When snow starts to melt and greenery begins sprouting up everywhere in the springtime, you do not want to have the ugly lawn on the block. Harsh winter weather can take a serious toll on your turf if your lawn is not properly cared for beforehand. Aerating and overseeding in fall can help preserve your lawn, and this article will tell you how!
Aerating your lawn is one of the most effective methods of creating healthier, greener grass. Aeration loosens compacted soil and thatch buildup, which then enables lawns to absorb the maximum amount of nutrients from both the natural soil and fertilizers. Core aeration is a type of aeration that involves removing small plugs of compacted soil and thatch buildup, and it is the most effective and most commonly used method of aeration in Virginia to implement in conjunction with overseeding.
When core aerator machines take out plugs from your lawn, the soil underneath is able to loosen and become more permeable. Having softer and healthier soil is ideal for laying down grass seeds because the seeds will be able to easily reach a healthy depth where they can germinate. The holes left behind from the core aeration process even provide little pockets for new grass seeds to take root. Aeration is a highly beneficial service that can improve your lawn in the following ways:
Overseeding means laying down new grass seed over an existing lawn. This process differs from new grass seeding because it does not require the soil to be disturbed. As the name suggests, overseeding can be performed simply by walking across your lawn and tossing down grass seed over struggling areas. It is often recommended that an entire lawn be overseeded in order to prevent the spread of weeds or diseases to areas of healthy turf.
Considering that the goal of both aeration and overseeding is to create thicker and healthier lawns, it only makes sense that the two services should be performed together. While overseeding does not require you to disturb the soil, aerating simultaneously will provide better results. Seeds need to be able to reach down into the ground deep enough to be protected from the elements and have enough space to sprout. Overseeding at the time of aeration provides the best environment for seeds to germinate and create a thicker lawn.
Determining when you need to aerate and overseed depends on your lawn’s grass type and the climate zone in which your lawn exists. Virginia falls into what is generally considered to be the transition zone, and cool-season grasses are often the preferred choice for lawn care enthusiasts in the area. When it comes to overseeding, seeds should be planted in the appropriate season for the best results possible, which means cool-season lawns should be aerated and overseeded in early fall.
Between late August and early October in Virginia is the perfect time of year to prepare your cool-season lawn for the effects of winter. Cool-season grass seed that gets planted in the heart of summer will struggle to grow because it is designed to acclimate to colder temperatures and typically performs poorly when faced with heat or drought conditions. For an even more resilient lawn, many people choose to mix cool-season seeds together, such as Kentucky bluegrass with tall fescue seed, in order to get the best aspects of each seed type.
Aside from the damaging heat on your cool-season grass, summer is generally the time of year when lawns experience the most stress. Foot traffic, pests, excessive rainfall, and many other factors put a strain on your grass all summer long. Aerating in fall allows compacted soil to decompress after all the hustle and bustle of summer comes to an end, and overseeding will promote new growth to replace damaged or dead grass.
Cool-season lawns go dormant when temperatures get too cold, but they still need time to establish themselves before that happens. Lawns can take up to a month to become established, which makes early fall the perfect time to aerate and overseed. Once the first frost of the year sets in, the soil should be much healthier from aeration and in much better condition by the following spring.
If you wait too long into fall (or even early winter) to aerate your lawn, the soil will become too hard for aeration and overseeding to be effective. Early fall ground temperatures should still be warm enough for core aerators to penetrate easily and for grass seeds to be able to absorb the nutrition they need for germination.
The health of your lawn’s roots will determine how healthy the grass above the soil surface is. Overseeding in the appropriate season enables grass roots to grow deeply into the soil, and deeper roots always mean healthier grass. Planting seeds in the wrong season will result in bare spots and a generally struggling lawn due to poor root development and lack of nutrition.
As the effects of core aeration set into your lawn, grass roots will have more room to grow and develop. Weeds do not like to be overcrowded because they compete for the same water and nutrients as turfgrass. Overseeding increases the quality and the amount of grass in your lawn, meaning weeds will have less space to develop. Come the following spring, your thriving grass should start choking out pesky weeds.
The benefits listed above are just a few of the ways aerating and overseeding can save your lawn this fall. At Blue Sky, we want to see every lawn experience the kind of improvements that we know these services can provide. We always aerate in fall, and we use a premium tall fescue seed that will blend well with other cool-season grasses.
Check out our aeration and seeding services, and be sure to call Blue Sky this fall for all your lawn care needs in and around Chantilly, Virginia!
