We have been pretty lucky this year with a fairly wet summer. Our lawns have looked amazing with little to no irrigation needed! However, that does not mean that you want to skip on seeding your lawn this fall. It is important to seed your lawn so that it remains healthy and green throughout the year and now is the time to start thinking about and planning for it. Even during the best growing situations, you will still lose about 10-15% of your lawn every year. If it is a dry, hot summer, you will have an even higher loss.
The benefits of aerating and overseeding your lawn is that it reduces weeds which germinate in weak areas. A thick lawn is the best defense against this. Not to mention, it improves the beauty and enjoyment of your lawn. What many people do not realize is that they are doing a lot of work with little benefit if they simply throw seed out on their lawns without aerating. It takes both aeration and seeding to get maximum benefit.
We prefer to put the seed down before aerating so that the aeration process mixes the seed into the soil. However, it is important to use a spreader to get even coverage. Not only does overseeding introduce new grass seed to fill-in thin areas and thicken existing turf, but it also builds resistance to insect damage and turf disease. It is important to select the right seed blend and to make sure that you are not using a seed with a lot of weeds mixed in. All seed has a label that tells you the blend and the amount of weed seed mixed in. It will list the percentage of weed seed, noxious weeds (weeds you can not get rid of) and other crop seed. If you use a seed with a high rate of weeds, you will be fighting weeds all year long. The blend that we have has no weed seed, noxious weeds or crop seed to ensure you have a green, lush, weed-free lawn.
It is important to aerate your lawn because the ground becomes compacted and causes shallow roots to grow. Aeration loosens the soil and reduces compaction and allows for seed-to-soil contact. This allows grass roots to reach deep for water. Aeration penetrates soil allowing water, air & food to reach the roots and be absorbed and enhances seed germination.
It is important to water your lawn to get it established. You never want the seed to dry out once it starts to grow. However, it is not as important to keep watering it once it has grown in. The reason is that overwatering your lawn will cause the grass to grow shallow roots instead of reaching deep for water. To get your lawn established, it is best to water late in the day when the sun is low in the sky. This keeps the water droplets from magnifying the suns rays and burning the blades.
Once your lawn is established, keep your mowing height to 3-4 inches and never remove more than 1/3 of the grass blade. This has been proven to be the best height for tall fescue. We see many people who want to mow their lawn too short but you have to remember that the cool season grass we like to use is called TALL fescue. The problem with mowing your lawn too short is that it shocks the grass and it makes it prone to weeds and less able to deal with environmental stresses like drought or cold.
If you are interested in having GrowinGreen aerate and overseed your lawn, give us a call soon. September and October are the best months to get new seed established and our schedule books quickly. We also guarantee our service. If we seed your lawn and you have areas that do not come up or are thin, you can give us a call and we will take care of it for you! Give us a call at (336)854-7999 if you have any questions or you want to get on our schedule.
