Garden Tip 66:

REPAIR & REJUVENATE!

Late September into early August is probably the best time of year to repair and rejuvenate the lawn. I do not irrigate my lawn so I have a few areas that are showing the stress of a hot, dry summer. There is a practice in the trade called overseeding that works great in restoring areas such as these and as it turns out it doesn’t  require that much work.

Overseeding in the fall simply requires a light raking of affected areas, applying grass seed, and watering in. This time of year I lightly water seeded areas daily once in the morning if rain is not in the forecast. I use a grass seed mixture that contains a couple of kinds of perennial rye and some creeping fescue.

In addition, I keep a small bag of white clover in the garage and mix a bit of this into the mix as well. Clover is drought tolerant and helps to shade the crown of grass plants during dry summer weather. Overseeding seed coverage goes twice as far as seeding bare ground so a little goes a long way.