You can hire the pros and they will use your seed, making the machine will be a chalange.

 

I bought a kit for the same reason as you. It was a cheapo one (Canada green - as seen on TV! ) and as you say, the seeds aren't great and it takes some skill to control the flow to get even coverage.

However, it didn't take much effort and it was great fun to use!

You can buy refills for this so what I might do is make my own mix with some better seeds and dye.

A neighbour got someone in to do it and it came up great but it was waaay more expensive than the guy on the other side who did it on the other side by hand.

If you want good coverage I'd recommend you buy topsoil to even out your ground, spread the seed by hand and do it in a dry period so you can control the water whilst it is germinating.

From what I have seen, diy ones aren't great and professional ones are expensive.

What it comes down to is weighing up cost, effort and results.

I'm not looking for a perfect monostand so I enjoy trying out all sorts of different bags each year just for fun to see what happens.

If you want a really great lawn in one season though, I wouldn't recommend it.