Fall: Best time to overseed your lawn

Search “overseeding your lawn” and you’ll see many examples of the benefits of overseeding.

Overseeding is an effective application that plants new grass seed directly onto an existing lawn. This process is non-invasive and it spreads new grass seed over the surface without disturbing the soil or tearing up your turf.

Overseeding also strengthens the root system and nourishes plants for sustainable lawn health that fights off future pests, diseases, and drought conditions.

Our region does well with cool season grasses. The best time to overseed is generally in late summer or early fall / mid-August to mid-September, to ensure seedlings have an opportunity to take root before the colder local weather arrives. Cool nights and mild, shorter days provide the ideal conditions for seed germination. Grass seed is better able to retain moisture during the fall, and seedlings will thrive without the extreme heat that occurs in the summer months.

A lawn that's never overseeded tends to grow old. When it’s consistently mowed, it never has the chance to go to seed and propagate itself. Eventually, old lawns develope trouble maintaining growth, competing with weeds, and other lawn stresses.

New varieties of grass species are available every season, so it helps to integrate grass that may be resistant to disease, draught or insect damage.

If you aerate your lawn in the fall, it’s ideal to overseed afterwards and best when the seeds fall into the aeration holes: they won’t dry out as quickly and will germinate quicker. Don’t hesitate to go over the lawn with a rake to usher more seeds into the holes.

Water once or twice daily until the new grass begins to grow. The seed may need two weeks or more to germinate. Continue mowing as usual until growth stops for the season.

Grass seed ranges in quality so you’ll get what you pay for. Often, cheap seed is made up of generic, poor-performing varieties of grass or, worse, loaded with filler like weed seeds or annual ryegrass.

You don’t have to buy the most expensive variety, but look for something that's good quality and highly recommended by local experts.

At Kane County Landscape Materials & Supply we are stocked with the high quality seed.

We can add seed to any delivery — especially if you’re ordering topsoil.

We sell in 4lb and 25lb quantities