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If you’ve ever gotten behind in your summertime lawn mowing regimen and allowed your grass to grow long, then you’ve probably seen plume-like growths forming at the top of some of the grass stems. They aren’t weeds but rather seed heads that allow the grass to reproduce on its own. The fact that your lawn can produce its own seeds probably has you wondering, Will my grass reseed itself? After all, it would be pretty nice to let nature do it’s thing and not have to go to the trouble and expense of laying down your own grass seed year after year to fill in bare spots.
But while naturally seeding your lawn may seem like a cost-effective way to thicken the grass in your yard, a closer look at how grass reproduces makes it an impractical solution for filling out the turf in your lawn. Ahead, we break down why it isn’t a good idea to allow your lawn to go to seed while presenting some better alternatives for building up your lawn.
Will Grass Reseed Itself?
When grass grows to a certain height, it produces seed heads that eventually mature, dry out and drop onto the lawn, where they can feasibly grow new grass. Cool-season grasses must grow to a height of four to six inches before they’ll produce seed heads, while shorter warm-season grasses will produce seed heads when they grow to a height of two inches or more. Seed heads form on stalks that emerge from cool-season grasses in the mid to late spring and have a feathery appearance, while warm-season grasses produce spiky seed heads that arrive during the summer.
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Is It Good To Let Grass Go To Seed?
Letting your grass go to seed is not a good strategy for filling out your yard. First, producing seed requires a lot of energy. Grass that’s allowed to go to seed becomes thinner as it diverts resources from growing grass blades to forming seed heads. Not only does this make your lawn less attractive, it also allows openings for weeds to grow through it.
Second, in order for your lawn to go to seed, you need to let it grow much longer than normal and leave it that way for weeks or even months to allow the seed to mature, dry up, and fall off. Leaving your grass tall is not just unsightly but could also earn you a fine from the city or your homeowners’ association.
Even if you live in an area where you can allow your grass to grow tall for an extended period, most residential lawns consist of a hybrid grass variety that produces sterile seeds that won’t germinate. If the seeds produced by your grass do happen to be viable, they would distribute unevenly over the lawn, giving it a patchy appearance. In short, there are far better ways to fill out your lawn than allowing it to go to seed.
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How Should I Fill Out My Lawn Instead?
Overseeding your lawn manually or choosing a grass seed that can reproduce on its own are better alternatives to allowing your lawn to reseed itself.
Promote vegetative reproduction
If you’re looking for a natural way to fill out your lawn, choose a grass type that’s adept at vegetative reproduction, or asexual reproduction that doesn’t require seeds. Varieties that are able to reproduce this way are Kentucky bluegrass, Bermuda grass, Bahiagrass, and creeping bentgrass. Cool-season grasses like Kentucky bluegrass grow via rhizomes, which are underground stems that expand out horizontally from the roots of the parent plant and produce new shoots and roots that form new grass plants, thickening the lawn.
Warm-season grasses like Bermuda grass grow via stolons, which extend outward from existing plants on the surface of the soil. New plants emerge from nodes that form along the stolon as it grows outward, filling in the lawn.
If you have a grass type that can reproduce on its own, you can stimulate vegetative reproduction by fertilizing the soil and mowing the grass to its appropriate height.
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Overseed your lawn
Manually overseeding your lawn by distributing grass seed using a spreader is the most common method for building up the turf on your lawn. If you have cool-season grass, such as tall fescue or Kentucky bluegrass, overseed during the late summer to early fall. The cooler weather allows the seeds to germinate more quickly and grow without the threat of extreme heat, while giving the new seedlings enough time to establish themselves before winter arrives. Overseed warm-season grasses in the late spring or early summer, so the new grass plants can establish themselves before the intense summer heat sets in.
