Best time to lay grass seed

Exactly When to Plant Grass Seed in Spring

Wondering when to plant grass seed in spring for ideal results? Discover the best times and perfect seeding schedule for your region, plus our top tips.

Reviews by This Old House Reviews Team 03/21/2023 9:29 am

Planting grass seed is an efficient way to create a fuller and greener lawn that gives your home an appealing look and provides a lush environment for outdoor fun. However, you can’t throw down seeds at any time and expect perfect results. Grass seeding should be completed at the right time to ensure proper germination and growth in your lawn.

For many people, springtime is the season for completing yard work and other outdoor projects. You’ll need to know the proper time for grass seeding in the spring to get the best results. Read on to learn more about the factors that influence seeding times, how to prepare your lawn for planting, and how to maintain growth throughout the year.

Factors That Influence Seeding Times

While many homeowners have a lawn care schedule in the spring, it’s not enough to just complete seeding at any point during the season. To ensure proper growth, you should consider your location as well as the type of grass you have, as these factors influence the right seeding conditions.

Location

Your location impacts your climate, which in turn affects the type of grass you lay down and when it should be seeded. For example, many parts of the south use warm-season grasses to handle the temperate climate that prevails all year long. Other parts of the country, such as the midwest and far north, experience freezing temperatures that require cool-season grasses.

Warm-Season Grasses

Unsurprisingly, warm-season grasses thrive in warmer climates. These grasses, including Bahia grass, Bermuda grass, zoysia grass, centipede grass, St. Augustine, and other turfgrasses, germinate in air temperatures above 80 degrees Fahrenheit.

If you live in an area of the country where temperatures stay fairly consistent year round, you can typically plant warm-season grasses from early spring to late fall. However, if your yard experiences the highs and lows of traditional seasons, be sure to plant your grass in late spring or early summer.

Cool-Season Grasses

Cool-season grasses, including Kentucky bluegrass, tall fescue, fine fescue, and perennial ryegrass, fare better in areas of the country with temperate summers and chilly winters. This type of grass is dormant during the winter and grows during the fall and spring. It’s recommended that you plant your cool-season grass seed in late summer or early fall before temperatures dip below freezing.

Weather

In addition to the temperature, which impacts the season you should plant your cool- or warm-season grass, it’s also important to keep an eye on other weather conditions. For example, light rain may help seeds grow, though a heavy pour could wash seeds away. Check the radar to ensure a heavy storm isn’t approaching your area in the days after seeding.

In a similar vein, be sure to plant your seeds when the ground is sturdy and free of mud puddles, which can lead to disease. You’ll also want to avoid windy weather. Just as rain can wash seeds away, heavy winds can push newly-spread seeds across your existing lawn.

If perfecting this timing sounds overly complex, full-service lawn companies such as TruGreen lawn care can attend to seeding and fertilizing your lawn on the right schedule.

How to Prepare Your Lawn

While timing is important when seeding your lawn, preparation is also key. Readying your lawn ensures that your soil is ready to promote new grass seed germination and growth. Preparing your yard consists of multiple steps, including actions like leveling your lawn, testing your soil, and aeration. Take a closer look at each step of the process below.

Level the Lawn

Before planting new seed, it’s important to remove any inconsistencies in your lawn, such as rocks and debris. Additionally, be sure to level the various peaks and valleys in your yard with a soil mixture that consists of sand, topsoil, and compost. Don’t just use topsoil, as this fresh mixture may contain weed seeds and other harmful nutrients.

Address Bare Spots

Bare spots pop up in lawns for a variety of reasons, such as heavy foot traffic, drought, and insect infestations. Once you’ve identified the brown spots in your lawn, you can prepare them for overseeding by digging up the area, mixing in new topsoil, and using a rake to level the ground. From there, the bare spot is ready for seeding. To help prevent future bare patches, you can apply a pre-emergent herbicide in conjunction with a fertilizer to prevent weed germination.

Test Your Soil

Much of a seed’s growth depends on the pH levels of your soil. Since every lawn’s pH is different, testing your soil is important to determine if it’s acidic, neutral, or basic. Based on these results, you’ll know which minerals and nutrients your soil is missing. Many home improvement stores, such as Lowe’s or Home Depot, sell simple five- or six-step DIY soil testing kits. If you prefer to use a professional, many full-service companies will do it for you.

Try Aeration

When your soil has become stagnant and compacted, it’s time to aerate your lawn. This loosens your tightly-packed soil and helps with weed control while fighting the stress from droughts. Try simple DIY methods like garden forks or aerator shoes for a lower cost of aeration. However, for more tightly compacted soil, you may want to use lawn care professionals.

Use Fertilizer

Fertilizing provides new lawns with concentrated nutrients needed while establishing a strong root system. Cool-season grasses should be fertilized using a spreader in the fall, while warm-season grasses can be fertilized throughout the summer. Many homeowners choose a starter fertilizer, which uses nutrients to meet the needs of growing seeds until the root system develops.

Maintaining Your Spring Seeding

It’ll take some time to see results. Cool-season grasses will begin to germinate in five to seven days, while warm-season grasses can take up to three weeks.

Here are some tips on how to nourish your grass as it grows:

Be patient with grass that’s in the shade, as these seeds will take longer to germinate.
Water your lawn regularly but don’t overwater, as this will damage the growing grass.
Wait until at least two months have passed before mowing your grass. Grass will be around three inches in height when it’s ready to be cut.
Compost kitchen and garden waste to add nutrients to your growing lawn.

Our Conclusion

Timing is everything when it comes to seeding your lawn. If you have cool-season grass, aim to start seeding in late summer or early fall before freezing air and soil temperatures hit your area. Start the seeding process in the late spring or early summer for warm-season grass.

No matter which type of grass you want to grow, be sure to continue lawn care even after the initial planting. If this process sounds too time-intensive, you may want to consider a lawn care service to seed, fertilize, and maintain your yard throughout the year. Our recommendation is TruGreen, a provider that offers comprehensive services and seeding.

Frequently Asked Questions

Our Rating Methodology

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When is the best and worst time to seed your lawn?

When is the best time of year to seed? What about the the worst time? Here’s the answer from best to worst:

1) Most successful

The last five weeks of summer to early autumn, pending the weather, is the best time of year to seed. At this time, day and nighttime temperatures are cooling, dew is more present on lawns, and annual broadleaf weeds and crabgrass are dying. This means new turf can easily establish with little to no competition. If you’re going to seed, this is absolutely the best time of year to do it. Don’t miss your opportunity otherwise you’ll be waiting an entire year for the next window to open.

When you do seed, watch it closely. Kentucky bluegrass mix can take upwards of 4 to 6 weeks to fully emerge while perennial rye can take 1 to 2 weeks. If you seed during drought conditions, and the seed doesn’t take, don’t hesitate to seed again. Getting something established before the ground freezes is paramount and will make a big difference in what you’re able to do with the new turf the subsequent spring. The thicker your turf is in the fall, the better it’ll hold crabgrass pre-emergent the following year.

2) Mid-autumn

By mid-October your window to seed is usually rapidly closing. A mixed bag of seed or hydroseed can take upwards of 4 to 6 weeks to emerge and establish itself to the point that it’s able to survive the winter. Remember, at this stage in the turf’s life it’s not all about the blade…it’s about its root system. The harder the soil (due to it being frozen) the more difficult it is for roots to penetrate deep underground. At this time of year use perennial rye grass, which grows faster.

3) Early spring

Early spring is second to last on this list for a few reasons. Yes, the seed is likely to grow just fine because of the typically wet, cool weather. However, here’s the caveat: Under many circumstances, pre-emergent crabgrass control and broadleaf weed control will negatively impact the new turf. It can also be challenging to near impossible to keep young turf alive through the brutal New England summer. We do not recommend aerating and overseeding (or renovating) an entire lawn at this time of year. While aerating is beneficial, the process can actually pull weed seeds from the soil depths to the surface, exacerbating weed problems. However, if you want to patch up a few small spots, this may be a fine time to do so.

4) Late spring (May/June) – late July/early August

There is little to no long-term success when seeding an entire lawn or large sections of your property at this time of year. Doing so could set your lawn back a few to several years. You’ll be constantly battling crabgrass and weeds.

If you’re overseeding, keep the following in mind:

Always aerate before you overseed. The seed germinates in the plugged holes which presents a cool, wet, soft, and favorable growing environment. Little to no seed establishes when placed directly on top of soil that hasn’t been cultivated.
It may take upwards of 2 to 3 years to see the full results from a single aeration/overseeding as new grass emerges from the holes and the canopy of already existing turf thickens.
If you’re patching up small areas of your lawn, loosen up existing soil and apply top soil. This will give the new seed a better chance to take root. Otherwise, it’s like trying to plant grass on concrete.
Just because new seed emerges in the fall it doesn’t mean it’ll survive the following year without proper care. For example, if you forget about it several months later, it’s very unlikely to make it through the summer. This turf needs to stay well-watered and manicured.
It’s not uncommon to have to seed areas of your lawn that succumbs to summer heat or general wear and tear. Adhering to the tips presented here will give your lawn the best chance of success.

We service parts of Norfolk and Bristol County, Massachusetts. Towns include Foxborough, Mansfield, Wrentham, Walpole, Plainville, Franklin, Stoughton, Sharon, Canton, North Attleborough, Atteleboro, Norfolk, Easton, Norton and Norwood. Learn more about each of the services we provide.

How to determine the time for sowing lawn grass? – Lawn info

The process of creating a beautiful and well-groomed lawn is quite complex and depends on many factors. So, you need to properly prepare the soil, choose the right herbal mixture for your site. But even after doing all the preparatory steps correctly, you can not get the desired result if you do not correctly determine the time for sowing grass.

Theoretically, the lawn can be sown from April to October, but in practice, everything is somewhat more complicated. So, June-July may turn out to be too dry and hot period, April and October are also not entirely safe. At this time, frosts can already occur, which will be detrimental to young and weak crops.

Thus, you need to focus on the climatic conditions in which you live and choose the most favorable time. Most experts agree that the best time to sow a lawn is late summer - early autumn.

Contents

These terms are considered the most optimal due to a number of reasons:

This season is usually characterized by a moderate temperature regime, favorable for the formation of plants.
Abundant morning dew, which is typical for this time of year, provides optimal conditions for soil moisture and air.
Weeds do not grow so strongly and actively.
The root system of the grass has time to form and get stronger before the onset of cold weather.

Compliance with these conditions ensures a quick establishment of the lawn, a good formation of the root system, as well as a uniform formation of shoots.

In addition, these favorable conditions reduce seed consumption by providing sufficient nutrition and the development of strong winter-hardy grasses.

But there are other effective options for sowing seeds.

Winter sowing

This option involves planting seeds in cold soil (about 0 C), according to the name, it is produced in the pre-winter time. Such sowing provides sufficient natural stratification of seeds, which makes them more resistant to external adverse factors. This planting option is recommended for areas where trees grow.

The disadvantage of this planting option is that severe winter frosts often lead to lawn damage as some seeds lose their viability. Of course, the affected areas can be neutralized in the spring by adding grass and mulching.

Spring sowing

Sowing a lawn in the spring looks very tempting at first glance, as it provides a quick decorative effect. You have sown the grass and you can see the results of your efforts soon enough. But, as practice shows, this option of sowing very often has many problems in the subsequent care and maintenance of the lawn.

Lawn grasses sown in the spring often suffer from drought damage. In the spring, the soil can quickly lose its moisture reserves, which affects your lawn. Accordingly, in order to get a beautiful lawn, you will need to pay more attention and effort to caring for it, ensuring regular watering.

Seed consumption in the spring also increases, and the active growth of aggressive weeds becomes an additional problem.

Whichever seeding option you choose, there are a few additional conditions that must be met:

Plant the lawn on a quiet, dry day. Strong winds can blow the seeds out of the ground, and excessively moist soil will not allow the seeds to be evenly distributed over the site.
The plot must be prepared in advance (approximately 1-2 months in advance) for sowing. To do this, you need to add peat and organic fertilizers to your top soil.

If the weather conditions were favorable, the first shoots appear already on the 10-15th day. Be prepared for the fact that at first they will be uneven. The overall picture can be assessed only on the 20-25th day. If there are still unsprouted areas at this time, you can start seeding the lawn.

Tags: All about lawns Author: A.Gazonov 02/24/2016

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When is it better to sow the lawn: timing, soil preparation, sowing features

The emerald carpet of lawn grass has long been an attribute of a well-groomed modern garden. Grassy areas are ideal for creating children's playgrounds, filling curvilinear non-standard areas that violate the overall composition of the garden. Often, lawns are used for grassing garden areas so that the soil under the trees retains moisture longer. Of particular charm are Moorish lawns with a scattering of bright colors.

This lawn carpet does not require mowing, it changes its pattern during the season, thanks to annual and perennial flower crops that open their buds at different times. Many gardeners, in order to save money, grow different types of lawns on their own, using seeds. In order for the grass carpet to please with its beauty and well-groomed surface, it is necessary to sow in the proper time, which we will discuss in more detail in this article.

Do-it-yourself lawns: subtleties and agricultural cultivation techniques

If we talk about the timing of sowing lawns, you can see that this operation can be performed from April to October, although each season has some restrictions, especially summer.

Spring: lawn sowing dates

In spring, all types of lawn grasses can be sown in a previously prepared area, if bald spots or depressions are found, such problems are easily solved and corrected during the season by sowing the seeds again in the corrected area.

Sowing lawn grass seeds in spring should be timed to the period from mid-April to the end of May. Arranging a lawn in the spring has its positive aspects:

During this period of time, the grass sprouts quickly, because the garden soil is still filled with moisture after the snow melts, so intensive watering is not necessary.
With problematic germination, there is always time to correct the mistakes made.
The annual flowers that make up the Mauritanian lawn have time to get stronger and fully bloom, while perennials and lawn grasses form strong bushes.
The grass that has grown from spring has time to take root well in the soil, to get stronger, so it overwinters well.

For sowing lawn grass seeds, choose a quiet cloudy day, it is important that the snow has completely melted. The surface of the site is carefully leveled, because irrigation and rain water will accumulate in the hollows and hollows, which can lead to decay of weak seedlings. Tender grass shoots quickly clog tall weeds, which not only block sunlight, but also quickly deplete the site. Before sowing the lawn, the area should be treated against the germination of weeds, as well as the timely removal of aggressive grasses.

Spring seeding of the lawn seems to be the most optimal, but it is not quite so. Sowing seeds in moist soil and their rapid germination before the onset of heat is of course pleasing, but already in May it will be necessary to carefully water the area with the sown lawn, because with the onset of heat, moisture evaporates more intensively, so there may be uneven moistening and partial attacks of grass cover.

Important! When sowing a lawn in the spring, be aware that seed consumption may increase.

Summer: can I sow the lawn or is it better to wait?

In summer, sowing a lawn is quite problematic, especially in the southern regions, where the thermometer goes off scale at around +40 C. Under such conditions, the top layer of the earth, where the seeds are located, dries up quickly, which forces frequent watering.

In the summer, you can correct errors, sow the lawn on "bald" places, where for some reason the grass did not sprout or died.

If the temperature in your area is rather moderate in summer, the forecasters do not promise heavy rains, you can sow lawn grass seeds in the period from the end of June to the first half of July. You should be prepared for intensive and frequent watering of seeded lawns.

Sowing lawn grass in autumn

Have you opted for sowing lawn in autumn? Do not delay the process until frost. The best time to plant a lawn in the fall is early September. At this time, the first autumn rains have already saturated the soil with moisture, the intense heat subsided, so the young grass bushes will have time to take root well.

It is not worth delaying sowing, even planning lawn plantings for the beginning of October can be considered late.

But at a temperature of about 0 C, winter sowing of lawn mixtures can be carried out. In this case, one should not wait for seedlings to germinate in autumn, they will appear only in spring, and the winter period will serve for the natural stratification of seeds. You should not expect that the grass that appears will be an ideal green carpet - in winter, part of the seeds freezes out, so the bald spots will have to be repaired in the spring.

Important! Whatever time of year you plan to plant your lawn, the site should be prepared 1-2 months in advance.

Preparing the site for seeding the lawn

The first thing to do when preparing the site for the lawn is to remove the debris. It is necessary to uproot all dried garden plants that interfere with the arrangement of the site. All stones, debris, weeds, leaves and tops of garden plants are removed from the surface.

Particular attention should be paid to the presence of stones, concrete blocks, bricks and reinforced concrete structures immersed in the ground. When cultivating the soil with mechanisms, cutting the grass cover, such hidden objects can damage the equipment.

If the site has been abandoned before, a lot of weeds grew on it, it is worth removing the top layer of earth with sod and laying it in a heap for overdrying. It is worth getting rid of weeds drastically, it may be necessary to carry out chemical treatment of the site.

Digging

The soil in the area reserved for sowing the lawn is dug very carefully. On one bayonet, shovels dig up areas that have already been used for growing plants. Virgin areas are dug up for 2 bayonets of a shovel, turning and loosening the soil. During digging, sand, peat, mineral fertilizers are added to the garden soil (ammonium nitrate and superphosphate are added at the rate of 40 g per 1 m2, potassium sulfate - 30 g per 1 m2).

If the site is dominated by soil with an alkaline reaction - peat should be added, with an acidic one - lime, dolomite flour or chalk are added to the ground. Compacted dense and heavy soil is corrected by adding manure or biohumus.

If groundwater is close to the surface in the area, it is worth arranging drainage.

After digging, the area is carefully leveled and harrowed, then compacted with a roller or trampled down with feet (in small areas). The compacted soil on the site is slightly loosened with a rake, after which it is left fallow for 1-2 months.

Fresh soil will invariably overgrow with weeds, which must be periodically removed to prevent insemination. If you cover the area with geotextiles, the germination of weeds will be restrained.

During the period of rest under the influence of precipitation, the earth on the site will partially settle, after 2 months it will be clearly visible where it is necessary to pour the soil.

Immediately before sowing lawn grass, the area is loosened again.

Features of sowing lawn grass mixtures

To calculate the need for seeds, use the information on the package - the manufacturer clearly indicates the required number of seeds per 1 m2, but the extreme conditions of hot summer or snowless winter are not taken into account, therefore, for spring-summer sowing, it is worth purchasing 10-15 seeds % more than the norm, for winter sowing - 25-30% more than the recommended standard.

Important! Pay attention to the purpose of the lawn, do not sow a sunny area with grass mixture for shady places, but sow grasses in the shade that prefer to grow in the sun.

Seeding can be carried out manually and with special devices. For sowing, use a seeder.

When sowing by hand, the following rules should be followed:

Grass seeds are mixed with dry sand at a ratio of 1:1.
First, sowing seeds is carried out along the plot, then across.
The edges are sown thicker than the middle, about 2 times.
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