I'm in the Seattle area and am working on renovating my backyard. Here's what I've done so far:

- Tore out the thick weeds using a sod cutter
- Rototilled the area, mixing in a couple inches of top soil
- Spread an organic fertilizer
- Raked the fertilizer into the top 2" of the soil
- Rolled the soil with a lawn roller
- Spread the seed (a perennial ryegrass/red fescue blend) using a hand spreader -- 10# over approx. 1000 sq ft
- Lightly raked over the soil to cover the seeds
- Rolled again to ensure good seed-soil contact
- Watered for 15 minutes 2x a day (on days without rain)

I just found this forum and after reading a lot of posts from folks trying to do the same thing I am, I realize several mistakes I made (not getting a soil sample, not covering w/ peat moss, using too much seed, etc), but hindsight is 20/20, I suppose.

I'm at day 13 now and there is quite a bit of good germination happening, but it is very patchy. I'm not sure if it's because of my lightly raking the surface after seeding, or if the rain/my watering moved the seed, but I worry that the end result will be too sparse.

My questions are, do you think it will fill in on its own? Is there something I can do now to improve the result?

Here's a photo.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Spread the seed (a perennial ryegrass/red fescue blend) using a hand spreader -- 10# over approx. 1000 sq ft

the rye grass will germinate quicker ( 7-10 days)
the fesuce could take 12- 12 days

This means that the grass seed should be not allowed to dry out - keep it moist for the germination period

Agree - be patient -- and water

Ryegrass does not spread to fill in like some other grasses do. You will get one little bunch of grass for each seed that sprouts.

You'll be seeing the effects of rototilling for several years to come. Your lawn will be bumpy.