How to Landscape Without Reseeding the Lawn

Reseeding

• Determine whether or not your yard actually needs to be reseeded. If you already have a healthy lawn, there is no real reason to reseed before you landscape your property. Reseeding is a good way to grow grass without going to the trouble of laying sod, but if healthy grass growth already has been established and your annual or semi-annual reseeding already was done, then you will be wasting your time and effort reseeding the lawn again.

Working With Problem Areas

• Some areas of your lawn may need regular reseeding because they do not grow well. Problem areas in a lawn are those that do not foster good growing conditions for your plants or grass. For example, areas that get little sun or were previously contaminated by chemicals or spills. Typically, these areas need to be reseeded more frequently than the rest of the lawn because grass does not grow well in them. When you are deciding on how to landscape your property, you may want to consider using a mulch and hardy plants in these areas to limit the amount of continued maintenance and avoid reseeding.

Designing Your Landscape

• Before you purchase your first plant, you need to plot out your plan for your new landscaping work. Decide where you want plants to go, what type of plants you want to plant and how you want the entire project to look when it is finished and young plants and trees have reached maturity. Take into consideration areas of your yard that get a lot of sun or no sun and plan accordingly.

Planting

• Plant your new plants and add landscaping features such as rock gardens, statuary and ponds according to your landscape plan. There is no need to disturb the lawn except in areas where you are intentionally digging up the grass and planting plants. Take care to preserve the lawn and avoid putting products on it that will kill or harm the grass to prevent needing to reseed because of damage.