On Jun 1, 9:33*pm, "Mark Jones" wrote:
tony w wrote:
Well, I re-seeded the lawn yesterday, did it properly, added some
compost as a light overlay, and the heavens opened this evening and
washed most of the seed away! I now have nice little 'battle lines' of
compost at various stages on the back garden, and am not hopeful that
much of the seed will sprout.

All that hard work for nothing...... and it was looking pretty good,
kept it all wet, now I don't know when I can start again as storms are
forecast for pretty much the whole of the next week......


If you had waited until Fall and then used a slice seeder, as I
recommended, that would not have happened. The slice seeder cuts
grooves that the seed drops into, so it's much harder to wash away.
Trying to grow grass from seed now is a losing proposition. The
seeding should have been done 2 months ago and even then it's not the
best time.

Now you're trying to grow new grass in summer, which is the worst
possible time. You have to keep a seeded lawn constantly wet, and
with warm temps, that is an invitation for fungus, disease, etc.
Plus it takes many times more water, you have intense competition from
weeds, and you're trying to make grass grow when higher temps are
telling cool season grass to slow down. In early Sept you have
everything in your favor.









Been there, done that. My sister has been helping me clean up
my yard and the last seed that was put down was followed by
very heavy rains within about 6 hours. Looks like 75% of the
seed was washed away based upon what came up.

One thing that works well to cover new seed is peat moss.
It will stay wet for quite awhile, so you do not have to
water constantly.