Is your lawn patchy and dried out? Has it become old and worn out that it no more brings you joy? Has bare land begun to fill up your once lush green lawn? Are you planning to tear it all apart and start again? Wait, read this article first.
Tearing up a whole lawn just because of some patches here and there is not only expensive but also time-intensive. You can instead reseed those patchy or thin areas with new seeds and watch your lawn get back its former glory.
Now, there are two main methods of reseeding an old lawn; slice seeding and overseeding. We’ll carefully go through these methods, so you can know if the slice seeder or overseeder is the best for your lawn.
Overseeding is a general term for reseeding patchy, burnt out or thin lawn areas.
Why Should You Overseed?
Here are some reasons why you may need to overseed.
- To make your lawn thick by adding more grasses to your thin and sparse land.
- To cover patchy and burnt out lawns. Lawns can sometimes start to lose growth in certain areas. You’ll need to overseed those areas.
- To improve existing grass species by planting better disease and drought-resistant grasses.
How to Prepare Your Lawn for Overseeding?
- Identify and fix the cause of the patchy lawn: Before reseeding your garden, first of all, discover what the cause is. Reseeding uneven areas will not take care of the underlying problem. Problems like lack of nutrients, too much fertilizer, inferior grass species or even neglect. All these problems except of course neglect should be tackled before reseeding.
- Do a soil test: Without a proper soil test, you’ll not be able to know the right nutrient to use on your lawn. Take a soil test in your yard.
- Mow your lawn: You should mow your garden to a height of about 1inch to enable your slice seeder or overseeder to work properly.
- Clear all debris: After mowing your lawn, it is vital to clear all grass clippings, leaves or branches on the ground.
- Apply the necessary fertilizer: apply the recommended fertilizer after running the soil test.
What is a Slice Seeder?
A slice seeder is a machine used to reseed worn-out or thin lawn areas. Because it is difficult to start again, reseeding is like a lawn renovation.
The slice seeder machine makes use of cylindrical blades to cut open the soil and drop seeds; some machines even cover the ground back after dropping the seeds in the hole.
This machine has cylindrical blades mounted at the front and a seed container at the back alongside a brush to direct the seeds into the holes created.
How to overseed a lawn using a slice seeder
Here are some easy ways to overseed a lawn by yourself using a slice seeder. Even if you decide to employ the services of professionals, it is advisable to practice some of the pre-planting techniques to give your grass the best chance to grow.
- Select a machine that uses its cylindrical blade to open the ground before depositing the seeds inside and not one that deposits the seed first before forcing the seeds into the ground with its blades
- Apply one set of the seeds in rows parallel to your mowing lines and the other set perpendicular to the first seed rows.
- Properly water the seeds daily after planting until it germinates before slowly reducing the frequency.
Pros and cons of a slice seeder
Here are some of the slice seeder’s most glaring usefulness and some of its drawback
Pros
- It is more effective as the seeds are put directly into the soil
- Helps to remove thatch from the soil
- Conserves seeds as a slice seeder uses lesser seeds per square inch
- Results come quicker
Cons
- It is capital intensive
- Might destroy other grasses in the ground
What is an Overseeder?
The overseeder is used for overseeding already bad or thin areas. An overseeder works by spraying seeds in its container around the farm.
Usually, an aerator is used before an overseeder to drill holes around the lawn loosening the soil and also creating tiny holes where some of the seeds from the over seeder will fall into and increase its chance of germination
The overseeder makes use of a sprayer to spread the seeds with some falling into holes already created by the aerator.
How to overseed a lawn using an overseeder
Despite being an expensive machine, using an overseeder in your lawn should not be a difficult task.
These techniques will help you handle the machine and give your grasses the best chance to grow.
- Apply enough fertilizer to help the grass grow. Because most of the grasses will drop on the ground, it needs enough fertilizer to boost its growth. Careful, so you don’t over-fertilize and cause grass burn.
- Make use of an aerator machine to loosen up the soil. Some seeds also fall into the holes created by the aerator machine.
- Water the soil daily till it germinates. The seeds need proper watering for their roots to grow
Pros and cons of an overseeder
As with any machine, an overseeder also has its advantages and disadvantages.
Pros
- It is less expensive to use
- Using it with aerator increases the ground’s capacity to absorb water and nutrient
- Does not damage the lawn
Cons
- It is less effective as most of the seeds do not fall into the soil, leaving them open to birds
- Causes wastage of seeds as more seeds are needed when using an overseeder
- Results take more time to achieve
Which is Best?
Lawn owners looking to overseed their lawn are split between using a slice seeder and an overseeder.
This question has no particular answer, as they all have unique features and fit different situations and lawns.
A slice seeder is perfect for lawns with more patchy growth and burnt grass as it has a higher germination rate. At the same time, the overseeder is ideal when trying to thicken a thin lawn as it does not need a very high germination rate, and it’ll also protect the good grasses.
The slice seeder produces a faster result so you should make use of it when you need results quickly.
As have been stated already, the best between these two overseeding machines depends on your lawn situation. Kindly make use of the information provided to select the best for your lawn.
Read more: How to Overseed Lawn Without Aerating
