GreenView Grass Seed Starting Mulch (18 lb)

Broadcast seed sitting on bare soil dries out between waterings and washes into low spots in the first hard rain. A seed cover is what keeps it in place and keeps the moisture at the seedbed, and pelletized mulch is the version that does not blow around or need raking up afterward. You scatter it over freshly broadcast seed — not before — in a layer thin enough that you can still see soil through it, then water it in; the pellets swell and settle into a mat that holds listed three times its own weight in water right where the seed is. The bag is listed 100% weed-free, which is the practical argument against straw: straw carries whatever seed the field it came from was growing. It is biodegradable and breaks down in place, so there is no removal step to schedule around fragile new seedlings. Two things to plan for. It contains no grass seed, so buy your seed separately. And it includes a starter fertilizer component, which overlaps a separate starter-fertilizer application — decide which one is doing that job for you rather than doing both. One 18 lb bag covers 360 sq ft, so measure the seeded area first and count bags. Manufactured by Lebanon Seaboard Corporation.