Hey, I was just hoping to get some forum members thoughts on over seeding ones' yard. I've done it before at my old house. I'm planning on doing it at my new one now, the sod is about 2 1/2 years old. I just had landscaping done (in the middle of the drought here in Iowa) and the bobcat they used basically left the grass looking pretty barren in spots. The vast majority of the yard is full sun. I would typically put down just the seed and some fertilizer... but this year I'm considering putting some compost or maybe some top soil down. Any thoughts on this? I don't want to use the free compost from the city if I go that route because I don't know what's in it and don't really want like a walnut tree suddenly sprouting from the middle of my yard. Any other general thoughts/advice on over seeding would be interesting/helpful also.
Overseeding Feedback
- Thread starter bpmdu
- Start date
I'm gonna try to overseed this year. It'll be my second fall in the house, but first one with my own fert/water regimen.I don't know much about this type of thing, but I don't really see what benefit putting compost down would do.
Composting would just add extra organic material to the soil which would be a good thing to do it you remove the clippings from the yard. It also can increase the water carrying capacity of the soil it is important to have some OM in the soil but adding it isn't really 100% necessary. Compost is just really a cheaper way to fertilize a yard and add nutrients back to the soil. To the OP's question over seeding is always a good way to go with a yard just make sure you have a P N and K in the yard to support it.
I overseeded a portion of my yard late this spring. I thought it pretty much impossible to do more with little kids running around. It is a fairly shady area that had gotten pretty barren in spots. I raked it and added just a little bit of top soil to make sure the seed had an easy time finding a foothold to germinate. I also put up a perimeter to try to keep the kids off it until it got a chance to establish. The shade mix I used seemed to help quite a bit. Unfortunately pretty much as soon as I got it to the point of mowing I received notice that the City was doing water work and would be tearing up that part of my yard. I finally got some sod patches yesterday.
I guess I really didn't do anything special with fertilizer. Just my normal routine timed so that it was before the overseeding process and after it had been mowed a couple of times.
I guess I really didn't do anything special with fertilizer. Just my normal routine timed so that it was before the overseeding process and after it had been mowed a couple of times.
