When and how to plant grass seed

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Gardening season is upon us and many will be looking to spruce up their lawns over the coming months. If you’ve noticed your lawn is lacking its usual lustre, you may be tempted to purchase some new turf. However, it’s also possible to achieve a beautiful new garden lawn using grass seed. There are plenty of different types of grass seed out there to suit every garden’s needs.

When can you plant grass seed?

According to the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), seed germinates best when it is warm and there is plenty of moisture.

Lawn seed also grows better when the weather isn’t too cold or too hot.

For this reason, it’s best to plant grass seeds in either early autumn or in mid-spring.

The RHS website explains: “Germination should take between seven and 10 days and seedlings will become established before the first severe frosts in late autumn, this is the preferred time as the roots establish better through the winter.

“Sowing seed in spring, grass will want to flower quite early before roots have established.”

The BBC’s Gardening Guide for growing grass explains the best time to sow grass seed is late summer to mid-autumn.

However, in lieu of this, mid-spring is also an optimum time to grow grass.

Just make sure you give the new grass plenty of water to allow it to flourish.

How do you plant grass seed?

Once you have decided exactly where you would like to grow your new lawn, you can get started on preparing the area.

Remove any weeds and any remaining sparse grass from the area before roughly levelling it off.

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BBC Gardening states you should fork over the site and rake level it to leave a “fine finish”, before firming the soil by walking over it and raking again.

Then a few days before sowing the seed, you should lightly rake in a granular fertiliser.

Check the grass seed packet to find out how much of the seed to sow.

The amount of grass seed you need to use may differ depending on the brand or type of grass seed you are sowing.

Scatter half the grass seed in one direction, and scatter the remaining seed in the opposite direction.

Then all that is left is to lightly rake the area, to make sure the seeds are well distributed.

Give the area a good water and keep an eye on it for a few days.

With any luck, some grass seedlings will start to shoot up and your brand new lawn is in the works.

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