How to Reseed a Lawn

Reseeding a lawn involves starting your lawn over from scratch. So, you’ll need to strip away your current lawn before prepping the soil, spreading grass seed, fertilizing, and watering. Let’s go over how to reseed a lawn.

Tools and materials for reseeding your lawn

You will need the following tools and materials for your reseeding project:

• Herbicide, black or clear plastic, cardboard, or newspaper
• Soil testing kit
• Soil amendments
• Sod cutter or spade
• Aerator
• Rake
• Broadcast spreader or drop spreader
• Topsoil or compost
• Grass seed
• Starter fertilizer
• Lawn roller

Step 1: Kill off existing turf and weeds

The first step to reseeding your lawn is killing your existing lawn — grass, weeds, and all. There are a few ways you can do this:

• Non-selective herbicide (you may need to use this multiple times especially for tough-to-kill weeds)
• Soil solarization using black or clear plastic
• Sheet mulching with cardboard or newspaper

Note: Don’t use a non-selective herbicide that also prevents weed germination after. It will prevent your grass from sprouting. 

Once all the vegetation has died off, use a sod cutter or a spade to remove the grass and weeds.

Step 2: Test your soil and amend if needed

Good soil makes for healthy, strong turf. Conducting a soil test will help you reveal soil issues that may have caused your old grass to become lackluster and may cause your reseeding project to fail too. These issues include:

• Improper pH level. Grasses prefer a pH level of 6.0 to 7.0.
• Nutrient deficiencies. To grow properly, turf needs nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (N-P-K).
• Bad soil texture. Loamy soil is the best for growing grass.

You’ll need to apply soil amendments to fix soil issues. If you shipped soil samples to a professional soil testing lab, they will recommend amendments and fertilizer to apply to your soil.

To learn more about soil testing and amendments, check out our articles:

• “How to Read a Soil Test Report”
• “How to Change Your Soil pH”
• “Why, When, and How to Apply Lime to Your Lawn”

Step 3: Aerate if needed

Another issue that will make it difficult for your new grass to grow is compacted soil. Over time, soil gets pressed together tightly. The result is compacted soil that makes it difficult for water, nutrients, and air to reach your turf’s root system. Compacted soil is also harder for your young grass to push through, stunting its growth. Lawn aeration will cure compacted soil.

Step 4: Rake your lawn

Next, you’ll want to take your rake and get rid of debris on your lawn such as rocks and leftover grass clippings that can prevent good seed-to-soil contact. Then, use your rake to level your lawn.

If you have mild to severe unevenness, you may want to read our guide on “How to Level an Uneven Lawn” for solutions a rake won’t fix.

Step 5: Add topsoil or compost

Spreading a thin layer of enriched topsoil or compost over your lawn will add nutrients to the soil that your new grass will appreciate. Enriched topsoil is made up of loamy soil and organic matter.

Use your lawn spreader to spread a ¼-inch layer of topsoil across your whole lawn. You can learn more about this practice in our guide to topdressing your lawn.

Step 6: Pick the right grass seed for your lawn

To successfully reseed your lawn, you should pick the right grass seed for your lawn and your lawn care capabilities. These are some of the factors to take into account when choosing a grass type for your lawn:

• Location and climate
• Soil type and pH
• Sun and shade
• Foot traffic
• Aesthetics
• Maintenance needs

For example, if you live in the northern half of the country and want a low-maintenance lawn, choose fine fescue (a cool-season grass). In the southern half, the warm-season buffalograss, Zoysiagrass, or centipedegrass might be a better fit for you.

Here are some articles that will help you choose the best grass seed for your lawn:

• “Best Grasses for High-Traffic Areas”
• “Best Grasses to Walk on Barefoot”
• “Best Drought-Tolerant Grasses”
• “Best Grasses for Dogs”
• “Best Grass for Sandy Soil”

Step 7: Spread the seeds evenly

Now, it’s time to load your grass seed into your lawn spreader. To evenly distribute the seed over your lawn, we recommend bi-directional seeding. Bi-directional seeding involves making two passes over your lawn, once from north to south and then again from east to west. So, load half of the total amount of grass seed you need, spread it, and then load the other half.

We recommend using a broadcast spreader or a drop spreader as both can spread grass seed, fertilizer, and topsoil evenly. Broadcast spreaders are better for larger lawns, but drop spreaders are more precise. Your bag of grass seed should tell you what setting to set your spreader to.

You may also want to consider slice seeding, although it’s more expensive. You can learn more about this seeding technique here, “What is Slice Seeding?”

How much grass seed do I need? It depends on the type of grass and the area you’re trying to reseed. Typically, the label on your grass seed bag will tell you how much grass seed you need per 1,000 square feet. To learn more, check out this formula in our guide, “How to Grow Grass”.

Step 8: Ensure good seed-to-soil contact

When you’re done spreading the seeds, tamp them down into the soil to ensure good seed-to-soil contact. Here are some ways you can do this:

• Use the back of your rake to press down on the soil. 
• Rake the seeds into the soil.
• Run a lawn roller lightly over your lawn.

Step 9: Apply starter fertilizer

Since your grass needs nutrients to grow, it’s not a bad idea to fertilize your lawn with starter fertilizer after seeding. This special fertilizer is formulated to have more phosphorus and less potassium to support root growth, which your new grass needs to develop a strong root system.

While you can apply starter fertilizer after seeding your lawn, you can also choose to postpone it until six to eight weeks after the grass has germinated to minimize issues such as uneven growth.

If you want to learn more about fertilizing new grass, check out these articles:

• “A Complete Guide to Fertilizing New Grass”
• “Will Fertilizer Kill New Grass?”
• “Can You Fertilize and Seed at the Same Time?”

Step 10: Protect the grass seeds

You can spread a thin layer of light mulch over your lawn to protect your newly planted seeds from birds and other animals. Mulch also helps your soil retain moisture and prevent erosion.

The most common mulch homeowners use to cover their grass seeds is straw. The Michigan State University Extension recommends using clean wheat, oat, or barley straw and avoiding rye straw as much as possible. Using clean straw minimizes the risk of weed seeds hitching along for the ride and making themselves at home on your lawn.

You can also use peat moss to cover your seeds.

Step 11: Water your lawn

The last thing you need to do is to give your new lawn some water. You want to water lightly to prevent the seeds from moving around. Your new grass seeds will need to be kept moist as they germinate and grow; drying out means dying out.

This means you’ll need to lightly water your lawn two to three times a day every day. You can learn more about watering grass seed in these articles:

• “How Often to Water Grass Seed”
• “How Long to Water New Grass Seed”

FAQs about reseeding

What is the difference between reseeding and overseeding?

The difference between reseeding and overseeding is that overseeding is planting grass seed over an existing lawn, while reseeding is scrapping your existing grass and starting over. 

You can read more about their differences in this article, “Reseeding vs. Overseeding a Lawn”.

When is the best time to reseed my lawn?

The best time to reseed your lawn depends on what grass you’re growing. If you are growing cool-season grass, reseed your lawn from late summer to early fall. You should reseed in late spring or early summer if you have warm-season grass.

Our guide on when to reseed your lawn covers this more in-depth.

How do I care for new grass?

Here’s how to care for your new grass:

• Water frequently. Water multiple times a day – gradually lessening how much water you put out – to keep the seeds and new grass moist.
• Mow when it’s 3 to 4 inches tall. Mowing before your grass is this height will stress it out.
• Avoid weed control products. Weed control products will hurt your new grass. Try hand-weeding if possible. As a last resort, spot treat by spraying only the weeds.
• Don’t step on your grass. Avoid foot traffic for at least a month to avoid trampling your new grass. It’s too weak at this point to handle foot traffic. 

Hire a lawn care pro to reseed your lawn

Starting your lawn over from scratch can be time-consuming and labor-intensive. Time and energy are not resources many people are willing to spend, especially if they’re worried about failure. For a big lawn care project such as this, we recommend hiring a professional to handle it.

Lawn Love can connect you with capable pros in your area who can reseed your lawn. They’ll be there to dethatch and aerate your lawn, spread the seed, fertilize your young grass, and mow it once it’s tall enough. Hire a lawn care pro through Lawn Love today.

• Main Photo Credit: Amy Stenglein | Lawn Love