We restarted our lawn last fall by grading with fill then laying down two truckfulls of top soil and seed.
Now that winter is finished, I'd like to continue working on the lawn however I'm worried that all the work we put into it might need to be redone.
I'm not sure if the top soil all blew away, but the lawn looks like a rocky sand pit with patches of sparse grass….
Before I sink more hours of time into this I was just wondering what the best course of action is. Should I continue to lay down grass seed despite the sandy looking soil? Perhaps I need to get more truckfulls of topsoil first? Or maybe just bite the bullet at this point and sod instead?
Much appreciated!
by lazykitten13
3 Comments
Late summer/early fall is the best time to seed cool season lawns.
Regardless, if you are you looking for information about how to overseed a cool season lawn. You can find a comprehensive guide [in this post here.](https://www.reddit.com/r/lawncare/s/pUsKCxyvwQ)
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Looks to me like moisture is the issue here. If you can guarantee good seed/soil contact and can guarantee a good daily watering then you could seed. Ideally you’d lay a thin layer of peat-free compost over the top of the seed, say a quarter of an inch, and then lay some fleecing over the top to keep moisture in and birds out but the fleece may not be practical for your lawn size.
Sounds like you’ve done all the hard work, so persevere and get the right seed for your location, lay it down in a measured way, give it some nutrients to work with (fine compost, not an NPK grass feed at this stage) and keep it moist and out of birds bellies.
Looks like the soil still needs a lot of work. You probably needed a lot more than 2 truckloads. Did you just put the topsoil directly onto the lawn or did you mix it in?
I wouldn’t invest in sod alone at this point. It could end up like this again next year if you don’t deal with the soil problem.