Which grass seed is best

There is plenty of grass seed out there with many 'miracle' promises, and friends and family may also make their own recommendations on what worked for them - but it helps to look at the finer facts of what you're buying in order to get the very best grass seed for your lawn.

You may be wondering why having pure grass seed is so important and the simple answer is that if it isn't, it will contain unwanted weed seeds and may be filled with product that simply isn't grass seed at all. Similarly, you want to ensure that the grass seed you purchase will germinate and grow as expected and so do we - that's why we introduced our Grass Seed Growth Guarantee to reassure you that if you follow our instructions for sowing, your grass seed will grow - and if it doesn't for some strange reason, we'll work with you to put it right.

Whilst many people fall at the first hurdle of a lawn transformation by purchasing a low quality seed and often through no fault of their own , the second error that D. Y'ers will fall foul to is seed that isn't fit for purpose.

We've covered this a few times in our guides: Types of grass seed: Getting the most out of your mixture , Grass seed for different soil types and Choosing the best seed for a shaded lawn , but the best grass seed for you depends on the actual varieties that are in the mix you've chosen. So what IS the best grass seed for your lawn? I always think that choosing lawn seed is an awful lot like choosing a life partner.

There might be some compromises along the way but you need a mix that will like your garden and your lawn care regime. In return, you have like what you see and be able to help the grass to thrive. So what do you need to consider. As a rule of thumb, choose your grass species for their functionality rather than their looks. A healthy lawn is almost always a good looking one.

Go for grass species that thrive in your soil type and cope well with the way you want to use and care for your lawn. There are literally more species of grass than I care to shake a stick at.

But not all of them will make a great lawn. Some make great hay, some are used for silage and grazing livestock. Then there are grasses that are used to stablilise river banks and sand dunes. Most of the seed available in garden centres will be a mix of two or more of these.

Fast to germinate, this is a robust type of grass. Agricultural ryegrasses can be quite coarse but the ones bred especially for lawns are fine leaved and very easy to grow. Ryegrass tends to have deep green lustrous leaves with a bit of a shine to them. In fact one way to identify ryegrass is to examine a blade of grass. Fescues tend to be fine leaved grasses that recover well from cutting.

These have a high shoot density and give a lawn a lovely velvety texture. These are also the first grasses to lose their colour during a hot dry summer. Bluegrass is the smallest seed and contains about 1,, seeds per pound. Ryegrass and Turf-Type Tall Fescue contain between , to , seeds per pound. If you want more bluegrass than ryegrass, this blend would work fine.

If you want more ryegrass than bluegrass, change the ratios. It is the perfect time to start the process to make sure the new grass has plenty of time to grow and gain strength before the winter sets in.

If you want more information on overseeding your lawn, contact your neighborhood lawn and tree care professional at Spring-Green. No Location Added. Enter your address to find available services. What is the best grass seed? But first, a few pointers on growing lawn grass regardless of where you are.

All lawn grass needs sunlight to grow into a thick, healthy, deeply rooted lawn. Most grasses need a minimum of six hours of direct sunlight.

Consider other alternatives, like shade-loving ground covers or low-growing perennials for densely shaded areas. Grass also needs adequate moisture. During the growing season, it needs about an inch of water per week combined total of rainfall and irrigation. In arid locations, dry-climate alternatives to traditional grass lawns are a more sustainable landscape choice. Soil conditions are equally important to growing healthy lawn grass.

These grasses grow best in an aggregate mixture of sand, silt, and clay. This type of soil drains excess water easily, but it retains enough to act as a reservoir between rains.

Marginal soils can be improved with organic matter by leaving the grass clippings on the lawn after mowing and occasionally top dressing the lawn with compost. Fertilizer and lime help to supply the required additional nutrients. For traditional lawn grasses, the best grass seed brand may be one of the big national brands. Those are the folks who do the research and develop new seed strains and seed blends. Smaller specialty seed companies may be better equipped to provide native grass seeds and other nontraditional seed blends.