Grass Lawn - reseed or overseed?
Martin2006
Posts: 3
Hi, I started a new lawn from cheap sod in late March and it mostly died by now, I put some seeds down in May to “overseed” the struggling sod, but it did not work very well. I surely read a million pages on the web about lawn care, but still cannot make up my mind. Do I overseed or reseed/redo the whole lawn which is really tiny little piece of land in the backyard facing north behind the house wall. It gets some 3-4 hours of sun only a bit more in summer, a toddler would want to run there from time to time so I don’t know if this is “heavy traffic” or not?:) Other than that, there was a huge drainage problem two years ago due to a concrete wall (invisible in the picture, under the deck) to stabilize the site which is a very steep slope. It has been solved since with a French drain which works just fine. We live in the suburbs of Tokyo with hot&humid summers and mild winters with little or no snow. Other than that, everything is a struggle since Japanese retail choices for anything are usually 1, 2 or 3. Thus, choosing seeds best suited for the area or even if I could dream, buying specific seed mixes is not the reality here. Well, a picture speaks a thousand words, so here it is. Thanks for any and all help!
Last edited: 17 July 2016 06:39:54
Posts
Hi Martin, I think your problem is from two things. Lack of light and lack of water, in summer especially. North facing is always tricky and you would benefit from having a seed mix suited to shade, but I appreciate that it may not be possible for you. If it gets enough water it may perk up and you could also apply a liquid feed of seaweed if you can source it. It's beneficial for leaf growth on any kind of plant. I don't know what other types of feed you can obtain, but you might find something similar if you can't find that.
If it's going to be a struggle to keep it looking decent, you may have to rethink and have a different surface
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Hi Fairygirl, thanks a lot for your very practical suggestions. I will try to reseed it this fall with the shade tolerant seed mix you suggested. If this doesn't work, we will consider other options. Once again, thank you very, very much!
Yes, I agree, one mistake to avoid the next time around is to NOT cut the grass short, I have read a million pages and basically in shady areas where there is less sunlight to start with, cutting the grass short is counterproductive since the grass blades have less of a change to "catch" the sun being so short. Watering they say should be less frequent but deeper in order to "train" the roots to look for moisture deeper in the soil. If they get more water and more frequently, they will get "lazy" and not grow that deep since there is no need to "look hard" for moisture
Interesting enough, a lot of "grass care" is simply common sense and in my view doing less is better than doing too much. I will reseed the whole area in September since the fundamental problem here turned out to be the wrong kind of sod for this location. Thank you very much time and again!