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how to reseed a patchy lawn?

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Re-seeding is required if the lawn becomes patchy and unhealthy, especially when the grass begins to die or the grass spot shows brown. Most of the patchy lawn suffers from compacted soil and does not get the necessary air, water, and nutrients. You may observe and realize that your yard is not affected by the insects or any disease or any mismanagement. In such a scenario, re-seeding is the best way to restore the successful coverage of the affected area. If you face the same difficulty regarding your lawn, what will you do? In this context, we are going to describe to you how to reseed a patchy lawn.

how to reseed a patchy lawn

What is a patchy lawn?

Patchy lawn refers to the uneven, spotty, mottled, or irregular lawn. There will be some spots where no grass exists, or the grass is dead or discolored, usually brown. So, your yard looks inconsistent and scattered and some missing or bare or bald areas, you may term it a patchy lawn.

Patchy lawn causes

Why is your lawn patchy? It may be a million dollar question. You may have taken all the necessary care to seed, grow, and maintain your garden. Still, you may discover some bald and patchy areas that hurt your aesthetics. A patchy lawn may result from the following factors:

Disease

The grass is vulnerable to diseases too. It may suffer from various problems, including fungal infections. Different funguses may attack your lawn grass in different seasons for the wether or humidity variations. Magnaporthe, Rhizoctonia, etc. are some of the culprits to create patchy areas. You may resort to fungicides to prevent the infection. Know how to level a large and sloping yard.

Traffic

It is not surprising that walking in the yard may cause patches. If you are not mindful and walk in the yard, some of the areas may lose grass. Even your lovely pets have the chance to harm the green if they use your lawn, a running or walking zone.

Fertilizer

Overeating at a time is not only harmful to the human body but also grass. Smooth application of fertilizers is beneficial, but if you spread too much on the spot, there might cause burning of the green. Nitrogen can cause burn the leaves’ blades often. So, take care before using fertilizers.
The urine of your pet also burns your lawn grass and thus create a patch.

Water

Water is a must for grass, but often it kills that for excess/deficit. Excess water rots some seeds during germination. Besides, over-application of water may cause the roots to be rotten.

Sunlight

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Lack of sunlight causes the death of grass. Shades from trees, buildings, and any other hindrances produce thin grass or even a patchy lawn.

Hard soil or poor nutrients

If the soil of some areas of your garden is hard and compacted, grass may not access the nutrients from under the ground. Some areas might have poor nutrients to keep grass alive and eventually turns to patchy appearance.

Insects

From surface-feeding chinch bugs to sub-soil feeding white grubs, from rats to your pets may eat grass altogether or partially and thus accelerates the unwanted process of pathy yard. Ants are no more tension in your lawn, learn why?

When should I fix my patchy lawn?

The most common query about bald lawns in the town is when to fix it. For the best result, early in the fall is the perfect time to set your patchy lawn. Your lawn will recover by spring to give you an eye-soothing beauty. However, before jumping to fixing patchy lawn, consider the following aspects:

  • Soil condition
  • Heat
  • Moisture
  • Rivalry with weeds
  • Wait or not
  • Type of grass

The type of grass matters a lot for timing. If you are considering grass of warm season, late spring or early in the summer may be best fit. Grasses for the cold season may grow well in the latter part of summer or at the beginning of fall.

What Is Re-Seeding?

Re-seeding is an act to spread seed over the area where it has or had the grass presented but performing weakly. There are mainly two reasons to re-seed your lawn. They are-
Your garden is thin or patchy.
You have grown a warm-season grass that has become dormant and brown color due to the winter season.

Select the Best Grass for Re-Seeding?

Select the best quality grass to re-seed if existing grass grows typically well. Use the same variety of grass that you already have planted on your lawn. If you face the pest trouble in the area, you can choose the other variety to get a reduced pest problem. For the warm-season grass, you can select Bermuda, zoysia, etc. grass and Kentucky blue, tall fescue, etc. for cold climate. In this aspect, be careful of lighting as required of each variety of grass.

When to Re-Seed Your Lawn?

Depending on the variety of seed, time can be different. For most of the array, the spring season is the best time for re-seeding. If you re-seed to cover winter coverage, you have to apply seed in early fall. In this situation, you have to take special care, a little bit more supervision, and give water frequently to the seeds. Avoid re-seeding during deep snowfall or expecting heavy freeze.

How to Reseed Your Lawn?

And here comes the final episode, how to reseed a patchy lawn? Lawn preparation is the most critical part of the re-seeding procedure. Before re-seeding seed, aerate the marked area and clean all the rocks and debris from there. Apply the seed with spreader as the required amount where applicable. To grow a healthy plant, use a starter fertilizer or pre-emergent herbicide. Need irrigation during this time, but you can reduce watering gradually. Wait to cut the grass until the re-seeding area is filled up with grass till it increases at least an inch high. Here is a very short video to help you out.

Patchy Lawn FAQs

Can you just sprinkle grass seed on lawn?

Usually, you can not just sprinkle grass seed on lawn. You are to make the soil ready to grow grass from seeds.

Will grass spread to bare spots?

Mostly not. Lawn grass hardly spread to bare spots without reseeding.

How do you thicken patchy grass?

To thicken patchy grass, you may improve the soil, fertilize, mow, irrigate, control weeds, control traffic and many more.

Why is my lawn patchy?

Walking on lawn, excess fertilizers, diseases, insects, soil providing less or no nutrients are some of the causes for your patchy lawn.

Wrapping up

A patchy lawn or yard is an enemy for a beautiful gardening concept. If you know some aspects of how to reseed a patchy lawn, you can easily beautify the aesthetics of your lawn.