Reseeding lawn, what seed?

Nilrem

Hi

We're in the process of getting our back garden sorted, and levelling it, as we've got to reseed part of it anyway we thought it a good time to get the lawn sorted out as it's been let go a bit over the last few years, and is now about 25% moss (I didn't realise it was that bad:p).

We've got a shady back garden that tends towards damp, and floods every year or so* (fortunately the lawn is a lot lower than the house!), what we're doing at the moment is getting the soil aerated and applying lawn feed/moss killer (also scarifing it**) whilst we sift and mix the soil that's going to be used to level it (it doesn't need much levelling so it's largely going to be a thin layer).

So, the question is, does anyone know of a good, hard wearing lawn seed that can cope with shady ground that floods from time to time.


*The disadvantage of a stream at the bottom of the garden (although the stream has to rise about 8 foot to even start to flood the garden), although the advantages are quite good (kingfisher, loads of wildlife etc).

**Well we started, but after several ours and barely making a dent in the moss on the ground (but getting a huge pile up), we've got an electric lawn rake/scarifier on order (we did about 2 square metres in 2-3 hours, out of 90m2 or so).

Nilrem

Ah, thanks Nile, I didn't spot this section.

Sorry about that.

rca779

OK am I being thick or is there no link to where this thread has been moved to?
How do I found out where it is now as I am interested to see people's opinions on this?

WestonDave

Its on the greenfingered forum.

kazire

I was looking for some grass seed yesterday and in wilkinson they had seed for shaded areas, hardwearing, luxury etc... so im pretty sure other places will do it in these varietys, think the bags were around the £4 mark or a little cheaper - hope this helps

WestonDave

The wilkinsons bags will do 30msq each so that would be about £12. Their shady varient won't be very hardwearing as it has no rye grass in the mixture but it depends whether you are going to have much walking/playing on the grass when its finished, or whether you just want a good looking lawn for ornamental purposes. They do a hardwearing one, and also a quick growing one which may be heavier duty and might stand the flooding better.

Given that you need about 3 packs I might be tempted to mix the shady one and the hardwearing one to perhaps give a good shady result on most of the lawn, but with a bit more resilience for the flooding.

The other possibility is to have a look and see if there is something like a Countrywide Farmers outlet near you, and see what they have on offer. It might be cheaper there to buy something in bulk - they are open to the public.

jimbo_the_jetset

WestonDave wrote: »

The wilkinsons bags will do 30msq each so that would be about £12.

They sell it loose in large bins at my local Wilko which is cheaper than boxes. Just fill up the paper bag, weigh it, prints off a bar code sticker.

bertiebots

I got my grass seed form wilkinsons. They do loose seed which you can weigh out into paper bags. They do fine and tough. I got the tough 500g for just under £1.50.
Our back lawn is quite shady in places and gets very water logged being clay . Put the seed down after aerating the lawn a few weeks ago and its looking great.

bertiebots

:rotfl:You beat me to it jimbo!

kazire

jimbo_the_jetset wrote: »

They sell it loose in large bins at my local Wilko which is cheaper than boxes. Just fill up the paper bag, weigh it, prints off a bar code sticker.

i got some of the loose seed yesterday i just wanted a scoop/jug of it, thought they were going to weight it at the till becasue they only had old fashioned weighing scales where the seed was in the wilko i went into yesterday so go the the till and the guy was like is this the cheaper one n how much have you got so charged me 1.48 for 500g might of had more than 500g and also could of had the more expensive one (although i didnt) so could get a little extra this way for your money.

Nilrem

Thanks for the replies

I saw the bags of "shady" seed in B&Q but wanted to make sure there wasn't a better option (as is often the case with other stuff:)), as I don't fancy reseeding again in a couple of years if it can be helped.

Westerndave, I'll definitely have a look for a Countrywide Farmers (I suspect if they are national we'll have one near us).