How to reseed a patchy lawn

Any well-loved lawn will fall victim to patches or bare spots over time. Even with the most carefully curated lawn care regime, your lawn may still suffer from damaged areas. Luckily, they are easy to fix, and it shouldn’t be too long before your lawn is back to its usual self - patch-free and thriving! So, join us as we look at how to reseed a patchy lawn and the warning signs of what causes a patchy lawn to look out for in the future.

If you have started to notice patches appearing across your lawn, there are lots of reasons why this could be happening, so knowing how to fix them and how to reseed a patchy lawn properly with durable grass seed starts with getting to the root of the problem (no pun intended).

Wear and tear is one of the most common causes of a patchy lawn, along with pests, diseases, shade, lack of fertiliser and pet urine. Take the time to investigate what is causing your lawn patches so that you can take the necessary steps to fix those and have your lawn at its best once again.

Tips for how to reseed a patchy lawn

There are many easy fixes that will help to bring your lawn back to life and keep it looking its best. Follow our step-by-step guide on how to overseed your lawn -

Remove any dead grass, weeds, or moss by scarifying/raking the area
Rake the area enough so that the soil is loose and not compact
Sow some seed at our recommended rate of 35g per m2 by using a seed spreader or your hand
Rake the seed in after sowing so that the seed is in amongst the soil
Firm down by foot or by using a roller to improve seed-to-soil contact
Water the just-sown seed well

If you are new to overseeding and this is your first time doing it, you can follow our more detailed guide on how to overseed your lawn and our video below on how to sow grass seed will also help:

Looking further at the causes of a patchy lawn

Let’s take a minute to look at some of the core reasons why a lawn becomes damaged so that you can begin to repair those effectively.

Dog urine

Don’t let the puppy eyes fool you! Our much-loved pups might look cute, but they can certainly make their mark on our lawns. Dog urine is one of the most common causes of a patchy lawn. If your dog uses your garden as a bathroom, then you will probably notice a few patches appearing across your lawn.

Nitrogen causes yellow patches on your lawn

Dog urine is incredibly high in nitrogen, and as a result, when it is applied directly to your lawn from close proximity, it can scorch your blades very easily. This can leave you with yellow, dry, and bare patches across your lawn.

There are a few ways that you can protect your grass from dog urine and help to minimise the damage, but if it’s too late for that, then make sure you follow our guide on how to repair dog urine patches.

Lack of nutrients

Patches across your lawn can be an indication that your grass is lacking in key nutrients. Well-fed grass will maintain its health, thickness, and appearance. However, if you have neglected to feed your lawn, you will start to notice some patches, thinning of your grass and a lack of overall health and vibrance.

Feeding your grass should be part of your regular lawn care regime, and it should be done a few times a year to make sure it never falls short of nutrients.

Our fertiliser guide will help you to understand what fertiliser is best for you to use throughout the year and the best lawn food for patchy grass, but as a minimum, you should be feeding your lawn in spring and autumn.

Granular Fertilisers

Try using our SLOW RELEASE: Spring / Summer fertiliser in spring and our SLOW RELEASE: Autumn / Winter fertiliser in autumn. Both of these will provide your grass with a slow-releasing feed that will last for 16 weeks. If you are new to fertilising your lawn, our guide on how to fertilise your lawn will keep you on the right track.

Quick Release Liquid Fertilisers

For quicker results, you can use our fasting-acting quick-release liquid lawn fertilisers, which feed your grass with nutrients over 6-8 weeks for better growth and greater resistance to common lawn diseases, making your grass greener and healthier!

Pests

Our grasses are living things and part of a much larger ecosystem, so it would be naïve of us to think that other living things wouldn’t make their way into our lawns every so often. When pests invade our grassy spaces, they can ravage the aesthetic look of our grass and turn our lawns into a sorry-looking place.

Leatherjackets and chafer grubs are the most common pests that you will find in UK gardens. Taking care of your lawn throughout the year by aerating, watering, mowing, feeding, and weeding will help to reduce the chances of these pests appearing on your lawn. For help and advice on managing these pests, make sure to read our guide on how to protect your lawn against pests.

Wear and tear

A patchy lawn might not look how you want it to, but that’s sometimes part of enjoying using your lawn, right? Gardens that are used frequently are quicker than others to show patches and thinning spots. There is not always an easy answer to fixing this issue, but making sure you have the right grass seed mixture is one of the most effective ways.

Hard-wearing grass seed is the answer

Our FAMILY: Kids and Pets grass seed is a hardwearing, quick-to-recover seed mix that has been designed to withstand the day-to-day stresses of heavy use. To help reduce the wear and tear on your lawn, you should also make sure to keep the area free from clutter/leaves etc, and finally, make sure you keep pests away and regularly fertilise your lawn.

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