The Hort Report: Now is great time to be thinking about sowing grass seed on your yard

Happy Easter to everyone from Laura, Hillary, Sandra and myself. Pray all of you remembered what Easter is about and enjoyed the day. 

Now is a great time to be thinking about sowing grass seed on your yard.  The first thing to do is to give your yard a good raking. This will allow you to get all sticks, leaves and old grass removed from your yard. Put what you raked in a compost pile. 

After doing this, you can see if grass seed is needed on your yard. A good rule to follow is if you have less than 50 percent weeds in your yard, you can renovate your yard by sowing grass seed to help get your yard looking great.

Next, mow your yard shorter than normal. You might need to mow it again at a different angle to get as much grass cut as possible. This will help get more old thatch and weeds out of the yard.

Rake the yard in one direction, then in different direction the next time, then rake it at an angle to make sure to get all the debris off the yard, exposing the soil and letting you see the bare area between areas of grass.

Applying fertilizer and other needed amendments to the yard. If possible, do a soil test to see what your needs are going to be. If you don’t do a soil test, plan on putting on a slow-released fertilizer with an N-P-K 3-1-2. This is a good general fertilizer that will help get the new grass seed off to a great start. Apply lime to your yard now, too. If you did a soil test, you will know how much to apply.   

Now sow your need grass seed. When picking a grass seed, make sure you read the seed tag. The tag will let you know the grass seed mix, what state was the seed was grown in, the percentage of pure seed, the percent of toxic and nontoxic weeds, foreign matter and other types of seeds in the mix and the weight of the seed in the bag.   

I use a hand seeder to do this. I walk in one direction the first time, then crossways the next time to make sure to cover all the area needed. 

Next, make sure the seed gets covered. I hope for rain to cover the seed covered and in contact with the soil in the yard. If you don’t get rain within a couple of days, rake the yard to help cover the newly sowed seed. Raking in one direction,  then in another direction, will make sure that all the seed is covered. 

Once the rains come, the seeds will have some mulch cover over them. This cover will help the seeds start to germinate. Keep your yard moist while the young grass gets started growing new roots, but don’t soak the yard.

Many types of herbicides can kill any type of seed as they begin to germinate and develop roots. Don’t spray for weeds and unwanted grasses if you have sowed or plan on sowing any new grass seed. Wait 90 days after spraying to sow any new seed. 

In the coming days, you should be able to start to work in your garden, flowerbeds and yards. Hopefully the weather will allow us to have a great growing season.

I appreciate all your questions in the past and looking forward to them in the future, so thank you. If you have any questions. call me at 573-588-2040, visit me at Shelby County Implement in Shelbina, Mo., email me at sci63468@hotmail.com or go to Greenwell’s Greenhouse Group on Facebook. I really enjoy when people ask me a question when they see me. Enjoy this great spring weather.

Pat Greenwell is the owner of Shelby County Implement in Shelbina, Mo. He was a high school agriculture teacher for 11 years. He has taught adult vocational agriculture since 1987. He also is a research assistant at the Truman State University Ag Department Farm.