Whether you’re planting grass seed for the first time, or are doing maintenance on an existing lawn, it’s a good idea to survey your current lawn seeding tool kit to make sure you have what you need.
Planting grass seed is easy if you have the right grass seed planting tools at your disposal. There are tons of different products out there that make lawn care and seed planting a much more efficient process.
Let’s explore the grass seed planter tools any John Deere wannabe needs to encourage even grass growth on their lawn.
Our grass seed planter tool guide will cover the following tools:
- Tiller / Rotavator
- Rake
- Aerator / Scarifier
- Seed Spreader / Grass Seeder
Grass Seed Planter Tools: What You Need
Table of Contents
When people think about tools needed for their lawn, they often think of common lawn maintenance tools like a lawn mower or edge trimmer, used to cut existing grass down. The tools we’re discussing here, though, are intended for encouraging new grass growth.
The following lawn care tools are designed to make seed germination and grass growth a simple, fail-proof process. With the assistance of these grass seed planter tools, you can avoid issues like overseeding and bare spots, and instead see consistent, even grass growth on your lawn.
Tiller / Rotavator
A tiller, sometimes called a rotavator, is a device used to prepare the ground for any kind of planting, including grass seed.
Tillers work by breaking up and mixing up the soil as you drag the device across the ground. In doing this you are breaking up dense, compacted surface-level soil, and bringing nutrient-rich dirt up to the surface.
When shopping for a tiller you’ll see many different kinds of machines (we break them down fully in our rotavator buying guide). The main three machines you’ll encounter are rotavators, cultivators, and garden tillers.
Rotavators are heavy-duty tiller machines, used by professionals on large areas of land, whereas a garden tiller is less robust, and suited for breaking up smaller surface areas of soil. A cultivator is even more lightweight and small in size, and meant for use in small gardens.
Why use a tiller? Loosening the soil is ideal for better water retention and seed germination, killing potential weed roots, and better preparing soil for planting. It is also a fantastic way to aerate the soil, preventing soil compaction and promoting the flow of water, air and nutrients, all of which are needed for seed germination.
If you want to give new grass its best chance at thriving, using a tiller on the soil is a great grass seed planter tool to consider. However, this tool is best used for new lawns and shouldn’t be considered if you are overseeding existing lawn.
Greenworks Battery-Powered Tiller
- EASY TO START - Insert 40V battery and get started: with the battery-powered ground hoe you can immediately start loosening up your garden freely and without cables - battery and charger are not included
- INNOVATIVE PERFORMANCE - with our powerful electric motor and the laser-cut, specially hardened chopping blades, you can dig up your garden soil efficiently and yet without emissions
- COMFORT - in addition to a safety switch-on lock, the rubberized anti-vibration gripping surfaces make using the tiller not only safe but also pleasant
Rake
When you think of a rake, you might be picturing the kind you use for leaves in the fall. When it comes to lawn care though, a landscape rake is used as a grass seed planter tool, perfect for preparing the lawn surface and soil for seed planting.
Landscape rakes are hard, sturdy metal rakes that you drag across your lawn before planting.
Why? This process works to break up any lumps of soil, ensuring the soil surface immediately beneath your turf is in small clumps and at an even level. This will prevent grass seeds from growing unevenly, or potential bald spots where seeds don’t take.
Landscape rakes can also be used to clean up debris like leaves, peat moss and dead grass from your lawn surface before planting, and is good at leveling new soil if you’re planting grass seed for the first time. Its wide comb and sturdiness make it perfect for the job.
When shopping for a rake, look for a rake with a sturdy, high-quality metal head that is wide, and with metal teeth. As this is meant to break up the soil, you’ll want to ensure it’s strong enough, and additional width means it can cover a larger surface area with one pass.
A word of warning. These kind of rakes can do more harm than good when working on established lawns with creeping varieties, like buffalo or creeping red fescue. The strong tines may slice through the creepers out the soil, ultimately thinning your grass. You are better off using a scarifier or aerator for these varieties.
Roughneck Aluminium Landscaping Rake
- Ideal for preparing soil for planting or laying turf
- TUBULAR FIBREGLASS HANDLE washable with soft grip
- 24 LIGHTWEIGHT ALUMINIUM TINES
Aerator / Scarifier
Aerating your lawn is one of the best ways to ensure it’s healthy and strong, all season long!
When you aerate a lawn, you are putting a series of small holes into the lawn to better allow water, air, and nutrients to penetrate the roots of the grass you planted. This can help grass roots grow deeper, and keep your lawn healthier.
There are many different aeration tools out there today. You’ll likely encounter plug aerators and spike aerators on the market while shopping.
A spike aerator is a tool used to poke holes directly into the ground. In contrast, plug aerators pull out a whole core of dirt from the grass and soil.
For best results, we recommend plug aerators for your grass seed planter tool kit. A spike aerator can actually end up compacting the dirt around it as penetrates the soil. With a plug aerator, a core of dirt is removed to make space for oxygen and water, without compacting the dirt, roots, and seeds around it.
Again, there are many different kinds of aerators, from handheld aerators, to push aerators, to aerator machines and even lawn aeration shoes! Depending on your seed type and yard size, different kinds of aerators may be more suitable.
Aerators you push or tow are often spike aerators, punching the lawn surface as they move. Powered aerators, also knows as scarifiers, are a great option for larger lawns or creeping grass varieties. These machines don’t penetrate the soil as deeply as plug aerators but are still very.
If in doubt, for best results, a handheld plug aerator is what we recommend. These penetrate deep into the soil and provide the conditions which your new seeds will need to grow. That being said, these can be time-consuming for larger lawns.
Walensee Lawn Coring Aerator
- Perfect Function: The high-quality aerator can reduce soil compaction and dethatching your lawn while letting air, water and fertilizer get down to the roots zone of your yard. The build-up of lawn thatch inhibits the breath of the lawn and using this tool your lawn and turf will grow finer.
- Ingenious Design: Our manual lawn aerator with foot bar provides an extra leverage. The “T” BAR handle is convenient to grip and provides a more comfortable stance while aerating. And the foot bar leverage can greatly reduce your back stain. The tool is much effort-saving and can make your garden work more effective.
- Deeper Soil Penetration: Utilizing the foot bar on our lawn aerator tool will ensure deeper turf aerification, creating soil cores, on average, as deep as your index finger. This lawn tool does not clog. The soil cores can eject smoothly and will not break. The tool is designed to work on any type of turf.
Seed Spreader
A seed spreader, sometimes called a grass seeder, is a device used to evenly distribute grass seed, fertilizer, lawn food, weed killer, or other lawn care products across the surface of your lawn.
These grass seed planter devices come in different shapes and forms, but they all work to evenly spread products across a lawn. A seed spreader can be a rotary seed spreader, spitting our product for a wide width of distance, or a drop spreader, dropping product down from the bottom of the hopper for more accurate, condensed placement.
For the average lawn, you’ll likely use a push seed spreader rather than an automated one. A rotary spreader also works best in most situations, covering a wider lawn surface area in less time.
To use one, fill up the hopper of your grass spreader with whatever product you’re distributing. (Ex/ grass seed, fertilizer, weed killer, etc.) Then, simply push the grass spreader as you would a lawn mower and watch the lawn spreader disperse product, covering the entire surface area of your lawn.
Lawn spreaders make it much easier to plant a ton of grass seed at once and can ensure it is spread evenly across a large surface area. Just be sure to keep in mind the size of your lawn while shopping, so you choose a lawn spreader that has the right capacity limit and seeding rate for you.
EverGreen Scotts EasyGreen Rotary Spreader
- Variable settings to apply lawn food or grass seed
- Spreading width is 122-340 cm
- Adjustable handle bar for comfortable use and storage
Grass Seed Planter Tools: Wrap Up
Now that you have a good idea of the different tools used for seeding, its time to get out there and get your hands dirty! Before you start, there are a few tricks of the trade worth learning. Check out our guide on how to plant grass seed to make sure you’ve given yourself the best start!