[benkt]

 I've got a half-acre field that now needs sowing with grass seed (as soon as some rain is forecast - too warm and sunny here  ) and no handy machines to do it with. Does anyone have advice or tips for how to go about it?

 

[Fleecewife]

Hi Ben.  I haven't done this onto bare ground, just overseeding pasture, but two of us did a couple of acres surprisingly quickly by hand.  Tie a bag/folded over hessian sack around your waist with the seed in, so you can get both hands in easily, then walk slowly throwing a handful of seed in an arc forwards and outwards with first one hand then the other.  If you mix silver sand in with the grass seed you can see how evenly and thickly you are covering.  You soon get into a rhythm and control your forward speed to give the correct coverage. Work a grid up and down the field.  I suppose that if you don't feel the seed is evenly spread then you could repeat at right angles to your first direction.

[ser3dan]

Hi Ben,
I've only done it on fresh earth and not had to do it as overseed, but most seed manufacturers will give a weight of seed to metre squared figure - when I had to do it I marked out a square metre and spread the recommended amount equally over it so you know what the right coverage looks like. Then I did as Fleecewife says! 

[mab]

I did about 0.8 acre a couple of years ago. A buldozer had left it as bare earth.

I paced it out and marked it roughly into 10 equal sections ( so I could portion out the seed evenly, and not run out before I finished)). Also by marking out I had convenient breakpoints so I could stop and not lose track of what had been done.

just scattered by hand over each section (side to side then up & down as Fleecewife suggests) then raked it in - which helps distribute it and saves some of it from the pidgeons.

mab

[bloomer]

biggest i ever did was about 0.25 of an acre, did as fleecwife described didn't take long at all.

how even is the ground have you got it relatively level is it broken up (not too compacted) the leveller te ground it the better the seed falls otherwise it collects in and hollows in the earth and you get clumping....

[OhLaLa]

Follow the instructions given by Fleecewife. As you begin to walk forward fix your eye on an object directly in front of you in the distance. This will help you keep your line straight and not drift over to one side or the other when walking. When you have finished the field start again by doing exactly the same but across the field - so you will have walked up and down then left and right.

 

[Norfolk Newby]

Same problem 2 years ago. The ground was rather dry (very dry, Norfolk!) so I had to break up the surface with a harrow first to provide something to cover the seeds or the birds would have had it all.

Then I used canes to mark two opposite sides at 2m intervals to give me some guidelines. Sprinkling the stuff on wasn't a problem walking towards each cane in turn. I figured I could throw the seeds 1m either side of my track fairly consistently.

Then I went over the land with a chain harrow smooth side down to cover the seeds as much as possible.

The grass came up fairly sparsely at first but by last summer (first full year after planting) it had spread to give a complete covering.

I use the area as a parking space (car, trailer, tractor) and to fit attachments to my tractor before working on the rest of my field so it isn't used with animals or to cut hay. The ground is too poor for that and I don't want to use lots of fertilisers.

So, if you want to have a dense growth quickly you might be best to adopt a more scientific approach. However, given some time and patience, this is an economical approach.


   

[Fleecewife]

Ben seems to have disappeared - I wonder if the new baby has arrived  to keep him away from his computer - and from spreading grass seed  .

[benkt]

Good guess!

http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/forum/index.php?topic=13874.0

[Fleecewife]

Hi Ben.  Yes I saw that after I had posted here - congratulations all over again   Having the new baby and the baby pigs beats spreading grass seed by hand any day    Have fun