Making progress towards a lush lawn

Are you a good gardener? I would call myself more of an aspiring gardener.

I moved into this house in November, and it is the first time that I’ve had an actual yard in my adult life, after years of apartment living.

Since it was already quite cold out when I moved, it was hard to tell what the lawn might be like in warmer weather. Now that spring is here, I can see that the yard is mostly weeds! And I do yearn for a lush lawn. 

 Little tufts of grass among the weeds.

I discovered some grass seed in the basement from the previous owners. One warm morning about three weeks ago, I did some hasty online searching, vigorously raked, sprinkled seed, and watered.

And then nothing happened. A week went by. Two weeks went by.

And then, low and behold – tiny sprouts of grass!

I was ready for a more informed approach to growing grass, and enlisted Neil, owner of the Brooklyn Floral Wholesale Market in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn help me troubleshoot and fix my lawn and make it the lush lawn I aspire to. Here’s what he had to say:

Do you have any advice for fixing up a patchy lawn that is mostly weeds?

Make sure that you rake the problem areas first so that the ground is sufficiently loose. You can work in patches over the course of a few weeks. Use a small hand rake to work the area, and then seed the area generously. You want to keep it well watered.

I noticed that some areas that I seeded are growing in well while other areas are not as much. What can I do?

Right now, the weather in New York is still a little cool and can affect seed germination. I’d continue seeding as the weather warms up and you might see more consistent results.

Is there any particularly good time to seed, or should I just continue to fix up the lawn over the course of the summer? 

The best time to seed a lawn is the spring and early fall. I’d work on some late spring seeding and then once again early fall and you’ll be in even better shape for next year.

Do you have any tips for growing grass? Please share!