What should you do if you have a lawn that has more dead spots than green spots? In short, the answer is to overseed the lawn in order to get it to green back up. The same thing can be accomplished when you want to keep your lawn green during the winter. It all comes down to knowing what types of seed to put down and when to do it. Of course, there are a few other steps that you need to follow as well. If you want to know how to overseed your lawn properly, follow the simple steps that are included in this article. Before you know it, you too can have the green lawn that you have always wanted to have. Below are the steps you need to follow in order to prepare your lawn for overseeding.

Mow The Lawn

The first thing you want to do before you do any type of overseeding is to mow the lawn. Make sure that you mow it as short as possible. Put the lawn mower on the lowest possible setting and make sure that you get every area of the lawn without missing anything. It’s best to do this when the grass is already relatively short, because overseeding doesn’t work very well if you don’t pick up all of the clippings from the lawn mower. If you have grass that is relatively tall and you’re not using a lawn mower that has a bag on it, you’re going to find yourself doing a lot of extra work trying to pick up all of the clippings. Therefore, it’s best to maintain your lawn so that when you mow it shorter than normal, you don’t have as much work ahead of you. Obviously, your best bet is to use a lawn mower that has a bag attachment so that you don’t have to go around the entire yard picking up clippings after you’ve already mowed it. If you don’t have one of these available to you, consider renting one. If that’s not an option, you can use a rake to gather the clippings, but make sure you get the majority of them. This will add a lot of work and a lot of time to the project, so it’s really better to go into the situation prepared with the proper equipment.

Follow Directions Based On Your Region

This is the only part that can be a little bit confusing for some people. The rest of it is pretty straightforward when it comes to getting your lawn ready for overseeding. The thing that’s crucial here is that you want to use the correct products in order to achieve the goal you want. As such, you will use different products if you’re trying to keep your lawn green during the winter than you would if you want to green up brown spots during the spring and summer. You also have to pay attention to the region that you live in. This is because different types of grasses grow better in different regions based on the climate. You can determine this in one of two ways. Follow the directions on the bag of grass seeds that you purchase as far as timing and determining whether or not that particular type of grass seed will work for you. If you still have questions, you can always contact your local extension agent and ask them what you should be using and when you should be doing the project. This will give you all of the basic information that you need to make the right choices when it comes to purchasing grass seed and actually overseeding your lawn so that you don’t go through the entire process without seeing the desired results.

Correct Any Existing Issues

Assuming that you plan on overseeding your lawn to correct some dead spots, this section basically speaks for itself. With that being said, it’s really a good idea to correct those issues and then go back and overseed the entire lawn as a whole in order to ensure that you don’t have problems with thin spots in the future. If you’re overseeding the lawn in order to keep it green during the winter, the same thing applies. Find the spots that are trouble areas and deal with them first. Then, go back and overseed the entire lawn with the proper grass seed. Even if you don’t have any trouble areas, it’s still a good idea to examine your lawn from time to time in order to make sure that a problem hasn’t cropped up that you’re not currently aware of. It’s an equally good idea to overseed your lawn annually whether you have any dead spots or not. This keeps your lawn looking great and prevents those thin spots from occurring in the first place.

Use Products Of The Highest Quality

This one should be a no-brainer. If you want good results, you have to choose quality products in order to get them. Things aren’t nearly as likely to work if you go out and buy the cheapest possible products you can get your hands on and then hope for the best. As is the case with most things, you don’t have to spend as much money as you can possibly spend on the project, either. Do your homework. Pick high quality products that have a good track record for the goals you have and for the region you live in. There’s no reason to overspend money unnecessarily, but there’s also no reason to spend money on a project if you’re going to cut corners to the point that it’s unlikely to work. Therefore, be prepared to pay for quality within reason. In reality, the entire project will probably cost you a lot less than you think. If having a green lawn is important to you, it’s also well worth it.

Use A Seed Spreader

If you’ve got any kind of a lawn of any size, this is almost a necessary piece of equipment. It makes it so much easier to overseed your lawn properly without taking forever in order to do it. All you need to do is determine how many bags of grass seed you need, place the bags into the seed spreader, and then push the seed spreader around the yard and the same fashion that you would a lawn mower. It spreads the seeds all over the yard and it gets it done in a much shorter amount of time. If you have an extremely small yard, you might not need one of these and you can spread it by hand but if you’re looking at a yard of any appreciable size, this just makes the job a lot less frustrating from the beginning. It also makes the application of the grass seed more accurate, meaning that the job is probably going to look better in the long run.

Fertilize The Yard

In order to make sure that the new grass seed takes, it’s imperative that you fertilize the yard after you get done spreading the seed. You can do that with the seed spreader as well, but it’s imperative that you do it. Otherwise, you’re really spending a lot of money and time on something that’s probably not going to work. Use a high-quality fertilizer that can be spread easily with a minimum amount of effort. Make sure it’s something that’s designed to work well with the type of grass that you’re using. Follow the exact same procedure for application that you followed using the seed spreader, and be sure to follow the instructions on the package of fertilizer.

Water Frequently

Last but certainly not least, the yard has to get enough water. This is especially important right after you spread all of the grass seed and you fertilize the lawn. If you fail to water it, you’re probably not going to get the results you want, especially when you consider the fact that most fertilizer is activated by water. There are two different ways you can accomplish your goals. You might choose to wait until you have rain in the forecast to spread the seed and fertilize the lawn or you can do it artificially. This really depends on your personal preferences and how much rain you tend to get in your area. Remember, it’s equally important that you frequently water your yard after the fact. Therefore, it’s important that you get a few sprinklers and develop a routine so that you can make sure every part of your yard gets enough water. Generally speaking, you should plan on watering it every three or four days unless you get a substantial amount of rain. Obviously, you’ll need to water it more when the weather is warmer and you can subside when the weather cools off.

Now that you know what you should be preparing for when you plan on overseeding your lawn, you can get started on actually getting the job done. It’s really not as difficult as you probably thought it was to begin with. Granted, it takes a little bit of time and some effort, but it is worth it if you want to have that beautiful, thick lawn that you’ve always dreamed of having. The good news is that it’s something that you can have with just a little bit of time and effort. In most cases, you don’t even need to call a professional because it’s a job that can easily be done on your own.