Laying out the lawn: sow the lawn or lay a turf

If you want to create a new lawn, you can choose between comfortable turf or sowing the lawn. When is which method the right decision?

Laying out the lawn: the planning

The creation of a lawn should be planned well and as long in advance as possible. Ideally, in the autumn in front of the plant, the ground is either milled with a motorized tiller or dug up with a digging fork. In addition, when laying the lawn, all work in the garden that would put a strain on a young lawn should be completed. Once the fruit trees have been planted, beds, paths or garden ponds have been created and new buildings have already been plastered and painted, you can start.

Depending on the type of soil and the evenness of your property, further soil preparations must then be made. In the case of heavy soils, for example, the laying of drainage is necessary, in the case of heavily compacted soils, however, it is advisable to plant green manure in the year before the lawn is laid. And in the case of severe unevenness, the garden soil is best leveled (professionally) before the lawn is laid. All of this sometimes quite strenuous work has to be carried out both before sowing Lawn seeds as well as before laying the turf.

When to lay a lawn?

The best growing conditions for most lawn grasses are temperatures of 10 to 25 ° C. Adequate moisture should also be ensured. Early autumn or, as an alternative, spring is therefore ideal for both sowing and laying ready-made lawns. Germinating seeds and young seedlings are more sensitive to the weather, which is why sowing should be well planned in terms of weather conditions. Sown lawn must not dry out until germination, which can take up to four weeks, and tolerates dry periods far worse than turf. In summary, it can be said that the time for laying out turf can be selected a little more flexibly than when the lawn seeds are sowed.

When deciding on turf, one must not forget that the rolled up lawn carpets are living plants that do not want to be stored for long. Ideally, the sod should come into contact with your garden soil 36 hours after being peeled off by the turf producer. You should therefore only buy or order your turf once you have completed all the ground preparations.

Laying out the lawn: Duration until the lawn is used

When sowing lawn seeds, it can take up to four weeks for the seeds to germinate. Young people develop more or less quickly depending on the temperature and humidity. It can take a few months for the sown lawn to show a closed sward and be able to withstand greater loads. Laying turf, on the other hand, transforms a brown area of ​​earth into a soft green lawn carpet with a beautiful, dense sward within a day. After only two to three weeks, the lawn is firmly rooted in the ground and can then be used to a limited extent. The time that you save up to full exposure compared to the lawn seed is ultimately around three months.

Sowing the lawn: costs, advantages and disadvantages

The independent sowing of lawn can be carried out either by hand or with the help of a lawn seeder or a (fertilizer) spreader.

Sowing the lawn: costs and other benefits

The most compelling reason to sow lawn seeds is the cost. Even for large areas you can find very high quality seeds for less than 50 euros. Gritters can often be borrowed from horticultural associations or purchased from around 20 euros. Another advantage of independent sowing is the free selection (or the possible individual composition) of the seeds. Depending on the desired type of use, very specific, very hard-wearing, beautiful ornamental grasses or seed mixtures adapted to the shade can be selected. To the latter, for example, ours Plantura shadow lawn.

Sowing the lawn: disadvantages

An even distribution of the lawn seeds can hardly be achieved by hand for laypeople. However, if the optimal amount of seed is not applied, this can lead to an uneven lawn in the long term. Both too low and too high a seed density can have negative effects on lawn growth. However, this problem can be solved with a well-adjusted spreader. Another, often decisive, disadvantage of sowing the lawn is the long time it takes to leave the lawn ready for use. Especially when new houses are being built, a quickly resilient lawn is often desired, for example as a playground for children. However, if sown at the ideal sowing time (early autumn), the lawn can only withstand moderate loads after regeneration in late spring. The lawn needs a little more time before it can be used safely.

Sowing the lawn: choosing the right lawn seeds

Choosing the right lawn seeds is very important. Because neither with the soil preparation nor with the subsequent years of care you can have as much influence on your lawn as with the choice of grass - i.e. the seeds. For this reason, the selection and purchase of the right seeds should be carefully considered and perhaps worth a few euros more. The composition of the grasses in a lawn varies depending on how the lawn is used. After all, grasses that are intended for lawns for play and use have to withstand more stress than ornamental grasses. There are also types of grass that do better in the shade than others. The important thing is that you have a Rule seeds Buy mix. This seal has been tested and thus promises quality in terms of germination and the appropriate composition of different types of grass. All of our Plantura lawn seeds bear this seal. An overview of which lawn type makes sense and when, get it here.

Sowing the lawn: short instructions

The use of a spreader simplifies the precise distribution of the lawn seeds.

1. Prepare your soil in good time (preferably in the previous autumn) for sowing the lawn.
2. Prepare a piece of foil or a cloth that you can test drive over with the spreader. Fill the spreader and, depending on the width of your device, drive so far that the piece of film you drive on corresponds to one square meter.
3. Now pour the seeds from the foil into a container and weigh them. Depending on how far your result deviates from the recommended amount per square meter of your seed mixture, adjust the seed strength of the spreader.
4. After sowing, the lawn seeds are easily raked into the ground with a rake (no deeper than one cm). The seeds are then properly brought into contact with the ground and additionally protected from birds by walking the lawn with step boards. In contrast to rollers, larger running boards (approx. 25 x 35 cm) does not pose a risk of soil compaction.
5. After sowing, a continuous supply of moisture ensures that the germination process begins and continues continuously. However, the soil must not be submerged either, otherwise the oxygen supply to the seeds is endangered. In dry weather, it is advisable to water two to three times a day for about 10 to 15 minutes. Use the finest irrigation setting (e.g. a sprinkler) so that the evenly applied seeds are not blurred with a hard jet of water.

A more detailed guide to the Sowing lawn You will find here.

Laying turf: costs, advantages & disadvantages

Rolled turf, also called ready-made turf, is applied on special, often sandy to slightly loamy, cultivation areas and ideally cared for for a year. The in most cases high-quality seed mixtures that are sown in optimal density, as well as the A proper supply of water and nutrients leads to a dense, weed-free sward of the Lawn. After about a year, the lawn is peeled off about one and a half to two cm below the soil surface using a special device, so that a large part of the root felt is retained. Usually thin strips about 50 cm wide and one and a half to two and a half m long are rolled up like carpets.

Laying turf: advantages

Laying turf is tempting in many ways. The greatest advantage of the turf is probably that it can be used quickly. The lawn can be walked on approximately two to three weeks after laying. The mostly high quality is another reason that speaks for the turf. High-quality turf is free from weeds, the density of the grass is ideal and there are no damaged areas. In addition, rolled turf is less sensitive to drought compared to lawn seeds and can therefore be laid more flexibly when it comes to timing. If unexpectedly dry or cooler weather conditions occur after laying the rolled turf, the rolled out lawn can cope with this more easily than young grass seedlings.

Laying turf: disadvantages

The laying of turf is often combined with the effortless purchase and direct rolling out on an open area of ​​the earth. Roll out, pour and you're done. This is a big misunderstanding, because a long-term beautiful, weed and moss-free and resilient lawn always needs a good, at best slightly sandy, slightly acidic soil that has good circulation of water and air leaves. In order to create these conditions before laying the lawn, some ground preparations are required when laying the rolled turf as well as when sowing the lawn seeds. These often rather laborious tasks such as digging or milling, leveling and leveling or draining the ground are unfortunately not omitted when deciding on turf. So the oft-mentioned argument that laying turf is easier and more convenient than sowing is partly a myth and only applies to less intensive irrigation after the plant has been installed Lawn.

The biggest disadvantage of opting for turf is probably the cost. These are many times higher than the costs of sowing the lawn yourself. As the number of square meters increases, the costs decrease, but still amount to around 10 euros per square meter for an average home garden. In order to reduce costs, many turf producers offer to collect the rolled up turf yourself. In the case of small areas, this is also possible with a spacious vehicle. With larger areas, however, do not forget that the rolls take up a lot of space and also bring a considerable weight with them due to the soil that is stuck in up to two cm thick root felt. With up to 20 kg for 1m² If you collect a certain amount of turf yourself, it is no longer easy to pick it up yourself.

Laying turf: short instructions

To after the Laying the turf We have summarized some tips for you here to obtain a level lawn area with connection points between the roller rows that are as invisible as possible.

1. First, just like when sowing lawn, the soil must be well prepared. Depending on the type of soil and the pH value of the soil, various measures must be taken.
2. Before buying the rolled turf, measure your future lawn area as precisely as possible.
3. Compare offers from the Internet and from your region. Local manufacturers usually have more favorable delivery conditions and the shorter transport route means that the sod is often fresher. Since the composition of the seeds is the most important factor in a long-term, beautiful and resilient lawn, it is worth asking carefully about the combination of grasses. High proportions of German ryegrass (Lolium perenne) and the Meadow panicle (Poa pratensis) speak for a good combination and a hard-wearing lawn for play and use.
4. Unless you bought the turf along with an installation service, you will have to roll it out yourself. You start laying the first row on the longest, straight edge possible. You roll out the lawn forwards, that is, you do not step on the prepared ground, but on the lawn that has already been rolled out.
   Tip: It is best to work with running boards (approx. 25 x 35 cm). This means that you do not burden individual pieces of lawn and at the same time improve the ground contact of the lawns that have already been laid.
   The neighboring rows are closely connected to the existing ones so that there are no joints or overlaps. The turf pieces can be easily cut to size for corners, curves and other uneven surfaces. Finally, the turf is crossed over again with the running boards at right angles to the laying direction in order to bring the turf roots into contact with the ground.
5. Freshly laid turf must not dry out until the roots are firmly anchored in the ground and can absorb water from the ground. If watered regularly in the first 14 days after laying, the lawn will usually grow very quickly. After about 14 days the lawn can be walked on and from a length of about 8 cm it is possible to mow down to about 4 cm for the first time.

TurfQuick lawn mat as an alternative

Another alternative to sowing the lawn and laying out turf is the "Turfquick" lawn mat. In contrast to turf, the grasses in the lawn mat are not yet alive. You can imagine them like the seed bands often used in vegetable growing. In terms of time, the lawn mat is comparable to a sown lawn, as the seeds in the mat first have to germinate and then grow slowly. One advantage of sowing is the ideal seed density of the seeds in the mat. The mat to be laid protects the lawn seeds from wind and bird damage. Weeds can grow through the mat less quickly and strongly. In terms of price, the lawn mat is significantly more expensive than seeds for sowing: You pay around 170 euros for 50 square meters.