Is it possible to plant a lawn in the fall and how to do it right? How is lawn grass sown in autumn, in winter? Is it possible to plant a lawn in June.
Every gardener has their own opinion about the best time to plant lawn grasses. Planting in spring - in early March or in autumn - in September or late November has its positive and negative sides. But the most accessible time for summer residents when you can plant a lawn is still the autumn season.
Benefits of fall planting
Autumn is a favorable time for the rapid germination of seeds and the formation of the root part. For this, there are all natural natural factors - this is moist soil and sufficient watering in the form of rains, moderate air temperature (as opposed to summer heat and heat).
To grow a quality lawn, you need a certain amount of time to prepare the soil, which is not enough in the spring, and much more in the fall (after harvesting).
In the autumn, the number of pests on the site decreases, and the weed grass practically stops growing.
With early planting (from about September 1 to September 15), lawn grass will have time to take root well and grow to a height of about 10 cm even before the first night frosts. Before the onset of real cold weather, you can even have time to make the first lawn mowing. With later sowing, there is a risk that young immature plants will freeze when winter comes, as they have not yet grown enough.
When sowing seeds of lawn plants in winter, the first green shoots will appear in early spring. Seeds are recommended to be sown at a temperature of 0 to 5 degrees Celsius (in late October - early November) and immediately covered with a mulch layer consisting of peat or dry earth. Overwintered seeds become “hardened” and young plants that appear in spring can feel great at any temperature fluctuations, with slight frosts, and with prolonged hot weather. Diseases and pests to such plants are dangerous in minimal cases.
Autumn planting and its disadvantages
If the warm autumn period drags on for a long time, then the winter sowing will begin to germinate before the start of winter, and then the seedlings will die at the first frost.
The sub-winter method of sowing lawn grasses cannot be used in areas that are located on a slope, since when the spring snow melts, the seeds will float away with the soil.
Planting a lawn consists of three main points: preparing the land, applying various top dressings to the soil, sowing seeds.
Site preparation
Land preparation begins approximately 20-30 days before planting. Gardeners who carry out this procedure not for the first time are advised to start this work at the end of summer. Preparation includes cleaning large stones, debris, weeds, dried shrubs and uprooting stumps. With a large number of weeds, it is recommended to use chemicals to treat the site. After clearing the place for the future lawn, they proceed to digging the entire selected area and re-cleaning the now plant remains that were found when digging the soil.
An additional drainage layer will be required in those areas that are located in the lowland and are subject to flooding by spring waters. It is easy to build even for inexperienced gardeners. First you need to remove the top layer of soil, cover the area with any construction waste (for example, broken brick or gravel), then with a layer of coarse river sand (about 10 cm) and remove the fertile soil layer from above. Each layer is recommended to be leveled with a roller or a thick log.
Fertilization
It is necessary to fertilize the soil in the area for sowing lawn plants in approximately 7-10 days. Nitrogen-containing complex mineral fertilizers or top dressings designed specifically for lawns are recommended to be scattered over the surface of the site and repaired with a rake to a shallow depth.
Landing methods
Seeding by hand is the cheapest and is suitable for every lawn. The weather on the day of sowing should be calm and warm. The surface of the soil in the area must be moistened with a sprayer. One square meter will require approximately 60-70 g of seeds. This is slightly higher than the average spring planting rate, but it is still often necessary to finish the grass in the spring if some seeds do not come up.
Seed material, mixed in equal parts with dry soil or fine sand, should be divided into two halves and sown each of them differently. One along the entire land area, and the other across. Another sowing of seeds (additional) is recommended to be done along the entire edge of the lawn. After that, the entire surface is covered with a small layer of mulch (made of dry sand, peat or sawdust), moistened with a spray gun and lightly compacted with a large log or hand roller.
Hydroseeding is carried out using a special modern device - a hydroseeder. It is used for planting lawns of a large area, as well as on slopes and other hard-to-reach places. Seed planting material, along with water and all the necessary nutrients, is sprayed with a hydraulic seeder over the surface of the prepared area. After a few hours, the mixture hardens, and the seeds are safe from pests and strong winds.
How to sow the lawn and what care is needed for it (video)
Often, garden owners have a question: when to sow the lawn? If the landscaping period falls in the fall, then the fluctuations on this issue are even stronger: is it possible to sow grass in the fall? The answer to this question is yes, you can, but in a certain way, observing a number of important rules.
Sowing in the fall in the usual sense assumes that the seeds will have time to sprout and grow by 7-10 cm before the onset of winter. This method is somewhat problematic in harsh climatic conditions: the bushes do not have time to get stronger, therefore, they may freeze and not overwinter, and in the spring you will not see the desired lawn.
Lawn before winter
In the northern regions in the autumn, the winter sowing of seeds is the most reliable. In this case, the lawn grass will not sprout in the fall, but only in the spring. Seeds are sown before the appearance of a stable snow cover at a time when the ground is already slightly frozen, but not covered with snow.
In winter, the seeds will undergo stratification, which means they will germinate more actively in the spring. The advantage of such sowing is that the lawn grass will form a turf, will have time to get stronger before the weeds sprout.
In addition, if you decide to sow the lawn in the spring, you will have to wait until the soil dries out, and when sowing in the winter, the seeds will be in favorable conditions for moisture-rich soil.
An important disadvantage of winter sowing may be the death of seeds during the onset of cold weather. Such a danger arises if the weather is warm in autumn or warming alternates with cooling in spring.
Also, seeds can be washed away by melt water or die from soaking. As a result, bald spots form on the lawn, especially if the lawn is not level or has poor drainage. Therefore, when sowing before winter, the seed sowing rate should be increased, but not several times, since in this case the seedling nutrition area will be very small, and competition is serious, which can also lead to death.
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How to sow a lawn? Sowing a lawn, depending on the season, has its own characteristics. Planting lawn grass on the site and getting a bright green healthy lawn requires learning the intricacies of this process. It is necessary to choose the right moment to sow the seeds.
Planting care consists of top dressing, the lawn should be mowed in time. A lawn seeder and other accessories will make it easier to plant and care for seedlings. To strengthen the turf so that the roots of the grass are not damaged by pedestrians and even from the passage of cars, a special mesh will help.
Lawn planting time
It is optimal to sow the lawn in autumn and spring. You can do it in the summer, but only under suitable climatic conditions for germination. Planting a lawn in the fall has several benefits. Moderate air temperature, humid weather favor seed germination and strengthening of their root system.
Due to the fact that before planting the lawn, site preparation should be done, autumn planting is convenient if the site was not ready by spring. Sowing seeds is best done at the end of August, it is possible in September until the 25th. You should be guided by weather conditions so that the lawn is planted no earlier than forty days before frost, otherwise the hatched seeds will not have time to get stronger and may disappear.
You can sow lawn seeds in November. To do this, choose the moment when the ground froze, before the appearance of snow. Planting material will lie in the soil until spring, undergo stratification by winter frosts and acquire resistance to low and high temperatures and diseases. In the spring, when the snow melts, favorable conditions will be created for the germination of lawn grass, friendly shoots will appear. Such sowing of seeds is called winter.
Landing methods
The site is cleared of debris. Planning work is carried out on the site, ledges are cut off, hollows are covered with soil. After that, tamping is performed. It is good after the preparation of the soil, sow the lawn no earlier than a month later.
Fertilizer should be scattered around the site, rake it into the soil. It is advisable to carry out this event a week before planting lawn grass seeds. Sowing the lawn can be done manually, using a simple device like a seeder, or doing hydroseeding. Covering the site with a liquid mixture of a certain composition using mechanisms is called hydroseeding.
Seeds should be planted in calm weather. When sowing by hand, scatter them with a fan. To make the sowing uniform, they first pass along the site, and then across. After that, the planting material is embedded in the soil with a rake, sprinkled with peat and pressed down with a roller so that it is not blown away by the wind. Planting the lawn by hand is the most economical option for the production of work.
A lawn seeder can be used to spread the seeds. They are different: mechanical, manual. If seeding is done in a small area, a manual seeder will do the job. The mechanical seeder is just as easy to use, with a special button to control the ejection of the material. The seeder has a simple device, compact.
The method of laying a new lawn is reliable and fast. Sowing the planting mixture, the need to care for the lawn so that the seeds germinate, with this method, is eliminated. The disadvantage of this method is the high cost.
A healthy, attractive looking lawn can be obtained by using hydroseeding. When the landscaping area is large, this method is indispensable. A mixture is created that provides the best conditions for spitting and further development of seeds. The composition contains: additives to accelerate growth; mulch dyed with harmless dyes so that you can visually perceive the uniformity of the coverage of the site; hydrogel to maintain the required moisture content of the mixture in the soil; fertilizers and soil improvers; grass mixture specially selected for a particular case.
Hydroseeding of the lawn is carried out with a hydroseeder. Once applied to the soil, the mixture is similar to liquid clay. After three hours have passed, a substance is formed on the soil that has a structure that protects the seeds from being blown out by the wind, pecked by birds. Inside the composition there is the necessary moisture and top dressing for seed germination. Hydroseeding copes with the tasks of landscaping slopes, hard-to-reach places. The method is widely used to cover large areas, provides guaranteed uniform seedlings. Hydroseeding is a method of creating a long-lasting lawn.
Seeds for sowing
Grasses suitable for planting on a lawn, having the same germination conditions, are collected in certain proportions in planting mixtures. Care should be taken to ensure that the planting material is of high quality. It is better to purchase seeds for sowing large so that there is no mustiness.
It is necessary to prepare lawn grass seeds taking into account that additional planting of material for lawn repair may be required at the rate of approximately one kilogram of grass mixture per hundred square meters. For greater viability, the seeds are treated with fungicides. Fertilizers are added to the mixture to improve seedlings. Grass for sowing on the lawn (an example of a mixture, the calculation is made per m 2): 8 g of meadow mint, 15 g of red fescue, 5 g of white bent grass, 18 g of perennial ryegrass and common fescue.
Autumn lawn fertilizing
You can fertilize the lawn using a device - a seeder. She will be a faithful assistant during the sowing of grass and before germination. If the decision is made to plant the lawn in the fall, fertilizer is applied to the soil a week before sowing.
For autumn feeding, a fertilizer is chosen, which includes phosphorus and potassium, which help the development of the root system of the planted grass. Nitrogen-containing fertilizers are used, choosing among them with a small content. This is due to the fact that fertilizing with nitrogen contributes to the growth of green mass, it is better to apply such a fertilizer in the spring.
You can fertilize the lawn every week after mowing. A lawn seeder will help to evenly distribute fertilizer granules over the surface of the site when fertilizing. Frequently used preparations: Fertika (has a different composition for each season), Agrecol - autumn top dressing and others. The seeder for fertilizing can be used both manually and mechanically. When hydroseeding is done, the top dressing is part of the liquid mixture.
lawn mowing
Lawns need to be maintained regularly. Once a week, grass should be mowed, leaving seedlings no more than five centimeters high. After cutting, the removed grass must be cleaned with a rake.
The main question of the gardener is when to mow the lawn before winter for the last time. Since the weather is not very predictable, the answer to the question will sound different every year. As long as the autumn sun shines, grasses will grow at positive temperatures, the growing green mass should be mowed, because if it freezes and settles down, it will interfere with the first spring shoots. Ideally, if you manage to mow the lawn for the last time fourteen days before frost and at the same time, so that the cereals have time to grow up to eight centimeters. After each mowing, the lawn must be fertilized.
Why do we need a grid
The use of such a device as a plastic mesh for a lawn will strengthen its base, take on surface loads and protect plant roots from them. The grid is a cellular fabric. Applying it on the lawn will make the grass protected from damage and trampling.
The mesh is spread on the site where lawn grass will be sown and fixed with anchors. You can plant seeds without noticing its presence. The grid has cells, the seed material will get there and germinate.
If the lawn does not need to be sown, it has already risen, the net can still be used to protect plants. To do this, the grass should be mowed as close to the ground as possible, and then lay the modules that make up the grid on the site and fix them.
Hello! Is there such grass for a country lawn that can be planted not at the beginning of autumn, but at any time, for example, now, in August?
The beginning of August is not the best time to create a country lawn, but this does not mean that grass cannot be sown. It is possible, only hassle, in terms of watering it will take more. In summer sowing, compared to autumn, there is even an advantage. Before frost, young grass will have time to grow to a height of 10-12 cm and get stronger enough to survive the difficult Russian winter.
In principle, in August you can sow any grasses or mixtures of grasses for lawns. It is important to choose the right seeds, taking into account the climate, the illumination of the site and soil conditions. We have already written about what grasses are suitable for a certain type of lawn, depending on its purpose.
To create a garden or ordinary lawn spread between trees, shrubs or buildings, you need to choose herbs or mixtures that are not afraid of weather disasters and drought, resistant to trampling. It is not advisable to create a lawn from one type of grass, because. under adverse conditions, some types of herbs may not take root. Below are some of the most hardy lawn grass types.
Red fescue (lat. Festuca rubra) is a rhizomatous loose shrub perennial. The leaves are narrow, rich green. Shoots appear approximately 7 days after sowing, begin to bush in 18-20 days. The advantages include the preservation of a bright color even in drought, the ability to grow in the shade and displace weeds.
red fescue
Bluegrass meadow (lat. Poa pratensis) is a rhizomatous loose-bush perennial. The leaves are bright green. Seedlings will have to wait about 15 days, they will begin to bush after a month. Requires regular watering. With a lack of moisture, part of the shoots may turn yellow. Grows well in acidic and saline soils.
Bluegrass meadow
Creeping clover (lat. Trifolium repens) is a densely bushy perennial with relatively long (up to 0.5 m) stems and numerous leaves. Long-lived, drought-resistant, can grow on any soil.
creeping clover
Shooting bent grass (lat. Agrostis stolonifera) is a short-rhizome perennial with long shoots developing above the ground and light green leaves. Shoots appear approximately on the 5th day, grows rapidly. Sensitive to lack of moisture. Can grow in shade. Not suitable for heavy soils.
bent grass
Perennial ryegrass (lat. Loliun perenne) is a loose shrub perennial with dark green leaves. Shoots appear on the 4-5th day, intensively grows. Can crowd out weeds. Requires frequent mowing. Short-lived.
perennial ryegrass
Subtleties of sowing lawn grasses
We have already written about how to prepare the soil for the lawn and wait for it to settle. Sowing is carried out in dry weather in the absence of wind, because. seeds must be evenly distributed on the surface of the soil. Prepared seeds are divided into 2 equal parts and sown in 2 doses. The first part is sown, passing in one direction, the second - in a perpendicular direction.
Sowing seeds of lawn grasses
After sowing, the seeds are raked into the soil (preferably to a depth of 1.5 cm), and then the topsoil is lightly tamped. Watering is carried out in the evening, by sprinkling, so as not to wash the seeds. Puddles and prolonged stagnation of water should not be allowed. Until mass shoots appear, the future lawn is watered regularly, without letting the soil dry out.
Well maintained lawn. We want you to have one too
The choice of lawn grass seeds is huge, when buying them, be sure to pay attention to the composition and expiration date, carefully read the recommendations indicated on the package. We hope that you will be able to create an emerald rug that will please the eye this fall, and next spring, and for many years to come.
The lawn is an important part of any landscape composition, an element that emphasizes and accentuates the style of a particular section of the garden. Creating it with your own hands is a rather laborious task, but at the same time extremely exciting. The main features and timing of planting lawn grass are important rules in organizing a thick and beautiful background on the site.
There are several basic types of turf, varying in appearance, resistance to trampling, and purpose. They differ in the composition of the grass mixture, in relation to shading, and mechanical loads. One condition unites all types of lawns -.
Parterre or English classic lawn
Bright green, silky in appearance, the most attractive, but also the most difficult to care for, requires regular shearing, watering, combing and fertilizing. This one does not need additional details and decorations. It consists of 80% meadow grass meadow, the remaining 20% - red fescue. Such a lawn is not intended for active movement on its surface.
Moorish or meadow lawn
The least difficult to care for, as it does not require a haircut, it forms a blooming lawn, colored with bright flowers and herbs all season. The effect of continuous flowering is achieved by selecting the seed composition, which includes almost 90% lawn cereal perennial grasses as a base. They are supplemented by seeds of wild-growing flowering annuals (poppy, cornflower, escholcia, calendula, etc.). All these plants have different flowering periods, which allows you to get a flowering carpet throughout the season.
Universal or garden lawn
Second class after the English parterre lawn. It is resistant to drought, trampling, not so demanding on regular haircuts. With careful care for several seasons, it approaches the parterre as close as possible, taking on an even, bright green color and thick, dense herbage, characteristic of it. The composition of the grass mixture includes fescue and pasture ryegrass, so this type of lawn is not suitable for arranging sports fields and parking races for a car. Most often used for arranging picnic areas, playgrounds and in the urban park landscape.
sports turf
The most expensive grass mixture, consisting of oak bluegrass, perennial ryegrass and red fescue in a ratio of 3:2:3 or meadow bluegrass, sheep fescue, red fescue and perennial ryegrass 3:1:1:1. Such a lawn has an increased resistance to trampling, has a very attractive appearance. It is used to create sports surfaces for football and golf fields, tennis courts.
Non-grass or ground cover lawn
Very beautiful, requiring no maintenance other than a longer time to get a carpet fit. It contains absolutely no lawn cereal grasses. It consists entirely of ground cover perennials, can be used as a separate composition, and as a frame, inserts between slabs of paths, background planting for ornamental shrubs. The choice of plants depends solely on the purpose and location. Yasnotka, yaskolka, creeping thyme, carnation grass, tenacious, dusheney - the list can be continued indefinitely, it is only important to understand what function the green carpet will perform. The main difference from all previous species is that the ground cover lawn is not sown, but grown with seedlings, which is why it takes about three years to achieve maximum decorativeness.
Lawn planting terms, advantages and disadvantages
When to plant lawn grass? You can sow a lawn at almost any time of the year. The choice of sowing dates depends on certain factors that must be taken into account: the composition and condition of the soil, the possibility of providing full-fledged irrigation, and the climatic features of the region. Therefore, the question "When to sow lawn grass?" has no clear answer.
Spring
Lawn grass sown in the spring with their own hands, from the point of view of landscape designers, is considered the most successful solution. This is due to the fact that during the entire subsequent season there is the possibility of processing, feeding and, if necessary, overseeding grass. By the end of summer, a full-fledged lawn is already in place.
It should be noted that the spring arrangement of the lawn has its drawbacks, which must be taken into account when deciding to sow in the spring:
- Without fail, it provides for additional labor costs associated primarily with watering during the hot season of a young, fragile grass stand.
- Weeds in the spring grow no less actively than all other plants, weeding the unformed turf of the lawn will have to be done quite carefully.
- Young grass needs a large amount of nutrients for full development, it is necessary to fertilize regularly, ensuring the mineral balance of the soil.
Summer
Summer sowing has proven itself well in the southern regions, where a long warm autumn makes it possible for plants to prepare for winter, get stronger and gain the volume of the root system necessary for successful wintering. Several factors can be attributed to the obvious advantages of summer sowing. First of all, it is warm soil, in which seed germination is not a problem. In addition, and this is important, when preparing a plot for a lawn, it is easier to remove weeds, since in the bulk they have all grown, but the seeds did not have time to ripen. Herbicide treatment gives excellent results.
Autumn
Planting lawn grass in the fall has a number of advantages due to the ability to vary the timing. When to sow lawn grass in the fall? Sowing can be done at the very beginning of autumn, when humid warm weather sets in, the heat subsides, morning dew will help provide additional soil moisture, and weeds will lose their aggressive activity. The lawn sown at this time has time to sprout and get stronger before the onset of stable cold weather, and in the spring a young and bright herbage emerges from under the snow.
The main disadvantage of such a term for sowing a lawn is the possibility of early soil frosts, which are unlikely to benefit young seedlings. Sowing lawn grass in the fall in terms of timing must necessarily include this risk based on the climatic conditions of the region.
The ability to avoid the negative impact on seedlings during autumn sowing is given by planting grass before winter, in late autumn, on frozen ground. The site is prepared in advance, according to the heat, and the sowing itself is done in November - December, in cold soil. In this case, seeds do not germinate, but wait for heat directly in the soil, undergoing natural stratification, which has a beneficial effect not only on germination, but also on the health of the future lawn.
Seedlings will sprout together in the spring, will be strong and resistant to various kinds of diseases. One important rule should be remembered: sowing on the slopes in late autumn is unacceptable, sowing only on horizontal surfaces. This is due to the likelihood of washing the seeds with melt water. Autumn sowing of the lawn will allow you to get in the spring not only an excellent lawn, which will begin to sprout almost immediately after the snow melts, but also free up time for more important ones.
Lawn improvement
First and most importantly, regardless of the timing of the sowing, before planting lawn grass, the site should be carefully prepared and the following set of measures should be carried out:
- markup;
- weed removal;
- leveling the site, removing stones and debris;
- careful digging;
- giving the soil a balanced composition;
- fertilization.
When marking out a site for a lawn, it is necessary to immediately take into account its intended shape, the plants that will be located on it solitary, flower beds and rabatki. If a track is planned, it must be made or outlined in advance.
Removing weeds in a lawn area is best done with herbicides such as Roundup. The area planned for the lawn is processed from the sprayer on the surface of the plants. It should be remembered that herbicides have the same effect on both weeds and cultivated plants. If there are any plantings nearby, be sure to cover them with polyethylene to avoid getting the solution on them.
Leveling the site, removing stones and possible construction debris is necessary for the future decorative state of the lawn. A green meadow dotted with pits and bumps will not look very presentable.
Lawn leveling
Digging the site is carried out on a bayonet, the earth should be loose, light and fertile. In addition, deep digging contributes to additional purification of the soil from weed roots, stones, etc. As a rule, this process is combined with the introduction of additional elements depending on the composition of the soil (sand, humus, manure, peat), giving it a balanced composition.
After carrying out the above activities, the earth is rammed with a skating rink weighing up to 100 kg and left fallow for two weeks. The application of mineral fertilizers is carried out a day before sowing. In spring and summer sowing, nitrogen-containing complexes are used, in autumn - with a minimum nitrogen content.
In general, the preparation of the site for the lawn takes about a month.
Approaching the lawn, we sometimes see scattered multi-colored beads on it. And only up close we discover that it is ...
lawn seeding
Before sowing lawn grass, a prepared area with fertilizers is passed with a rake, slightly loosening and harrowing the granules. The area is divided into conditional squares, and the prepared seeds are divided into the same amount. The consumption of lawn grass seeds can be calculated according to the formula, but if we take it approximately, it is 4-5 kilograms per hundred square meters. Sowing is done squarely, in two perpendicular directions. This will allow the seeds to evenly spread over the surface of the soil, and the lawn will turn out to be thick, even, without bald spots. In conclusion, the crops are carefully watered, preventing soil erosion. Then it remains only to wait for the shoots and enjoy the man-made beauty.
Lawn seeders
In addition to the manual method of planting grass, you can use special seeders. A lawn grass seeder is a device for sowing seeds into the ground and spreading fertilizer granules. With this device, you can sow evenly, accurately and most importantly quickly.
Lawn seeders are divided into several types:
- universal,
- special,
- combined.
A mechanical or manual seeder is a reliable agricultural tool for sowing lawn grass, which can significantly reduce sowing time and provide a good, evenly planted and beautiful lawn on the site.
