Best Grass Seed for Overseeding
With help from the experts at Jonathan Green, you can learn about overseeding your lawn and how to choose the best grass seed mixture for your environmental conditions.
About Jonathan Green
Jonathan Green is a leading supplier of cool-season grass seed, soil enhancers, fertilizers, and organic lawn and garden products to professional customers, such as sod growers and independent retailers, including garden centers and hardware stores, across the United States.
We are also leaders in organics and have developed an environmentally sound approach to lawn care called the New American Lawn Plan. The Plan combines our Black Beauty grass seed mixtures with organic and traditional soil amendments, lawn fertilizers and control products that feed your lawn AND your soil so air, water and nutrients can be absorbed by the grass roots.
What is Overseeding?
Overseeding is the process of planting new grass seed over an already existing lawn. When combined with proper aeration and fertilization, overseeding fills in thin or patchy spots and improves the overall health of the lawn, making it thicker, greener, and more likely to fend off weeds, insects and diseases.
When Should You Overseed?
For regions that grow cool-season grasses, the best time to overseed your lawn is in late summer/early fall (mid-August to mid-September). The soil is warm, temperatures are cooler, autumn rains are more plentiful, and weeds are less active. This creates an excellent environment for seed germination before leaves start falling and the winter cold arrives.
Which Seed Should You Use?
We recommend either Black Beauty® Ultra Grass Seed or Black Beauty® Fall Magic Grass Seed for overseeding your lawn:
- Black Beauty® Ultra Grass Seed is similar to the grass seed mixture used for growing sod. It offers species diversity and contains exclusive, elite varieties of tall fescue, Kentucky bluegrass, and perennial ryegrass. These grasses grow a beautiful dark green lawn that has outstanding heat and drought tolerance. Black Beauty Ultra® grass seed should germinate in about 14 days and will improve any lawn you overseed it into.
- Black Beauty® Fall Magic Grass Seed is specially formulated for successful fall seeding and contains several grass varieties, including Black Beauty® tall fescues. Use it in sunny and shady areas to overseed an established lawn or to start a new lawn from scratch. Black Beauty® Fall Magic™ repairs summer damage and provides an attractive, thicker, greener lawn, with germination in 10 to 14 days.
After overseeding, you will need to keep the seedbed damp for a few weeks while the seeds germinate. Water 2-3 times a day for about 5 minutes each time (unless it’s raining) until the new grass is around four inches high. You should also fertilize with our Veri-Green Starter Fertilizer for Seeding & Sodding to get your new grass plantings off to a fast start.
Mentioned Products
When you’re ready for overseeding your lawn, we encourage you to read our Seeding Guide for additional information and then visit Jonathan Green online or find your nearest independent retail store for the very best grass seed products.