Planting lawn grass with your own hands in the country. Planting lawn grass with your own hands When and how to sow lawn grass

Like many fans of tinkering in the ground, I have a dacha. Everything seems to be fine: a house, greenhouses, beds, flowers, fruit plantations ... But still something is missing. For a while, I wondered what it was.

And once again, planning planting, I finally realized - I want a lawn! Neat, well-groomed, emerald. No sooner said than done, and now I'm already studying literature, studying the ways of fulfilling my own dream.

Several years have passed since then, and my site already boasts a neat lawn, and I already have the knowledge and experience in growing lawn grass and caring for it.

Oddly enough, they begin to create a lawn with the choice of grass mixture. It is selected depending on the type of lawn, when buying, carefully read the information on the package. Manufacturers of the mixture always indicate the type of lawn for which this grass is intended, the requirements for the soil and the site.

Most of these mixtures are brought to us from countries Western Europe and, unfortunately, not all plants grow safely in our climate, so pay attention to its composition.

Yes, for middle lane a mixture of fescue and bluegrass is excellent. By planting it, you will get an even dense emerald carpet on your lawn, which lends itself well to a short haircut.

Resist the temptation to buy grass mixture with more than 50% ryegrass, this plant looks very attractive - the lawn from it is dense and lush, but has significant drawbacks.

Firstly, it is not so cold-resistant plant for the climate of the middle zone, it often freezes out. And secondly, after 3-5 years, your recently beautiful emerald carpet completely falls out.

So, we decided on the appearance of the lawn, chose high-quality planting material, and now we proceed to an equally important event - competent preparation of the site.

How to properly prepare the site

The area intended for the lawn must be clear of any debris. Be sure to remove all stumps and rhizomes of shrubs and trees, their remains are the root cause of the appearance of completely unnecessary grebes on the grass carpet.

Remove all sod from the site. The easiest way is to use a special machine for this, in the absence of one, you can use an ordinary shovel.

Some types of plants (dandelion and creeping clover) constantly give new shoots when manually removed, this is due to the fact that their long rhizomes cannot be completely pulled out of the ground and the remaining pieces give growth.

You can make your task easier by pre-treating the area overgrown with weeds with a herbicide, dead plants are much easier to remove.

Leveling the surface

The lawn requires a perfectly level ground. At least as smooth as it will turn out in your particular case. Some craftsmen use the building level for this purpose. Planning should begin on a clear day, as the soil should be loose and completely dry.

If your site is located on a slope, then in a sense it even works to your advantage: it is this natural feature of the site that will provide the necessary rainwater runoff. But do not forget that the slope must be perfectly aligned.

There are two ways to cope with lowlands and pits in the selected area:

1. By moving soil into them from bumps or hills, or by filling them with fertile soil from other places in your garden;
2. Filling the lowlands with a purchased peat-based substrate - this method is relevant in fresh, not yet processed areas.

Mix dense clay soil well with sand, so it will be more permeable to moisture and oxygen.

The soil of a neutral reaction is considered ideal for a lawn, fertile with a high content of nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus in it, but it is recommended to keep the content of copper and zinc in it under control.

Drainage: is it necessary?

If you are lucky enough to acquire a plot in good location, not flooded by spring floods and summer-autumn rains, then it is quite enough for you to dig it up well, add lime and increase fertility. In all other cases, you will have to think about creating reliable drainage.

This event is carried out simultaneously with the leveling of the area.
Drainage should consist of a couple of layers. Next are those layers of fertile soil that you removed during the leveling process. As a result, your lawn area will be located on a three-layer basis:

1. 10-15 cm large cobblestones or broken bricks;
2. 10-15 cm fine gravel or sand;
3. 15-20 cm of nutrient soil.

Each of them is well compacted as it is laid.

Soil treatment

A small area is easier and more efficient to handle manually using a shovel or fork. Impressive areas will require the intervention of serious equipment in the form of a motor cultivator. The depth of digging cannot but depend on the thickness of the fertile soil layer, on average it should be 20-25 cm.

Equipping a lawn on poor, depleted soil is an absolutely useless exercise, so the digging procedure is combined with the introduction organic fertilizer and sand.

A mandatory procedure is to get rid of earthen clods, the soil under the lawn must be absolutely smooth and even, the presence of stones is not permissible. Use a rake or pitchfork to break up any clods and remove any roots, weeds, rocks or debris.

If you like to do everything in advance and prepare a lawn area in the fall, then earthen clods formed after digging can be left alone until sowing. Such a maneuver will contribute to better drainage of your site and will only benefit you.

Soil tamping

The next step in preparing the site for the lawn is tamping. It is necessary to get rid of voids in the thickness of the soil, because it is they who subsequently serve as the cause of the appearance of irregularities on an already grown lawn. It must be carried out in dry weather.

Before proceeding with the procedure, drive in pegs around the perimeter of the future lawn and stretch the rope along them. All lines should be perfectly straight, the ordinary level of builders will help you with this.

The rammer itself is carried out with a garden roller or with feet. A rounded, fairly heavy and completely even object over the entire surface is also suitable. For example, a log or pipe made of metal or concrete, the radius of which is at least 20 cm.
If you compact the soil with your feet, then the footprints are then removed with a rake.

Regularly inspect the driven wedges from different angles, they should remain even. If somewhere the corner has moved, voids or elevations have appeared, then do not be lazy and correct the situation.

Steaming - is it worth the time

Quite often, this stage is not considered necessary, skipping it. Undoubtedly, it takes some time and requires some effort, but if you plan to sow your lawn with seeds, fallowing is indispensable. The meaning of this activity is the destruction of weed seeds, rhizomes and grasses.

The whole process takes about a month and a half. During this period, you regularly remove breaking weeds, completes all herbicide treatment.

AT recent times fallowing is increasingly being replaced by sowing the site with green manure (lupine, sweet clover, vetch, etc.).

They are planted a month and a half before creating a lawn, before sowing grass mixtures or laying turf, the grown green mass is simply plowed into the soil. This contributes to the improvement of the earth and its structure, enriches it with nitrogen and other elements that are easy to assimilate.

Sowing preparation

Professionals advise leaving the prepared area for soil shrinkage for three months before planting the lawn. This is a classic in creating lawns around the world, but in our country the growing season is too short, so only residents of the south of Russia can try it in action.

Approximately a week before sowing the grass mixture, mineral fertilizers are scattered on the soil surface at the rate of 40-60 grams per square meter. Then they are carefully closed with a rake to a depth of 5 cm, while carefully loosening the ground.

Try to plant on a clear day when the surface of the soil is dry and there is enough moisture in the depths.

• If you are planting in the fall, then this should be between mid-August and mid-September.
• Spring planting is carried out from late April to early June.
• Summer planting is complicated by the need for regular watering, which is not at all easy to implement, because young growth often dries up and is washed out.

Planting and watering

• Use a fan rake to make small grooves.
• Mix the seeds well.
• Do not forget that when planting, you will have to go beyond the area by 8 cm on each side, which means that more planting material will be needed.
• If the package does not indicate the method of planting, then plant about 30-60 grams of seeds per square meter. A more rare planting will lead to the fact that weeds will break through the lawn and completely non-decorative bald spots will be visible.
• It is much easier to sow if you divide all the prepared seeds into 4 parts and use each of them on the fourth part of the plot. From above, the seeds are closed with the same fan rake. Planting sites must not be entered.
• After 1-3 weeks shoots will appear. Depending on the amount of rainfall, the lawn is watered every few days. Do this very carefully with a watering can with a small sprinkler. Strong pressure can cause the seeds to be washed to the surface of the soil and nullify all your work.
• When the young growth reaches a height of 8-10 cm, it can be cut for the first time.

Getting a first-class lawn in your area is easy. First you need to decide which lawn is better - rolled or sowing. Having made a choice in favor of the latter, you will have to tinker a little (if you sow with your own hands), but the result will be worthy. It is best to sow lawn grass in spring or early autumn (warm soil and a significant amount of moisture will favorably affect the growth and quality of lawn grass).

To get in as soon as possible a magnificent green lawn, which, in addition to aesthetic beauty, will protect your site from drying out and the attack of various weeds, it is enough to follow a few simple, but very important recommendations.

Lawn grass - how to sow, grow and care

• Once you have marked the area you plan to plant with lawn grass, make sure it is completely clear of weeds, old plant roots, rocks, and debris.

• At the next stage, it is necessary to prepare the soil for further planting. If the land is not fertile enough, as a rule, starting fertilizers are scattered over the surface: phosphorus, potassium and nitrogen. To improve soil drainage, it is also recommended to add sand. But if the surface of your site is already too light and sandy, then use peat. It will saturate the soil nutrients and retain valuable moisture.

• Finally, you can start sowing. Dreaming of an unpretentious lawn in care, which would have the ability to withstand weather conditions and all kinds of weed pests, use various lawn grass seeds for sowing. So, different varieties of lawn grass sown in the same area not only adapt faster, but also differ in a brighter and more saturated color. Keep in mind that the germination of lawn grass different varieties is different. When purchasing a package of herbal mix, be sure to read the planting tips for your particular variety.

• In order to make a good lawn, sow on calm days, planting seeds along and across the perimeter of the field. Finally, lightly press the seeds into the soil, providing the future lawn with decent watering, which, by the way, will be needed throughout the grass growth, especially during the dry summer period.

• Mowing the grown lawn is carried out when the grass is completely dry and has grown at least 10 cm. Do you want lawn grass to be dense and stable? Then for the first time cut no more than one centimeter. Subsequent haircuts can be carried out based on personal preferences.

• In order to constantly maintain the lawn in excellent condition and avoid irregular jumps in grass growth, it is enough to feed the soil once a season (with the exception of the winter months).

• Insufficient water supply can adversely affect appearance and lead to premature death of plants. The first sign that should alert you is the dull, ugly, gray-green color of the plantations. Do not allow the soil to dry out and water the lawn daily by sprinkling through a shallow watering can or sprinkler. Water must penetrate deep into the soil. Such watering will ensure intensive growth of the root system, which, penetrating deep into the earth, contributes to better grass growth.

• A vital procedure for your well-groomed lawn is cultivation (surface cleaning of the grass with a special spring rake). Of course, this process is a little time-consuming, but, fortunately, it is enough to carry it out once a year. The cultivation process will help you remove old grass from the lawn, improve air access to the roots of plants and create favorable conditions for the emergence of new shoots.

• A spring surface powder, consisting of a mixture of loam, peat and sand, will also help create an attractive surface. Such a layer will mask unwanted voids on the surface and lead to the development of additional shoots.

The emerald green grass carpet near your home will serve you for many years to serve as an ideal place for outdoor walks and picnics. The only time when you should not disturb and trample down green spaces, but admire them exclusively from afar is the first six months after planting.

It would seem, what could be easier than growing grass? Meanwhile to get groomed green lawn, it is necessary not only to properly plant lawn grass, but also prepare the soil for planting, and subsequently properly care for a young lawn.

Lawn types

A lawn is not necessarily a short-cut classical style green grass. It can be flowering - Moorish or meadow, sports - resistant to abrasion, or garden. The choice of seeds for sowing and subsequent care, for example, the frequency of cutting and top dressing, watering and aeration, depends on the type of lawn. Soil preparation for different types lawns are produced using a single technology.

When is the best time to sow the lawn?

There are no hard and fast rules for seeding a lawn. It is necessary to take into account the time for preparing the site, soil, for the germination of grass. That's why best time to start work on the design of the lawn, the period from mid-May to early September is considered. On average, seeding and sprouting a lawn takes 4 to 6 weeks and is best completed before snow and frost.

Site preparation

The first and most important stage is the marking of the future lawn, its cleaning from weeds and leveling. Careful preparation will save you from weeding and make it easier to mow an already grown lawn. The time required to prepare the site is from 1 to 4 weeks.

Fertilization and soil preparation

The second stage, at which favorable conditions are laid for the rapid and friendly emergence of seedlings of lawn grass and its subsequent growth. The need for fertilizer depends on the type of soil. It should be fertile, loose, pass and retain moisture well and contain a sufficient amount of elements that provide fast growth. Lead time - from 3 to 7 days.

Seeding rates are usually indicated on the seed packaging, for various kinds lawns they can vary. Do not save on quantity - the "bald spots" on your lawn will not remain bare for long, very soon they will be occupied by weeds, and you will have to repeat everything again. The time required to sow the grass is short - if the lawn is small, you can do it in a day.

Lawn care

During the period of germination and rapid growth of grass, regular maintenance is necessary for the lawn. It consists in regular watering, removing the remaining weeds, as well as cutting young grass. Before the first haircut, walking on the lawn is not recommended.

A two to three year old lawn with evenly growing grass is considered mature. Such a lawn needs not only watering and mowing, but also aeration, as well as additional fertilization. However, strong and healthy root system will not allow weeds to sprout and germinate seeds that have accidentally fallen, and your lawn will delight you with juicy green grass for a long time.

Greetings dear readers of the blog. In today's article I will tell you how to plant lawn grass with seeds. I had an unsightly piece of land in my dacha that I wanted to ennoble, and decided to make beautiful lawn. I will tell you about the difficulties I encountered and how I overcame them. I propose to read the article, to get acquainted with the successive steps of creating a lawn. At the end, you can watch a video on this topic.

In search of suitable seeds, my head went round. On the packages, the name indicates the purpose of the future lawn. A friend of mine bought a bag of seeds for an all purpose lawn last year and the grass froze over in the winter. I asked what was the reason and found out interesting fact. planting material imported to us from Western Europe, winters are mild there, grass mixtures often contain non-frost-resistant varieties. I began to read the composition and chose what I needed.

A grass mixture of fescue and bluegrass is ideal for our climate. Herbs are perennial, frost-resistant, grow rapidly, create a beautiful bright green carpet. Unpretentious, fast growing fescue. Bluegrass grows more slowly, but more beautifully.

Buy seeds with a margin. Separate plots will have to be sown, it is unlikely that you will buy such seeds. Places sown with other seeds will be highlighted in color.

Selecting the season to start work

Everyone is faced with the question: when is it better to sow grass on the lawn. Sowing can be carried out from the end of April to September inclusive. To create a lawn in spring or summer, take herbs half the amount indicated. Until autumn, the strongest will survive in the struggle for a place under the sun. The lawn will survive the winter painlessly, in early spring will go up.

At autumn planting it is necessary to calculate the time so that the roots of the grass have time to get stronger and survive the winter. Do not increase the seeding rate: in the dense seedlings, the struggle for survival will begin. No one will have time to win, for the winter the plants will leave weakened, they will not survive the frosts well.

Seeds sprout together in moist soil, when there is no heat. In spring and autumn, cool weather is common, but in the summer months it sometimes has to wait a long time. If you want to sow a lawn in the summer, proceed as follows.

In the evening after 19.00 wet the ground with water up to 40 cm deep. After 2 hours, when the water is absorbed, scatter the seeds, loosen the soil, then roll. Mulch the area, water again in the morning.

We conclude: spring planting is the most favorable, gives confidence in the formation of dense turf.

Weed control

A piece of land for a lawn must be cleared of weeds. There are many ways to remove them yourself. You can pull out weeds or dig deep into the ground with a shovel. Cultivation or milling gives a good result when there is room to turn around.

I preferred chemical method fight. I bought a herbicide of continuous action, processed weeds with a sprayer. A little more than two weeks passed, and all that remained was to rake the dry remains of weeds.

Preparing the site for sowing

On the fight against weeds with herbicide, I saved time and effort, but still I had to take up the shovel. I began to dig deep, with the whole blade, breaking up the lumps with a shovel. There were stones, bricks, tree roots. But there was no trace of weeds. All debris from the ground was removed outside the site.

Got a piece with good soil, do not dig deep. The soil will not sit down, it will be easier to level the surface.

After digging, he began to level the site with a shovel. Where required, he sprinkled the earth, dug out the mounds. The result is a smooth surface.

The soil in our area is not very fertile, so I thought about fertilizer. I know that organic is best: peat, compost, but I had to get by with a complex mineral fertilizer. I scattered it over the surface with my own hands and covered it with the earth with the same irreplaceable rake.

Then he took an empty cylinder from liquefied gas and began to roll the earth. There may not be a cylinder, then take a barrel of water, a pipe, a special ice rink, finally. Roll until the ground stops sinking under your weight.

The most crucial moment - sowing

What you sow, you will reap. I recalled this proverb in my work a little differently: as you sow, so you reap.

First, shallow, one centimeter, grooves are carried out with a rake. We know the seeding rate, now the grass must be evenly scattered. It is not easy to make: the seeds are small. A seeder would help, but it is not. Let's resort to the old-fashioned way.

Mix the measured rate of grass mixture with the same amount of dry fine sand. For the first time they pass, evenly scattering, along the site. Go back the second time. Now take a rake and hide the seeds under the soil. Then the earth is carefully rolled.

Watering for the first time

Start watering immediately after sowing. Do the first watering and the next in the first week by hand. Suitable garden watering can with a sprayer. When the plot is large, it is not easy to water with your own hands. An irrigation sprayer mounted on a water hose will help out.

Do not water a newly sown area with a hose without a nozzle. A strong jet will wash the seeds out of the ground and carry them away. After this method of watering, puddles form on the ground, then a crust in hot weather. Watering after sowing in the fall is not necessary.

We take care like a baby

After two weeks, the first sprouts will appear. Seeds from the grass mixture do not sprout at the same time, only after a month you will see objective picture. Water daily in dry weather. Moisture is especially required for young sprouts, they die at the slightest drought.

And now the grass has grown to 10 cm. Now we carefully mow the tips of the leaves, only 2 cm. In a week you will not recognize the lawn. Mowing stimulated the laying of fresh buds, new shoots grow quickly. Dense grass cover begins to cover the ground.

Further lawn care consists in timely, once a week, mowing the grass. However, it all depends on the weather and time of year. In early spring, in late autumn you will mow less often: grass growth is slow.

Don't expect glorious results quickly. Recognized masters in this matter, the British, say: in 5 years good care, watering, fertilizing will create the perfect lawn, made by hand.

Have you decided to make your dreams of a picturesque green lawn in front of the house come true and have you even cleared the site of debris, dug up and leveled the ground? Now it's time to figure out how to plant a lawn with your own hands, or lay ready-made rolled grass - it all depends on your priorities.

Lawn types

Lawns are of several types, depending on their purpose and further use.

• Parterre usually located in the most visible places: at the entrance to the house, along paths and around flower beds and shrubs. It is a perfectly smooth green surface. Such a lawn does not involve walking on it and requires constant care and careful maintenance. To obtain a dense low herbage, only cereals are used, which have narrow leaves and tender shoots. They sprout together and bush well, so this type of cover has a uniform surface and high density, which suppresses the spread of weeds.
• meadow lawn looks like an elegant flowering lawn in the middle of the forest. In addition to its picturesque, it is very practical, because it incorporates perennials, and does not require special care. The mixture for its sowing consists of field grass seeds with the addition of meadow plants and flowers, including bulbs. Shearing is carried out approximately twice a year.
• Mauritanian is a flowering field, pleasing to the eye. This green cover is very elegant and looks bright for a long time, because it includes flowering herbs, chosen in such a way that their flowering period follows each other. It almost does not need mowing, is updated once a year (grass is cut), but requires regular watering.

It is important to note that this lawn is not suitable for the front of the yard: flower beds, rock gardens and other design elements will be invisible against its background.

• Landscape gardening- the most common type. It is resistant to trampling, as it is designed for constant walking on it. For its composition, hard, rough-looking herbs are selected. At the same time, it is easier to maintain, less prone to weeds, and hides all the mistakes that are often made in the process of self-seeding.
• Sports-has a more complex mixture of seeds. In addition to traditional cereals, it also contains special, wear-resistant additives in its composition. Such grasses should grow quickly, have elastic shoots and well-developed rhizomes. Caring for such a lawn is more complex and requires constant attention. But the ability of such a coating to endure heavy loads makes it possible to sow it in places of heavy movement - next to the gazebo, on the playground, next to the swing.

lawn grass layout

If you want to get a beautiful dense lawn in the shortest possible time so that you can immediately arrange a volleyball or playground, buy a rolled type - it is cut strips of turf, which is pre-grown on a special field for about two years. Of course, not everyone can afford the cost of finished grass in rolls - at least 50 rubles will have to be paid for one roll, and about 250 rolls will be required for a lawn of 2 acres.

Those who prefer to be patient, while saving a significant amount, will have to learn how to properly sow lawn grass on their own. There is nothing particularly difficult in this, you just need to follow the basic rules.

Video about lawn grass, when to plant it in the country, how to do it right

Before planting grass, it is advisable to draw a diagram of how you imagine the future cover: are you going to leave trees on it, arrange flower beds or grow separate groups of flowers? Element placement landscape design you need to plan in advance so that later there are no difficulties with.

When considering how to sow grass, taking into account flower beds and paths, keep in mind that minimum distance between the sown grass and the curb should be about one meter - so it will be more convenient for you to mow the grass with a lawn mower.

Under single trees or shrubs, it is better to plant not a lawn grass mixture, but unpretentious ground cover plants; clover will look good. Another option is to drop trunk circles wood chips or decorative chips, it will turn out neat and attractive.

The minimum distance between the sown grass and the curb should be about one meter

When is the best time to sow in the country

You can sow the grass any time from early April to mid-October, provided that during periods of dry weather, the seeds must be kept constantly moist until the grass reaches 6 cm. Always water with a fine spray. A strong jet of water will wash away the soil and wash away the seeds. It is also worth noting that the soil should be warm enough. For germination, a temperature of at least 8-10 degrees is required. by the most the best period experts consider September for sowing the lawn. There are several arguments in favor of the September sowing.

• First, any weed seeds present in the seed will be allowed to germinate and can be removed,
• Secondly, our summers can have hot and dry periods, and if your new lawn is sown in the spring, constant watering will be necessary to start seed growth and prevent young shoots from drying out or burning.
• Thirdly, after summer the soil is warm, and autumn rains moisten it well. This will allow the shoots to gain strength before the onset of winter, and the number of weeds will be minimal. Then, in late fall, a good root system will develop, not top growth, and your lawn will be in top-notch condition the following spring and summer, ready to handle hot, dry weather.

Lawn preparation and grass selection

To get a perfectly flat green lawn, as in the pictures, you need to carefully understand how to plant the lawn correctly, and try not to miss a single step.

Some gardeners believe that The best way sowing is to mix seeds with sand. However, due to inexperience, you can take more sand than required, so it is not recommended to use such a trick at first. You can achieve uniform sowing with a special seeder or you can do without it by sowing the lawn with your own hands first along and then across. Approximate consumption of seeds: about 30-40 g per square meter

How do you sow lawn grass seeds?

1. Scatter the measured seeds. Half of the seeds should be scattered in one direction and the other half perpendicular to that. Make sure the seeds are distributed as evenly as possible for the best results.
2. Carefully mix the soil with the seeds with a rake. Ideally, the seeds should be covered with 2-3 mm of soil, although some of this may be on the surface. Water using a watering can with a nozzle or a hose with a water sprayer. Grass will appear in 1-2 weeks. If you have a large area of ​​lawn litter, consider using a seed spreader.

Lawn seeding video

Gently sow the sown seeds into the ground with a rake (you can sprinkle a 1.5 cm mulch layer of peat mixture on top) and walk along the lawn with a roller, pressing the seeds into the ground. Water the crops from the sprinkler, and then for a week, carry out daily watering with a small droplet irrigation so that the water does not wash away the unestablished shoots and does not wash away the ground.
On how to properly prepare the soil and how to sow lawn grass, the video in the tab will give you a visual representation. With proper soil preparation and proper seeding, the grass will sprout together in about a week. Where seedlings have not appeared, it will be possible to carry out overseeding.

How to properly care for your lawn

The article was updated on 01/30/2018