Water twice a day is key to healthy seed growth

In a few weeks it will be time to plant grass seed. You may need to patch some spots that didn't make it through the winter or you may have decided it's time to do the whole lawn. Overseeding the lawn is not very complicated. I have a complete description of all the steps on my Web site at http://www.yardener.com">www.yardener.com; use search words "Overseeding lawns."

Probably the step in overseeding that is the most difficult to perform is the last -- watering the newly seeded lawn. The minimum for success is watering the lawn twice a day, in the morning and late afternoon, for at least two weeks. Three times a day is better.

Now the reality is few of us have the time available to carry out that task at the level needed for success.

When grass seed is moistened, and then allowed to dry out for just a day or two, the germination rate can be reduced by up to 50 percent!

All that work and you get only modest results.

Help is now available, however. You can now buy quality grass seed from Scott's called "Water Smart" seed.

This seed has been coated with some kind of polymer that absorbs water. So when you water this seed after spreading it on your lawn, each individual seed will grab some of that water and hold it available just in case you forget to water your new seed as frequently as you should.

You can even miss a day without too much worry.

Now that is a great breakthrough. Yes, it costs more, but think of the cost to you if only 50 percent of your seed germinates.

My feeling, at this point, is not to assume that this coating on Scott's grass seed gives me permission to stop worrying about watering my new seed. My assumption is that the coating is my backup; I still need to try to water my new seed twice a day.

Remember we are not soaking the soil here, we are just keeping the seed moist. That means a good spritz is sufficient; no deep soaking.

This Water Smart seed by Scott's is found in Lowe's, Home Depot and some of the better independent garden centers. I'm going to certainly give it a try.

What about top dressing?

Many lawn care books advise "top dressing" the lawn in the spring with a thin layer of top soil, the purpose being to get some organic matter into the lawn. Unfortunately, top soils today have little organic matter as they did 30 years ago. If you still want to top dress with top soil, then add some Canadian sphagnum peat moss or some compost to that top soil.

Then you are doing some good. Spreading just the peat moss and compost does just as good a job.

Jeff Ball is a freelance garden writer living in the Detroit area. His blog is http://www.gardeneryardener.blogspot.com">www.gardeneryardener.blogspot.com. His Web site is http://www.yardener.com">www.yardener.com. His e-mail is jeffball@starband.net">jeffball@starband.net.