Is your Massachusetts lawn looking a little exhausted?
Through a cold winter, spring growth surge, hot summer, and cool fall, your lawn can take a beating. And a thin, faded lawn can stand out when you’re used to looking at thick, green grass.
Even with correct fertilization, proper watering, and regular mowing, your lawn can still start to look worn out. After doing everything else right, you might find yourself at a loss as to what to do next.
That’s where aeration and overseeding can be a key piece of your lawn care puzzle. But just because it’s good for your lawn doesn’t mean you should do it all the time? Let’s talk about aeration and seeding in Massachusetts, signs it’s time to aerate and seed your lawn, and the perfect time for lawn aeration.
Best Time To Aerate & Overseed Your Lawn in Massachusetts
Fall is a great time for aeration and overseeding in Massachusetts.
What is the best month to aerate my lawn? For the cool-season grasses we grow here like tall fescue and Kentucky bluegrass, September is a great time.
Core aeration involves the use of a special machine called an aerator to pull small soil cores or plugs from your lawn. Those cores are then deposited back across the lawn as the machine works, breaking down over the next week to redeposit organic matter back into your lawn’s soil.
The process might seem relatively simple, but it adds a ton of benefits.
Since lawns need some basic things to survive – oxygen, water, and nutrients for good growth – everything from rainfall to foot traffic to everyday activity can compact your lawn soil, which restricts the flow of these essentials to your lawn’s roots. Aeration breaks up this compacted soil, allowing those three elements to continue nourishing your lawn roots again. Aeration also creates room for deeper grass root growth.
Overseeding at this time is also a great idea. For great seed germination, you need maximum seed-to-soil contact. When you aerate, you create these pockets that can help get the seed as close to the soil as possible, boosting your germination results. This can help thicken up a thin lawn, crowd out weeds, and create healthier grass.
Signs It’s Time To Aerate & Seed Your Lawn
If you walk on your soil and it feels rock solid and is also looking thin or patchy, these are reasons to aerate your lawn.
Some other reasons include seeing water puddles after rain that can indicate compacted soil, as well as thinning, discolored, patchy, or unevenly growing grass.
How Often Should I Aerate My Lawn?
When you perform lawn aeration, how often you do so is dependent on your soil type.
Here in Massachusetts, we tend to have more clay-based soils, so once a year is usually adequate, depending on how compact your soil is.
What To Do After Aerating & Overseeding a Lawn
After aeration and overseeding, you want to water your lawn, keeping it evenly moist. If you have heavy clay soil, this may take longer. Water two to three times per day for 15-20 minutes per area. The goal with these short irrigation cycles is to keep the surface moist to encourage those seeds to germinate in the shortest time possible, which generally takes 10 to 14 days. .
Once the seed germinates, you can reduce watering to once a day for as needed until the lawn is established. After that you can resume your regular watering schedule.
Once the grass germinates, it’s very delicate. So, wait 14 days to start mowing again.
Should you fertilize after aerating and overseeding? Waiting one to two weeks post aeration and overseeding can help nourish your new grass to continue its growth.
Also, don’t try to fight weeds while you’re trying to grow new grass. Wait until after seed germination and after mowing a couple times before you attempt to battle weeds with any sort of herbicide.
At Hartney Greymont, we have local arborists and professional turf specialists throughout Massachusetts located in Needham, Concord, Danvers, Cape Cod and the surrounding areas.
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