For clay soil, you need either pure perennial ryegrass, or a mix that has a high percentage of ryegrass in it, and that’s why I recommend this stuff from The Grass People. Available in either 10kg or 20kg amounts for very reasonable prices, the combination of 80% perennial ryegrass and 20% creeping red fescue is just the stuff you need to handle those soil conditions. Grass seed mixes that do well in clay soil are ones that contain perennial ryegrass, due to its extremely hardy nature, and fescues that root deep down in the soil, such as tall fescue. There was one corner of the lawn that took a lot longer to grow than the rest as it was pretty much in constant shadow from a large shed, but eventually that patch too started to show signs of life, so top marks and two green thumbs up for the GBW grass seed from us.

A favourite of turf growers, smooth stalked meadow grass is a good choice for people with kids and pets. This is because it will naturally spread out and start to grow in the bare patches that are created when your kids play on the lawn, or your dog decides to go digging. Miracle-Gro’s multi-purpose grass seed is another fast-germinating option for both overseeding a damaged lawn, or starting off a new one. Providing you get the conditions right, that is. Best all-rounder: Miracle-Gro grass seed If you want a bit of an all round grass seed that’s good for most situations this is a good shout. Help understanding the best grass seed for your lawn For example, you could go the lower-maintenance route and get yourself an artificial lawn, shell out for a load of turf, or save yourself a few quid and invest in some grass seed. I know the idea of sowing grass seed worries people who have never done it before, but if you read our article on the subject, you’ll see that it isn’t that difficult to do after all. The first (and currently the only) grass seed and soil treatment to be licensed by The Royal Horticultural Society.The soil found in gardens in the UK varies a little from place to place, but the most common are clay, loam, and sand. How can you tell which one you have in your garden? Well, you can go get your hands dirty, as in literally. There are literally dozens of different grass seed cultivars out there, each with their own properties that make them great for some gardens, and not so great for others. Explaining the differences between them all would take forever, but to make things simpler, we can break things down into the most commonly used grass species for lawns in the UK. You’ll find that most bags of grass seed that you buy will be a combination of these types of seeds: Smooth stalked meadow grass This premium lawn seed, together with the mycorrhizal fungi, provides all you need for excellent results every time. What’s more, when it grows it will be very resilient to pets and kids, and general foot traffic as long as you keep your mowing to between 25mm-40mm and don’t go shorter. Under the right conditions, you should be giving your new lawn its first ‘haircut’ by about 6 weeks after you originally sowed

Further down in the how to sow a lawn I’ll show you the different stages that’ll help you build confidence yourself – the lawn actually took way less time to establish but getting it through nice and full took a little extra time 🙂Fescue has fine leaves and can be cut very short, right down to 10mm in some cases, and this gives you a lawn that feels like a soft carpet to walk on in bare feet. Both creeping red and hard fescue are good choices if you live in a coastal area as they are not bothered by the salt in the wind. Fescue grasses can be cut short and ideal for salty coastal conditions Empathy by Plantworks also produce Afterplant Houseplant and Afterplant Orchid pump and feed – both 100% organic and ready to use. Now, just because a seed mix is advertised as good for pets, that doesn’t mean that you can let them walk over the area once it’s seeded, and you’ll have to wait for it to grow before your pets can lay there.