Knowing how to overseed a lawn with grass seed is invaluable and will ensure your garden is beautiful all year round! Whether your lawn is the centre of activity for family gatherings, kids running amok or dogs doing laps and digging all-day long – almost everyone's lawn can look tired and worn at times. On top of this, things like the treatment and removal of weeds, long, hot summer days or cold and frosty winter weather can all take their toll!

The tips below will take you through some easy steps on how to overseed a lawn so that you can bring your garden back to its former glory!

Check the weather forecast

In the same way that the weather's important when planting grass seeds on a new lawn, you also need the temperatures to be right when overseeding. Keep an eye out for temperatures reaching around 10 degrees and above, night and day, for two weeks; these conditions are perfect for overseeding. Also, be wary of predicted heavy rainfall or high temperatures, as they could damage your newly sown grass seed!

Carry out your prep-work

Prep work really is the key to success when sowing grass seed and aiming to overseed a lawn successfully. Without the correct preparation before you begin, you may not get the best results, and you could miss the opportunity to get the best garden lawn possible!

For this reason, walk around your garden and look for weeds and moss that need removing from your lawn. If you only have a small amount of weeds or mosses in your garden, you can remove them by hand, but if larger areas are affected, then you could use our 3 in 1 Lawn Rescue.

Once you have removed weeds and moss, the next step is to mow your lawn. Cutting your grass at this stage is recommended because you won't be able to do it again for roughly 6-8 weeks after overseeding - this is to let your seedlings grow. And once you have finished mowing, you should rake all the loose material and dead grass away from the surface of your lawn.

Pick your seed of choice

Since overseeding your lawn allows you to thicken up and repair any damaged patches of grass, picking the correct grass seed will ensure revitalising your lawn goes as planned.

We have a range of seed mixes to suit your needs!

• Ideal for a lawn that gets a lot of footfall from the entire family, our Fast Grow Family Lawn is fast-growing, durable and recovers quickly from wear and tear.
• Suited to a lawn loved by pets, the grass seeds in our Tough Stuff Lush Lawn are selected to overcome the wear and tear that dogs dish out (and dig up)!
• If your garden suffers from shade caused by overhanging trees, dense hedgerows, garden fences, or walls, then our Shade Supreme Lawn seed is what you require. This mix contains a blend of shade-resistant seeds that shoot up from the soil in sunlight-starved areas of your garden.
• All Rounder Rapid Lawn does as its name suggests since it is a fast-growing, durable grass seed suited to all areas of your lawn.
• If you have a garden that catches the eye of passers-by or your lawn is decorative and a joy to look at, then our Super Fine Luxury Lawn is for you. This seed mix also contains the finest fescues that grow great in sandy and dry soils and give your lawn an ornamental finish that would be fit for playing tennis!
• Our New Build Dream Lawn is a hard-wearing grass seed designed to provide luscious growth in clay-based soils. It creates a beautiful green lawn that can tolerate drought and heavy downpours.

Once you have picked the ideal seed for your garden, you are ready to start overseeding your lawn. Make sure you pay attention to the seed sowing rates to ensure you get full and thick coverage - the recommended sowing rate for our grass seed is 35g per m2.

Deter birds from interfering

Once your seed is down, you're on the home straight. But the last thing you want to see at this stage is a flock of birds swooping in and feasting on your freshly laid grass seed! Thankfully, there are a few easy steps you can take to deter birds away from your newly seeded lawn.

Using a tarpaulin or net to cover the area will stop birds from stealing your seed. Or you could use some old CDs attached to bamboo using some string, and the reflections will deter birds and stop them from stealing your seeds.

Alternatively, you could leave out some bird feeders filled with tasty bird food – this will satisfy their appetite and fill their bellies, so they leave your freshly sown seed alone.

Lawn seeding aftercare

With most of the work now done, the only thing left is the aftercare to ensure your seedlings grow to their full potential. The best thing you can do is to water your seeds once a day for six weeks after you sow them. Then, on days when it rains (a common thing in the UK), you can skip watering and let nature do the work for you.

By sticking to a watering routine, you will be helping your new grass seeds grow to create a beautiful, lush green lawn.

You could consider adding lawn food to your garden for an added boost. Lawn food gives your grass a feed of nutrients that enhances growth and makes your lawn incredibly lush and vibrantly green! We also have a selection of lawn food options to suit your garden and the season.

Now you know how to overseed a lawn, but if you need more advice, we have a guide for sowing grass seed and even some tips for sowing grass seed in spring. Just remember that when a lawn begins to look patchy, overseeding is often the best solution - especially when people (and pets) use it throughout the year for everything from barbecues, social gatherings and kids and dogs playing and running around.