Why You Need to Aerate and Overseed Your Lawn
Written by Rachel Downey
My Mission: To educate my customers on how to achieve the perfect lawn and landscaping.
Fall is the perfect time to aerate and overseed your lawn. Aeration is the process of making small holes in your lawn to break up compacted soil and make your grass healthier. Overseeding involves spreading grass seed over your lawn. It can thicken your lawn and fix bare spots.
The Missouri Botanical Garden lists the following as benefits to aeration:
-
Aeration allows water, air, and nutrients to infiltrate the soil.
-
Grass roots are more likely to grow deeper into the soil.
-
Aerating creates the right lawn conditions for overseeding.
Before Aeration and Overseeding
After Aeration and Overseeding
Here are some tips on how to aerate and overseed correctly:
-
Don’t aerate when your lawn is too dry. If a drought is occurring, your dry soil will be more difficult to aerate.
-
Mow your lawn before aerating.
-
Aerate during the fall to prepare your lawn for spring.
-
The holes poked into your lawn by the aerator should be 2-3 inches deep.
-
After overseeding, make sure your lawn gets water daily for about 2-3 weeks.
-
Overseed after you aerate. Aeration improves your soil and creates an ideal microclimate for the grass seed to grow.
-
After aeration and overseeding, reduce traffic on your lawn so you don’t harm the new grass. Don't worry about the straw. The grass will grow with it there.