The Packet of Grass Seed
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I have spent many hours looking at grass seed. Seed in bags, seed in sacks, seed sown on the ground, seed being transported away by ants and seed being eaten for breakfast by the local bird population. But the packet of grass seed still remains the most popular and the LEAST successful lawn solution. In fact a packet of seed (the cost of an average takeaway) is NOT the solution for a decent lawn in Spain, or a quick & cheap solution for any lawn project |
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"Lawn Looks Patchy", "I want an English Lawn in Spain", "The last packet I tried didn't work, maybe the seed was no good, maybe I need a different packet...", "I'll try again, maybe I need to sow at a different time of year", "I'll try again, maybe I need a different Gardener"
The reality - Maybe you're no good at growing plants from seed!
Whatever, so lets buy a packet of grass seed anyway!
I have spent many hours browsing the shelves of grass lawn seed for sale in outlets here in Spain. There are many types sold in DIY stores, Nurseries and Garden Centers, and nearly all of them have one thing in common - they all contain mixtures of different types of grasses.
Now this seems quite a sensible approach to hedging your bets on the success of sowing a lawn, maybe some of it will grow!.
For example hardly any lawns receive the full amount of sun distributed evenly all over the lawn all day, so a mixture of grasses would seem to be a good solution for a lawn where some of it receives full sun and some of it is in the shade part of the day.
However
here is a typical example of the problems in sowing a grass seed mixture...
Sowing a "Sun" lawn seed mix results in some of the grass by the hedge gradually dying due to lack of sun, and the grass in the sun becoming patchy due to the shade tolerant grasses dying due to too much sun.
So the solution is to plant (or sow) the grass for the majority of your lawn (i.e Full Sun), and to sow/or plant grass that is shade tolerant in the shady section of your lawn.
And guess what... Then the grasses will sort out the shade/sun boundary for themselves.
| Fact: The fastest seeds in the mix to germinate will be the first types of grass to die in the heat of the summer. | If you examine the contents of Packets of Grass seed, they nearly all contain up to 90% English Cool Season Grasses. The reason for this is simple, English type Cool Season grasses germinate quickly - maybe as quickly as 3 - 4 days. |
This little trick is used by the Suppliers to provide a "feel good factor" for the purchaser, in as much as you can see the results for your investment within a very short time. As opposed to most Warm Season (Mediterranean) grass seed which will take up to 30 days to germinate, and that's not a good PR selling point for the supplier.
| Next is the question of when to sow. Most of us will know due to experience that in the UK grass lawns are best sown in the Autumn or Spring. That's also true in the Med, but only for the Cool Season grasses. If your mix contains 10% of warm season Mediterranean grass then 10% will not germinate. | Fact: English type cool season grass seed germinates in around 3 - 5 days and most warm season grass seed germinates in around 30 days. |
In fact it is generally only during the months of June, July and August (see lawn calendar) that Mediterranean grasses have consistently high enough temperatures to germinate, and these are the months that are the hottest and present the worst problems for constant soil humidity.
So whether you buy "Cesped Mediterraneo", "Cesped Sombre", "Cesped Calor", "Cesped par Sol", "Cesped Rustico", "Cesped Umbria", "Cesped Esportivo", sowing them will produce a lawn for a few months if you sow during the Winter months, but after that you will likely end up with disappointing results and a brown patchy lawn.
There are NO cheap short cuts. There are no cheap single species grass seed. There are NO seed mixes that give you a drought resistant year round green lawn. There are NO seed mixes that give you 100% germination. There are NO packet seed mixes that don't result in copious amounts of water and attention every day.
We sell singe species Winter (cool season) and Summer (warm season) seed types that are chosen for their colour, texture and performance. We have many to choose from. They all work and produce a beautiful lawn - one will be the best type for you.
So contact us for your Autumn/Winter/Spring Lawn Grass Seed.
Article by:
Greengrass
