Fertilization: Why Aerating and Seeding are Important

Fertilization of your lawn should immediately follow aerating and over-seeding. Aerating and seeding are essential to a complete lawn care program. Combining aeration with seeding and fertilization is a good practice to follow. Areas in your lawn that are not growing well are typically caused by poor soil conditions and composition. Aeration loosens up the soil relieving soil compaction and allowing air, water and nutrients to more effectively penetrate deeper into the soil, softening the soil and stimulating the roots, resulting in a healthier, thicker and greener lawn throughout the growing season.

Aerating is the removal of small soil plugs out of the lawn when the soil is moist and soft, not dry, and not muddy. Most lawn aeration is done mechanically with a machine that has hollow tines mounted on a disk or drum, known as a core aerator which extracts small cores of soil and deposits them on your lawn. Other types of aerators push solid spikes or tines into the soil without removing a plug – this is referred to as spiking, but they are not as effective because they can contribute to compaction. Core aeration is a recommended lawn care practice on compacted, heavily used turf and to control thatch buildup. Those plugs of soil on top your lawn creates pockets for the water and fertilizer to penetrate deeper into your lawn, stimulating root growth and relieving compaction.

The next step is over-seeding, followed by fertilization. Over-seeding in the late summer or early fall remains the optimum time for any over-seeding because you avoid the Summer heat and drought and the new seedlings do not have to compete with spring germinating weeds, allowing seedlings to grow with the cool temperatures and the winter months the seedlings to strengthen their roots and prepare for the hotter months of Summer. The lesser option for over-seeding is late winter or early spring, once again to take advantage of the cooler temperatures and moisture to allow the seedlings to take root.

The best way to change your soil’s composition is with fertilization. An application of fertilizer along with heavy watering immediately following aeration and over-seeding will stimulate root growth. Landworks promotes the use of fertilization without weed control that is appropriate for your grass and growing conditions. Fertilizer containing weed control prevents the grass from germinating properly.

Since aeration, seeding and fertilization is so important to turf grass, Landworks can do the job correctly, taking the necessary steps to prevent fertilizer and pesticide run-off from overly compacted areas, and increasing the activity of soil microorganisms that decompose thatch. Most lawns require semi-annual aeration.

If you want a total lawn renovation of just good maintenance for your turf, give Landworks, Inc. a call today at 913-422-9300 or visit us online for more information or to schedule a no-cost consultation.