Time to Core Aerate and Overseed Your Cool Season Grass

grass

Fall has arrived and it’s the perfect time to rehabilitate a tired lawn. One of the best maintenance practices includes core aeration and overseeding your cool season grasses.

Why?

Because core aeration allows oxygen, water, and light to penetrate the soil and the soil also releases carbon dioxide.

If you’re looking for a way to cut a section of sod in your lawn, you need a self-propelled sod remover.

For example, you may want to build a patio where there’s healthy grass right now. You’d use a sod remover to cut away the turf so you can build your patio.

How to Get Rid of Sod

If there’s an area of your lawn filled with dead grass, you can remove it with a sod remover. Usually, homeowners rent a sod remover, also known as a sod cutter. You can rent a walk-behind sod cutter for your residential property.

When removing healthy sod, the sod cutter will cut down close to 3” to remove the entire grass plant, its roots and a thin layer of soil.

You want that thin layer of soil attached to the sod, so when you lay it down in a new spot, it will be even with the rest of the yard.

While removing sod with a sod remover is time-consuming, it makes replacing bare patches on your lawn a simple and fast solution.

Here’s how to complete the sod removal process successfully:

  • Mow your lawn, which makes the sod lighter to cut out and move to a new area.
  • Water your yard a few days before you remove the sod.
  • Mark the areas of sod that you want to cut.
  • Start on one side of your yard when using the sod remover, overlapping the edges, so there are no leftover grass strips.

Watch more: The Roger 180º Full Dump Kit Makes DIY Yard Care a Cinch this Fall

  • Cut in small pieces so you can easily carry them to the planting area.
  • Place layers of sod on burlap and lightly water each layer to keep it moist.
  • Stack sod layers on top of each other to hold in moisture.

When placing sod on the ground, you want to make sure that it lines up with the rest of the turf area. You can even out lines and tamp down the sod using a lawn roller.

How to Put Down Grass Seed on Your Lawn

To put down grass seed, you’ll need an aerator or a rake to loosen up the soil. Then, you use a push or tow spreader to distribute grass seed evenly.

Next, you want to use a lawn roller to push seed down deep into the soil. When there’s good seed to soil contact, the new grass develops better roots and germinates faster.

How to Spread Grass Seed

Spreading grass seed can be fast and easy—especially when you use the right spreader for the job.

Here’s how to spread grass seed:

  • Make sure you use the correct grass seed for the area where you’re planting it. If you live in the northern third of the U.S. or Canada, you’ll need cool season grass seed.

If you live in the middle third of the U.S., you’ll need warm season grasses for sunny areas and cool season grass for shady areas. And if you live in the southern part of the U.S., you need warm season grasses.

Next, you need to buy the right grass seed for your property. For example, if you have a cool season lawn, you want to plant a fescue blend in shady areas and a Kentucky bluegrass mix in sunny areas.

Read more: How Often Do I Need to Check My Soil?

  • Aerate the area where you plan to plant the grass seed. Aeration pulls up plugs of soil, allowing most grass seed to go deep into the ground. You can aerate your cool season lawn in the fall.
  • Set your spreader to the correct calibration to put down grass seed. After spreading seed, you need to put a light layer of dirt over your grass seed. Then, put down a thin layer of organic compost or topsoil over your newly seeded lawn.
  • Then, use a lawn roller to tamp down that grass seed.
  • Water your lawn lightly so it absorbs into soil. You’ll need to water your newly planted grass seed every day for three to four weeks.

Brinly-Hardy’s Lawn Care Attachments Help You Revive Your Tired Lawn

If this summer’s heat wore out your lawn, you can buy your aerator and spreaders through Brinly. Our lawn care attachments make easy work on core aeration and overseeding jobs.

You can find Brinly lawn care attachments online. If you can’t find any Brinly-Hardy attachments near you, contact our customer service at 877-728-8224 or fill out our contact form.

Sources:

GardenGuides.com, “Tips on Removing a Lawn with a Sod Cutter.”

Outdoor Life, “How to Plant Grass Seed—Easy Tips on How to Plant Grass Seed.”

SodSolutions.com, “How to Use Sod Cutters When Sod Needs Removal.”

question_answer