. For example, it is usually around November 1st to 10th here where we are in Yonkers, NY. These dates are not a guarantee of course; frosts may definitely start before or after these dates. They are, however, based on observations of past trends and serve as a good guide when planning your garden tasks. A frost right when seedlings are emerging can be devastating.
The Basics of How to Reseed Your Lawn
It usually is not too hard to get new grass seeds going in the bare spots in your lawn. Start by mowing your lawn, taking away the clippings and adding just a little soil on top so that the new grass seed has somewhere to get started. You don’t want to smother your existing lawn, though, so only use a fraction of an inch. Choose a type of seed that matches or compliments your current grass. Sow the seeds and make sure they get watered lightly a couple of times daily to keep the ground moist enough (not wet) for germination.
You can also totally reseed an entire lawn if it is beyond repair, though you will need to remove the old grass, work to enhance and repair the soil, then get it even and ready for reseeding.
Are you going to reseed your lawn this fall?
Image by anneh632 under a Flickr Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License
