First ive heard of this method. Never had any problems getting grass seed to germinate in situ....I just throw it onto an existing lawn to lush things up a bit or if im doing bare patches, i sow it on the bare soil then gently sieve a little top soil or potting compost on it...just enough to cover the seeds,

With that method you could spread it over a garden statue and make a great chia pet out of it. LOL

I've also never heard of this, after all, it's not what happens naturally. In nature, the seeds just fall off and grow in situ, so just scattering the grass seeds on your lawn and maybe throwing a bit of fine soil on top would be the best thing to do.

Also, in my opinion pre-germinating the seeds before you scatter them would cause more problems as it would probably disturb and damage the delicate roots and shoots.

Did you prepare the bare patches at all? If the ground was hard the seeds wouldn't be able to send roots down very easily.

Hi, there was a lot of fuss about this about 30 years ago, but it never really caught on, at least in the uk, because the grasses that 4are grown in the uk, usually germinate easily, but you can grow your own turf in seed trays, to cover smallbare patches, use an ordinary seed tray, with about 1 inch of compost in it, when it gets to about 2 inches high, trim it to thicken it up a bit, and plant out when the ground is ready, cut to shape if necessary, and give it a good watering, then water daily, unless it rains, until it gets established, it isn't really much quicker, but you don't lose any seed to the birds, and results are instant when you lay it, Derek.

Im gonna go with loosestrife and chuck it over my stone meerkat ha ha, and with the remainder Im gonna try derekm's suggestion as sowing ''the natural way '' has given poor results. thanks for your input guys !