The portmanteau of the word “hydro seeding” is actually two words put together first hydro that refers to using water, and seeding which tells us what the water will contain, thus it is using a stream of water to scatter seeds. It is a very thorough method of seeding a large area and making sure that the seeds are appropriately scattered throughout the part that requires seeding. However, to say that the water contains seeds alone would be quite misleading. For instance usually a slurry is made which contains seeds, but in addition it may contain mulch, a soil stabilizer, fertilizer, green dye, or various tackifying ingredients as needed.
You may wish to have your lawn hydro seeded for a number of reasons, but most importantly because it costs much less than to have it sodded. In addition, it is instant due to the color green dye that is added to the slurry. Of course prior to hydro seeding, your landscaper will carefully assess not only the conditions of your area, but also any requirements that may appear to be important. Deciding factors will be the expertise of the hydro seeder, your type of soil, the actual terrain, and of course the amount of shade and sun the area receives and if any water will pond.
Everyone always wants to know what the germination time will be. The answer is that it will usually take less than a week before you actually begin to see grass. If you wish to have a fully trained hydro seeder who is truly a seeding expert, then contact Open Earth Landscaping located right here in Vermont. You see, that will work out best for you because the hydro seeder is fully aware of all the ramifications of being in Vermont, both the good and the bad, as far as lawns are concerned.
One huge benefit to hydro seeding that not every company will make you aware of is that when utilizing the “old method” of seeding a lawn that is then covered with straw so that germination will take place, hydro seeding utilizes no straw. This is highly beneficial since straw has a tremendous amount of weed seed in it. Thus utilizing straw simply inserts weeds into the seeding. Just what you need, right? In addition straw creates a bacterial reaction that will actually leach the nitrogen from the soil, definitely not what great turf needs!
Also, another benefit to hydro seeding is the fact that the specific areas that require more seed such as the entry to your estate can be treated with one type of grass while areas that are further from the eye can use another type of grass so that all you end up with is a lush carpet of green grass. With sodding you may have gaps in between the sodding due to the shrinkage of the sodded area, while with hydro seeding there will be no such gaps. In addition, whereas sodding means that the sod’s roots will be cut apart, with hydro seeding the grass grows directly into your soil from the start, thus there is no change of soil for the sod to acclimate itself to.
A very nice surprise to some is that hydro seeding does not need to be limited to only grass seeds. Hydro seeding is also utilized to seed for erosion control using crown vetch, or creating a pasture, or even scattering wildflower seeds!