Have you ever thought about how your lawn is like your body? Probably not, but just like you create energy by fueling your body with food and nutrients, your lawn is a living system that needs feeding as well!

The first step to help your lawn grow healthy with energy-dense roots and reserve fuel for repair, is to aerate it. What’s aeration? It’s the process of loosening the soil with perforations so that air, water and nutrients penetrate the deep soil allowing more efficient absorption. Soil needs a good “fluffing” every now and then to air it out and refresh it.

Here in the Western North Carolina mountains, we typically seed lawns with “cool season” grasses like fescue, rye and Kentucky Bluegrass. The best time to aerate these types of groundcovers is during the growing season, or early fall.

Not only does aeration prepare the lawn for overseeding, it improves drainage and can aid in leveling out your soil if the aeration cores are left on the ground. By leaving the cores, they will break down over several weeks, providing microorganisms and returning the removed nutrients.

Is your lawn needing aeration? It will if it:

• Is heavily trafficked by people and animals (compaction)
• Was established after a new home construction (compaction)
• Has excessive thatch, or a spongy feel (less absorption)
• Was established by sod or has soil layers (disrupted drainage and less absorption)

After aeration it’s time to overseed the lawn to prevent thinning grass and to strengthen groundcover. Overseeding isn’t wasting seed by applying too much, it’s simply adding fresh seed to an established lawn that needs more fuel to grow.

The benefits of adding more nutrients and energy pellets (seeds) to a prepared lawn are the ability to thicken the turf, protect against weeds and reduce the risk of erosion, pests and disease. It will also result in an extended growth season because the grass is healthy.

The final step is to add water to your lawn after overseeding to complete the growth and nurturing process. Depending on the soil type you will need to add water each day until the seeds germinate. The goal in adding water over the next 10 to 14 days is to keep the soil moist without inundating the ground with too much fluid.