How much to water grass seed?

robatwork

Hi,

I have just dug over my garden and sown grass seed. I didn't put any compost or feed, just the soil that was there. The soil wasn't great to be honest - very chalky and sandy.

In any case my query is - how wet do I keep the ground to encourage the grass to grow, as it hasn't rained much here at all. Dry with occasional sprinkle? Moist? Wet? The garden does get some sun when it's actually out, but has a lot of trees around so is mostly shady.

thanks in advance

demystified

Moist, ideally. Not constantly saturated. A little drying out is ok now and then.

Leif

In warm weather the surface dries out but not far below the surface it remains damp, assuming no drought. So you need the seeds to germinate, and gets roots down into the damp areas.

Seed scattered on the surface can dry and be eaten by birds. How big is the garden? They do say now is a bad time to sow grass seed though I have never tried. Autumn is supposed to be the best time.

aggypanthus

Every night, dont let the seed dry out.

robatwork

This lawn is about 4m x8m and is starting to sprout now from planting 12 days ago - I have been keeping it fairly well sprinkled.

Ash_McCloud

robatwork wrote: »

This lawn is about 4m x8m and is starting to sprout now from planting 12 days ago - I have been keeping it fairly well sprinkled.

Sounds like you're doing a good job. As demystified says, keep it moist but not saturated until it's looking lush and thick. Then I'd suggest watering it whenever you get a spell of dry weather between now and the end of Summer.

aggypanthus

Just sit and watch it grow now:)

If you just sowed it on old soil, might be an idea later to apply an autumn feed to it.

Leif

That's small, so you won't have problems watering it. Do you have a water butt? I use water from butts when applying weedkiller to the lawn, and when watering veg. (Some people say not to for various reasons.)

savemoney

Grass likes sandy soil anyway that said keep surface moist, it will soon grow if its moist and warm.

I just tend to sow grass and scatter a bit of light soil on top. You can now get fast acting grass that has anti bird deterrent in it, grass seed looks green

robatwork

Yep this was the green stuff.

Thanks for all the comments - looks like the current conditions are pretty good in any case