To achieve and maintain a beautiful lawn, there are some basic lawn care techniques and practices that we’ll be going over. However, when it comes to a thick, healthy lawn, aeration and overseeding are most likely to provide you with the most noticeable results next spring and summer.

What is Aeration?

Aeration is a process that perforates the soil with small holes to allow water, air, nutrients, and grass seed to penetrate. Aeration helps relieve soil compaction and improves root development in your lawn.

Core Aeration vs. Spike Aeration

The two most popular ways to aerate are with a spike aerator or plug aeration. Custom Spray uses plug/core aeration because a spike aerator is known to compact the soil around the spike. Spikes poke holes into the ground and don’t remove any of the soil.

A core aerator will pull 2-3”  plugs of soil out of your lawn, leaving small ½” – ¾” diameter holes, approximately 4-6” apart. Pulling these core plugs out of your lawn allows your lawn to breathe freely and allows for better root development of healthy grass. It also gives new grass seeds direct access to the soil for germination.

What Do I Do With The Plugs?

After we aerate your lawn there will be plugs all over. You don’t need to do anything with them. The plugs will break down by your mower or dissolve in the rain. They will eventually return to the soil, giving your lawn a clean, uniform appearance. 

What is Overseeding?

Overseeding your lawn is something we do in tandem with aeration. Overseeding is an organic lawn care technique that involves spreading a high-quality mix of grass seed to your existing lawn. We overseed with a variety of Fescue, Kentucky Bluegrass, and Rye that grow well in both full sun and shaded areas.

When Should You Aerate and Overseed?

The best time in Northeast Ohio to aerate and overseed your lawn is in late summer to early fall. This gives your new grass seeds some time to germinate and get established before temperatures drop too low and growth ceases. Once the spring comes, the young grass will have some time to develop without competition from summer weeds.

Overseeding in the fall is the best because the soil temperatures are still warm which is necessary for seed germination. Colder air and warmer soil temperatures are ideal for new grass growth.

Do I Need Lawn Aeration and Overseeding?

This is one of the most common questions we get from customers trying to determine whether or not they should call us for aeration. You should call us for lawn aeration if:

1. Your lawn gets heavy usage – Children, pets, and anything else that could compact the soil.
2. If your lawn feels spongy – Usually the spongy feeling is an excessive thatch problem. If your thatch layer is greater than a ½” then aeration would be recommended.
3. New Construction – with newly constructed homes, the soil has been compacted by construction traffic.
4. Soil layering – If your lawn was sod over existing soil, then you have a finer texture over the existing coarse soil which can disrupt drainage.
5. Bare or Dry spots – If you notice any bare spots or cracking of the soil.

If after you’ve read the above, and still wonder whether or not you need Aeration and Overseeding… No worries, it’s still going to improve your lawn. It’s one of the most productive things you can do to relieve compaction, reduce thatch and introduce new seed cultivars to your existing turf.

Aeration and Overseeding are good for your lawn care program and can greatly improve the appearance of your lawn and the condition of your soil. Fall Aeration and over-seeding are more effective and do not interfere with spring crabgrass pre-emergent treatments.

Irrigation and Dog Fences

Because aeration pulls plugs out of your soil, it’s important to let us know where your underground irrigation and dog fences are so we don’t do any damage to them. If you have either of these, the homeowner must mark the placement of the heads and/or wires so we don’t get near them. White plastic forks work well or flags. If you need flags, let your lawn technician know in advance.

Turf grass in Northeast Ohio is going into summer dormancy. Recently we’ve had some hot, dry weather in Northeast Ohio and when it’s above 85 degrees, the turf grass protects itself by going into dormancy. These last couple weeks we’ve seen daytime temperatures reach up to 97 degrees with soil temperatures exceeding 90 degrees.

All herbicides are influenced by environmental conditions and most herbicide labels caution against treatment of lawns under extreme environmental conditions.

Summer Weed Control in Northeast Ohio

What’s important to understand is that weeds can thrive during drought and temperatures above 85 degrees temperatures. When it’s hot and dry, these extreme environmental conditions will stress your lawn. Mowing your lawn too short (which we see a lot), also contributes to the stress of the lawn and can actually burn your healthy lawn which will create patches which will encourage weed growth and crabgrass.

Watering your lawn during the hottest part of the day when the sun is beaming down could also cause stress to your healthy turf because the water on your grass blades amplifies the effects of the sun. Watering too much or at the improper time may encourage lawn fungus in your turf. We highly recommend watering early morning if possible 2-3 times per week depending on your soil type and sun exposure. Long deep watering encourages deeper roots and stays in the soil longer. This is more beneficial than light, frequent sprinklings which rarely reach the root zone of the lawns and usually bake off the soil and turf in a few hours.

Broadleaf weeds will most likely not be a problem when your turf grass is established, fertilized, properly mowed, and watered. However, tightly mowed grass, short grass, thin grass, weak grass is where weeds will invade and that’s what we’re seeing. Use caution when trimming the edges of your lawn by buzzing it down to the crown of the turf. This creates the perfect environment for crabgrass and weeds to fill in these hot bare edges.

During a drought when the lawns are stressed, weeds will develop a thicker wax-like layer on the leaf surface which keeps moisture in and creates a barrier for weed control absorption, making them resistant to many herbicides. When the weed control isn’t penetrating the wax-like barrier and it’s extremely hot during the day, whatever herbicide penetrates into the plant will be reduced due to a slower rate of metabolism. Application of weed control under these extreme conditions will often result in a decrease of it’s effectiveness. This is why we only spot treat weeds as needed under these drought conditions.

The Best Time for Weed Control

The optimum time for us to apply weed control to your lawn is when the weeds are actively growing and the soil temperatures are cool with good moisture. This makes the Fall months of September/October a prime time for fantastic weed control. This is the time when the weeds are storing up energy to overwinter and thrive in the spring.  A good application of weed control in the fall can prevent almost all dandelion infestations in the spring. Don’t let your lawn be the dreaded sea of yellow in the spring.

Your weed control will be most effective between 65-80 degrees Fahrenheit. Once the temperature gets above 85 degrees, your healthy lawn will experience stress from the heat and the weeds that are present will become resistant to our applications.

Don’t Mow Your Lawn Too Short

Many of us that understand lawn care as a science, have not mowed our lawns for nearly two weeks. The grass isn’t growing fast and it doesn’t look as neat and tidy as a freshly mowed lawn. However it’s green, healthy and weed-free. Compare our lawn with our neighbors that mow the lawn too short,  their lawn is burnt out, stressed and encouraging weed growth. Mowing too short or tight also causes the soil to dry out much quicker. Sharp mower blades are also a trade secret to a greener healthier lawn. A good sharp, clean cut seals better and reduces moisture loss and opportunistic turf diseases.

There’s a time for mowing the lawn short and tight but that’s on the golf greens not your home turf and not during a drought.

It’s never too late to start your weed control services. We offer weed control services in Medina, Akron, Brunswick, Green, Bath, Stow, Cuyahoga Falls, Norton, Wadsworth, and the surrounding Northeast Ohio communities. Just click our phone number to give us a call and we’ll get you started toward a weed-free lawn. Call 330-861-5035 or fill out our FREE Quote form.

It may be winter and you aren’t thinking about your lawn just yet but you should be. Spring is just around the corner, even the groundhog was right! Just because the grass is not yet growing doesn’t mean that you can’t have a healthy lawn come spring.

If you didn’t winterize your lawn before winter came it’s not too late to call us, check it out, and get it ready for mowing season. We can offer tips and solutions on how to prepare for a new season. We offer free consultations and want your lawn to be the best one on the street!

Did you know that snow mold can threaten your yard? You can prevent the snow mold by making sure it is winterized, cleaned up, and cut correctly in the fall. Though it might be too late now, plan for next year’s winter and focus on the spring months ahead.

Here are some tips to prepare for as spring heads our way and don’t start working on your yard until the soil dries out enough to not do damage.

• Prevent walking on frost as it will leave temporary brown footprints. Although mud tracks from footprints or lawn equipment may look bad, they usually do no damage unless there are deep ruts as well.
• Lawn Mowers have been sitting for too long so make sure that you sharpen your lawn mower and change the oil.
• If you didn’t aerate your lawn in the fall months, you can do so before crabgrass pre emergent is applied. Although it can get very muddy and messy–even do damage of not done correctly–so we wait until fall.
• Add lime and a fertilization program now to get your lawn kicked into gear and growing and recovering from winter.
• Don’t water your lawn until it is growing and the soil is drying. Your lawn needs 1″ of water per week. This should be done in as FEW watering a as possible. Ideally one or two morning. Watering every day creates a shallow root system and can cause many problems.

It may be soggy and wet, but once beautiful spring hits prepare yourself–and your mower! Want more advice or a consultation on your lawn? Just call or email us today! Get setup with our lawn program now to ensure timely applications. If you wait for the dandelions, you have missed the crabgrass!