Lawn Help: Aeration & Overseeding this Fall
How to Solve 4 Common Lawn Problems
If you need lawn help, aeration and overseeding is the #1 service you should consider this fall. Are you seeing any of these common problems in your lawn?
- Patchy grass
- Excessive weed growth
- Eroding soil
- Turf that is sensitive to hot, dry conditions
All of these symptoms stem from one core issue: compacted soil that prevents turf from lush growth. In the Ohio River Valley that surrounds Cincinnati, we have thick, clay soils that compress and retain more moisture than is healthy for turf growth. In our area, a key part of lawn help is first helping the soil.
Lawn Help: What is Aeration?
Aeration is the process of breaking up the soil by punching regular, small holes throughout your lawn. Nutrients, water and oxygen can then reach the roots more easily. The goal of aeration is to promote lush turf growth with healthy, deep roots.
You need lawn help when your soil is compacted because turf roots will grow shallowly instead of deeply. Shallow roots can’t withstand even short periods of hot, dry weather. Your grass will start to die out in the most intense weeks of summer. And when the grass leaves bare patches of dirt, weeds start to grow. Your yard is also at risk of erosion if the soil is left bare.
Another common issue is that over time, your healthy grass can become choked out by unsightly brown thatch.
“thatch is a layer of organic matter that accumulates on a lawn around the base of the grass plants. Thatch is a combination of living and dead plant matter including crowns, stolons, rhizomes, and roots.”
Aeration also breaks up the thatch layer, which allows it to decompose more quickly. Your turf will be free to grow thicker and greener without the hindrance of thatch.
Lawn Help: What is Overseeding?
Overseeding is the process of sowing grass seed on top of an established lawn. The seed goes over the ground, instead of being buried. In this way, your lawn is helped to grow more grass without disturbing your existing turf.
The grass seed variety we at Paramount use is an impressive performer. It’s cultivated for its dark green color, and is more resistant to disease, drought and insects than other varieties. Also, it has the ability to spread on its own, which is unusual for fescues.
Lawn Help: How Aeration & Overseeding Work Together
After aerating the lawn and loosening the soil, new grass seed from overseeding will fall into the newly-created holes. It’s a natural combination and why we do both in one service appointment. They’re really a one-two punch for lawn help.
Here’s a video we put together on why you should aerate and overseed your lawn.
Lawn Help from Paramount Lawn + Landscape
Not all aeration services are the same. Also, some might consider doing it themselves. You may have seen a manual aerator lawn tool like this one:
While manual aeration is better than nothing, it’s not good enough for tough, clay soils. That kind of tool works better in sandy soil that doesn’t compact. In all likelihood, manual tools will just get stuck and cause frustration. In our lawn help article “Why Should You Aerate Your Lawn?” we explain Paramount’s process tailored for the Cincinnati area.
“We perform a double pass aeration using high quality NTEP Blue Tag Seed varieties and a premium starter fertilizer. Our aeration process helps to improve soil health and promote deep root growth, while our seed varieties are carefully selected for their high-quality and drought tolerance. And our starter fertilizer provides the essential nutrients your lawn needs to thrive. Trust us to provide the best care for your lawn.”
If you’re looking for “aeration service near me,” reach out to the experts at Paramount. We want you to love your lawn. This service is very popular with our customers, so it’s a good idea to get on the schedule now, while we have plenty of fall availability.
