Paternal lawn wisdom

Brian Evison has emailed to ask:    

An old gardener told me many years ago that chitting grass seed would help immensely when sowing a lawn ... I moved to Canada a few years ago and I was surprised when I mentioned chitting to people, they had never heard of the practice, even chitting potatoes. Could you settle the argument, would chitting grass seed help in establishing a new lawn.

Well, I'm not aware of the chapter and verse from the lawn professionals on this one, but I do know that my dad has always recommended mixing some grass seed with the same quantity of dampened compost or sand and allowing it to sprout before applying to the area to be reseeded.  It does help to kickstart the lawn as the sprouts immediately have something to get growing into and it gives a more even coverage of new grass, because you can see which areas you have already covered. I've never heard this technique referred to as chitting, but I guess it is a fair description.

I've slightly modified my dad's technique by placing the grass seed/compost/sand mix in a see-through plastic box - the kind you get from takeaways - so you can see when it's starting to sprout. This helps you to add the grass shoots at the right time before they get much beyond 1cm sprouts.

I'd also recommend preparing the ground before you resow: remove any weeds, fork the ground over to improve drainage and brush some sharp sand into the holes to help your new grass get off to a good start. And remember to water the new shoots regularly until the reseeded lawn is well established.

Comments

[bean]

This is one of the most useful tips I've come across in a long time, and at a very opportune moment - I managed to strip a chunk out of my lawn when the height guide fell off of the strimmer and the cutter line spindle dug into the dirt! My attempts at re-seeding have always been a bit hit-and-miss so I'll be trying this technique out in the next few days.

Thanks.