Putting grass seed down and getting of weeds

Giraffe76

Hi all,

We have a garden that is bare in places and needs grass seed put down. I've bought the grass seed and have taken advice from 2 different people. 1 person said to leave it until September as the conditions are better suites for grass growing and the other person said you can put it down but if there's no rain for 2 or 3 days then start to water it.
We also have dandelions and other weeds in the grass thats there and I was going to use a weed and feed but didn't know if this was the best course of action or if someone could recommend something better
We also have dogs that do their business on the grass which obviously doesn't help so the grass seed is the most resistant to that situation that I could find

Any advice and recommendations would be most appreciated

Kind regards mark 

Devongardener

Weed and Feed and any lawn weed killer is dangerous for dogs, so don’t use that.   You could dig the weeds out by hand, or at least the bigger one like dandelions,  then give the rest of the lawn a really good rake and aeration with a fork.  You can sow lawn seed now but will have to keep it well watered until it gets established, and keep the dogs off!  Lay some twiggy bits over the sown patches to stop the birds from eating the seed. Good luck!

fatbelly

Not a big fan of weed & feed anymore.

I would say to sow now and see how things look at the end of the season. You may want to re-sow then.

A few weeds should not be a problem. With dogs you are not going to have a show lawn anyway. Try to remove dandelion flowers before they seed and spot weed where you can.

Dizzycap

I don't use feed & weed on the lawn because I have a precious dog I do get the odd dandy but I de-weed by hand with my helper in tow

My advice would be sow the grass seed now, water early in the morning for a week, and keep sowing through the year, especially after mowing. I soak my grass seed in water for 24 hours before sowing as it seems to take better and produces much more lush grass.

ButterCheese

I had similar a few years back.  I dug out the biggest of the weeds (pretty much anything I could see that wasn't grass).  I then overseeded the lawn.  I think I did it in June, it was hot, so I watered it in daily.  It all popped up fine.  I also used a weedkiller (I can't remember the brand, but it said it kills weeds not lawns) and that worked really well.  I would probbaly not use it on freshly sprouted grass though - use it beforehand and then spread your seed.

I also have seen/heard a lot of advice about seeding and overseeding.  When you should do it, when you shouldn't, what month, how hot, how to rake it in, roll it in or not etc etc.  Well, I first seeded mine from pure dirt during a hot July/August , and lazily trampled it in.  It all sprang up really well, no bare patches and it was all even