The Grass Doctor

Will grass seeds stop my weeds?

I have a large garden overrun with 3ft weeds. I have applied a weed killer and want to stop them from growing back. I would alo quite like grass. Can I scatter grass seeds after the weeds have died, will this look okay? Do I have to treat the soil in a certain way? Can I just throw the seeds down? Can I do this now (winter)? Basically I want a low maintainace weed-free garden! Any help greatly appreciated- I am not a gardener as you can tell!

Public Comments

1. Nope, but newspaper will!
2. dont put the seeds in now!! grass needs plenty of attention at the begining, including water, and if its freezing outside, you wont be able to give it that. (im from chicago, if you live where it is considerably warmer, then im not sure if im right about that.) often times within the grass seeds are more weeds, so dont put the weed killer away. kill all the weeds you can now, and when spring comes, turn up the ground a bit and then scatter the seeds, and give plenty of water.
3. After the weeds die, you need to remove their little dead bodies or it will look just as bad as before, only brown. You cannot just throw grass seed on the ground and wait for a lush green lawn to pop up. In either early fall or late spring, you must level the soil, take out the rocks, put down a peat moss or potting mix layer blended with top soil for the grass seed to take root in. Then cover that with a light layer of peat moss and keep it evenly moist. Then when it starts to sprout, make sure you pull all the weeds out to give the grass a chance to mature. When it is mature, you'll still have to keep it weed free because it won't choke them out on its own. Whew! That's alot of work. Grass is not a low-maintenance option. How about indoor-outdoor carpet in a nice shade of green?
4. Where there is life, weeds will find a way. You'll have to remove the dead weeds first. Then you'll have to loosen the soil a few inches. Smooth it out . The seeds have to be covered so what I do is spread the seed thickly and cover it with about a half an inch of good garden soil. Water it twice a day with a hand held sprinkler. If you move the soil to much the seed tends to clump and you end up with some heavy patches and some bare spots. The bad news.....nights should be at least 50 degrees before the seed will sprout and grow strong. Sorry but I don't think there is such a thing as a weed free garden or lawn. Try not to walk on it until you have mowed it twice.
5. If the weeds are dead and you killed them at the roots then you should work the ground up some with a tiller and rake it smooth. Rake the seeds into the ground, you don't need to go deep, you can also apply some straw over the seeds. That keeps the birds from eating them and also keep the water from washing them away. If you keep your yard healthy you should not have a problem with weeds in the future.
6. Spreading grass seed thick will allow the grass to block the weeds from germinating and should allow you to maintain a weed free yard.