Lawn care is an ongoing process, and certain actions are necessary to maintain the health of the grass. The summer heat and people trampling over the blades can wear out the grass quickly, creating thin patches and compacting the soil. If this isn't remedied, the lawn may not regain its original lushness. Aeration and seeding can rejuvenate a damaged lawn.
Identification
Lawn aeration is the process of removing plugs of soil from a lawn to help the soil recover after a stressful summer and prepare it for fall overseeding. You run a machine with special, hollow cylinders over the lawn, and the cylinders grab chunks of dirt. The removed dirt stays on the lawn, eventually breaking down and adding nutrients back to the soil. Seeding is, of course, the process of spreading grass seed to grow a lawn. Overseeding is a fall procedure meant to fill in a sparse, stressed expanse.
Time Frame
Aeration is usually best done in the late summer or early fall, while the grass still has some growing time left but after any major heat stress. Cool-season grasses such as tall fescue benefit more from fall aeration, and warm-season grasses such as zoysia do better with summer aeration, notes Clemson University Extension. If the soil is particularly compacted, a second spring aeration in March or April is advisable. Seed grass approximately four weeks later---give the soil a chance to recover first. Clemson notes that overseeding immediately will result in tufts of extra grass growing where seed fell into the aerated holes.
Benefits
As lawns are mowed, walked over and generally used and abused, the soil can compact, making it harder to absorb moisture and to let grass roots and shoots grow. Grass blades that have been torn off, either through mowing or by someone walking over them, and left on the grass form a layer called thatch, which can also prevent water and fertilizer from getting into the soil. Insects may also live in thatch. Aeration brings up plugs of soil, creating space in the lawn and allowing it to expand. This helps water absorption and reduces runoff. The plugs of soil also bring small microbes to the surface, and these microbes feed off the thatch. This cleaned-up lawn provides a better growing environment for new seed as well.
Considerations
Sowing only one type of grass seed is inadvisable, according to Ohio State University Extension. While a cultivar of grass can have an admirable quality such as drought resistance, something else could come along in the environment and take it out of action. Seed your lawn with a mix of seeds so that the overall lawn has a better chance of surviving whatever is thrown its way. Of course, you want the resulting grasses to match, so ensure the varieties you plant do not create an obvious patchwork pattern.
Cautions
Aeration's benefits are dependent on plugs being pulled up out of the soil---without that, the remaining soil can't relax and expand, and the soil microbes can't act against thatch. Don't use cleats on shoes or similar nonhollow spikes to aerate. These only compact the soil around the hole and don't bring up the dirt. Clemson makes an exception for small areas and says a spading fork works for this purpose if you ensure the holes are at least 4 inches deep. However, the department does recommend getting a sod-coring tool, which pulls up soil plugs.
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