Centipede grass functions for several lawns in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 7 to 10, due to its relative simplicity of maintenance. With basic fertilization and water, centipede grass can spread and grow. In case your centipede grass lawn is looking unfinished and patchy, you can overseed it to help fill it out into quicker, even though it often fills itself in above time by spreading runners. You can also sprinkle centipede grass seeds in the fall with an annual ryegrass. The ryegrass remains green through the winter, then the centipede grass seeds germinate in the spring.

Mow your yard down to 1 1/2 inches tall to allow the sun to get to the seeds. Do this over a few weeks if your grass is tall; only cut off the very best one-third of the sword at one time. Bag the clippings as you mow, whenever possible.

Water your yard for at least 30 minutes to soften the top layer of dirt.

Rake the thatch layer and dirt with a steel garden rake to loosen it about the current centipede grass. Do your best not to rake so hard that you pull up the existing grass, though you are likely to displace some runners which haven’t taken firm root and they ought to root themselves again following seeding.

Add seed to a seed spreader and wander back and forth across your yard to disperse the seed, going from one side to the other in straight lines. Cover the yard, then turn at the border of the yard and return over it, making lines perpendicular to the first place. Spread about one-half pound of seed per 1,000 square feet of lawn, unless the yard is heavily patched. If so, use up to 1 pound of seed per 1,000 square foot.

Rake over the yard another time to cover the seeds with a thin layer of dirt and thatch.

Water the grass thoroughly, soaking it until the soil feels moist at least 1 inch under the surface; analyze this by sticking your finger in the dirt and ensuring it feels moist.

Expand the bagged grass clippings evenly over the seeded area to function as mixers and also help protect the seeds from blowing away in the end; centipede grass seeds are small, so that they could blow away easily.

Water the grass with one-half inch of water daily until the seeds germinate, which can take around three weeks. Watering over one-half inch can make existing centipede grass more susceptible to infection, so check the watering amount by placing a wide-mouth jar on the yard with a mark one-half inch up from the bottom. Turn off the sprinkler once the water in the jar attains the mark each day.

Cut back to watering twice weekly after seedlings emerge.

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