| STEP 4- You next step is to prepare your site for
your seed. We are going to assume that you will be "killing" off your
existing grass and/or weeds. If you need to overseed see the section on
1-2-3 Easyseed. STEP
5- There are two methods you can use to "kill" off your current lawn.
The best method is to spray the lawn with a "Roundup" type product before you
roto-till. (Follow label directions regarding
waiting time for planting seed after using chemicals) This ensures that the existing grasses and weeds will not stay around to
compete with your newly seeded lawn plants. The second method is to just tiller
(roto-till) the existing weeds and grasses without killing the plants with
chemicals. This is not really effective way of removing weeds but if you have some
time(1-2 weeks) it will work with repeated tillings.
STEP 6- Most likely you will need to tiller the lawn at least
two times so as to incorporate the soil and old plant material uniformly. This is
especially true if you do not use a chemical to kill existing plants. A good method
is to till the lawn and then wait a week before tilling a second time. This results
in more "kill" of current plants in your lawn area.
| STEP 7-
After tilling the lawn ... you need to drag and level the
surface to provide for a clean, smooth, firm and level soil
surface to plant within. Properly leveling your lawn
now will help to avoid the lawn being scalped by your mower.
You can use a rake to do this step or for bigger areas some
sort of heavy drag like device, pulled behind a tractor or
riding lawn mower can achieve similar results. |
 |
Remove any clumps of weeds or grass left, and break up
clods of dirt to create a fine seedbed in the top 3 inches of
soil. |
