Back 40 Land Management can install your new low maintenance lawn, over-seed a thinning grass stand, create bountiful pasture forage, stabilize slopes with high erosion potential and even install native grass and flowers on areas that would otherwise be dirt and weeds. Re-seeding bare spots and areas with thinning grass is important for establishing a dense stand of grass that acts as its own form of weed control. It will be necessary to get some form of control over weeds in potential seeding sites prior to installing new native grasses so that the young grasses don’t have to compete against aggressive weeds. Timing herbicide applications correctly and using herbicides that don’t inhibit new grasses from germinating with any leftover residues will allow for an effective combination of weed control and seeding.
Our no-till drill is very effective at establishing anything you might want to plant, as long as it’s not on a very steep slope. It’s mechanism first cuts a small slit in the soil, then deposits a carefully measured amount of seed into the slit at exactly 3/8ths of an inch deep, with a final packer wheel firming up the seed trench and ensuring good soil to seed contact. These seeding rows are spaced at roughly six inches apart to allow for grass plants to expand – once plants are mature the rows will be filled in and won’t be very obvious. This method of seeding is best suited to projects ranging from half an acre to 50 acres in size. The biggest benefits of using a no-till drill, compared to broadcast seeding or using a conventional seeder that tills up the soil, is that it will provide consistent soil/seed contact at the right depth and that it limits soil disturbance. Weeds thrive on soil disturbance, so by only cutting small slits in the soil we are inviting less weed competition as grasses establish. This drill works best on fields that haven’t received any soil preparation, although it will also work very well on bare/prepped soil. Our drill is eight feet wide and easy to maneuver through equestrian properties with small, gated paddocks. We have great germination rates using this seeder to plant dryland pasture grass, irrigated grasses and crops, native grasses, cover crops, and wildflowers.
