Should I reseed my lawn in October

ohagan_2000KuK_IN7S

Hi, I scariffied my lawn for the first time about 1 week ago,using the Bosch AVR 1100 vertical cutter. It's true what the Youtube videos say,it took 20 sturdy black bin bags of the result to the dump. It's recommended to do 2 cuts with the scarifier but this being the first time I didn't to damage the lawn and did only one.

Is it too late to reseed the lawn now then wait until spring or crack on and get the seed down now.
I've about 370 square metre of lawn and will be using Blackstar Back Lawn Grass Seed form the Grass Seed people. The recommended rate is 35 g per m2 so I should use about 14kg of seed,I got a 20 kg bag so I won't run out and have some spare. But I'm not sure how to do it,any idea's.Thanks.

ohagan_2000KuK_IN7S

Sorry,I live in Co.Armagh.

K67

Can't say what your area is like temperature wise but they reseeded some verges on our road a few weeks back and you can still see the seed sitting there. Weeds are going well though

ohagan_2000KuK_IN7S

Thanks,it's gotten cold  here at night,not frost but far off so it mightn't be warm enough.

Fairygirl

I certainly couldn't seed here at this time of year. I don't know how different your climate is, but bearing in mind that it takes around 14 days to germinate in warmer conditions, you'd need to think about whether it's feasible to do it. Grass seed needs to be in temps that are reasonably consistently at mid teens at least.

With regard to doing the seeding, it's worth marking out 1 metre squares, and weighing out the amount per sq metre into a container, that you can mark, to make it easy. You'd then seed going in one direction, and then do it again in the opposite direction. You'll find that you get a feel for how thickly you spread the seed.

ohagan_2000KuK_IN7S

Hi,thanks for that,I'm starting to think of waiting for spring,your climate and mine would be similar, The grass seed was £90 for 20kg so I don't want to take the risk of the seeds not germinating.
That sound like a good method of spreading the seed. I have an Evergreen Easy Spreader for fertilizer but it doesn't spread it very evenly.
Thanks for your help.

Fairygirl

It's more of a problem if you over do the weed and feed, but it doesn't matter quite so much for seed. The cost is a big factor though 
It might be a bit milder where you are, but cold wet soil is hopeless for grass seed anyway, even if you don't get lots of frosts etc. It would be a shame if you lost a lot of seed. It's not as if it would be miles ahead even if it germinated now 

ohagan_2000KuK_IN7S

You must be psychic  ,I used weed and feed about 4 weeks ago,a mistake I now realise if i wanted to reseed so another reason to wait til spring.

Do you ever aerate your lawn or put sand on it?

Fairygirl

Ah - yes you need to wait a while [about 6 weeks] as the weed killer bit will inhibit germination, so definitely too late. 
I'm not too bothered about my grass. It gets very little attention. The front was just largely weeds when I moved in, so it had a weed and feed each spring, and regular mowing. Not much else. That's about all it gets now.  It's largely north facing, so gets mossy in winter, but improves by late spring/summer. The back was all gravel/slabs, so I created some grass there.  I made sure there was sharp drainage because of our climate, but it suffered a bit when I had builders in, with stuff lying on it for a month,  and then we had a couple of dry summers. It was going to get a new edging, and a new layer of soil and more seed this year, but I've had to put that on hold.
I don't really do much in the way of lawn maintenance - if it's mainly green, and tidy  it's fine by me 

JennyJ

Green and tidy is all I aim for, too (and in a dry summer I fail because watering is reserved for more vulnerable plants).  In the autumn it gets a going over with an electric rake to pull out the worst of the thatch, and in spring I spike with a garden fork the areas that get compacted by being walked on in the winter - under the washing line, and round to the compost bins. It's too much like hard work to be doing the lot.

ohagan_2000KuK_IN7S

I know what you mean,i started in lockdown to spike the lawn,had to do it in stages as my back/knee/hip/everything inbetween hurt but eventually got it done,took about 2 weeks!
How was your gardening this year. Mine didn't have as good results as other years. The sweetpeas were definitley not as plentiful. The covid lockdown caught me unprepared,I had to grow a lot from seed which was difficult at times.