These photographs capture the progress of grass seed development over 5 weeks at a landscaping job in Luddesdown, Kent. This particular seed is coated in mycorrhizal fungi and seaweed to aid its establishment by keeping it moist, giving it some natural food to get it started and connecting it up to the soil effectively – you should look into mycorrhizal fungi if you haven’t heard of it – it’s like underground wifi for plants.
The proof is in the pudding as they say and as you can see this pudding got very lush and green very quickly for a fraction of the price vs turf. We did all the same prep we would need to do for laying turf but then tickled in the seed and watered it and let nature do its thing. When you consider turf is around £4.00 per m2 whereas the seed worked out at 50 pence per m2 and the end result is equivalent or potentially better grass. Then think about the carbon footprint associated with that turf production, harvest, delivery and installation versus a field of grass which is allowed to go to seed and gets harvested when it’s ready and a box of seed being sprinkled. Plus I know people love the immediate wow of turf being laid but it’s pretty cool seeing how quickly seeds can get going and develop into your new lawn. Just saying it’s definitely worth thinking about.