How To Reuse An Old Broom To Make Growing Grass From Seed A Breeze

We shan't name names, but people of a certain age will remember when their neighbors swept their dirt yards daily with a corn broom. All that sounds a little weirder than it actually is. A corn broom is just a broom, and people (at least the ones our hypothetical person lived near) swept their dirt yards to keep grass and weed seeds from starting to grow in very shady yards and making things look untidy. Sweeping, it turns out, is easier than weeding. And it's also apparently pretty easy to use a broom to do the opposite. That is, to plant grass seed while evenly distributing it and giving it a great shot at germinating successfully.

This trick actually works best when you're growing grass on bare ground in a yard that has no grass yet, or at least a substantial spot that's free of grass, and which you plan to seed by hand. There's one important catch, and that's that the soil must be properly prepared. This means that the soil has been worked (or sifted, in the case of a top-dressed application of topsoil or compost) so that it has a fine texture. This maximizes seed-to-soil contact and makes it possible for the broom to do its work.

So what is its work? Well, the goal of seed-sweeping appears to be pushing excess seeds into other areas while mixing the soil and seeds together. It has one other potential benefit, and that's the potential for a broom to broadcast some of the seed a little farther than mere pushing would accomplish. You get this effect occasionally because a broom's bristles act like individual springs when you sweep, flinging a small percentage of the seed (and soil, for that matter) a small distance.

Getting started is a matter of working the soil a bit. A good tool for this is a bow rake; use the stiff tines to break up the soil and drag out large clumps of organic matter, rocks, etc. Once you feel the soil is sufficiently fluffy, broadcast your seed by hand or using a spreader. Next comes the broom. You can push or pull a push broom, or sweep with a standard corn broom. The broom will naturally even out any clumps of seeds and mix the soil and seed in the process. What you're after is grass seed mixed with the top quarter-inch of soil. This gives you good soil contact without burying the seed too deeply, which will interfere with germination ... though you can cover your grass seed with ⅛ inch or so of peat moss. This method also prevents wind, water runoff, and birds from carrying your seed away.