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Hi, I'm Harold Enger from Spring-Green Lawn Care, and I want to tell you a little bit
about a process called core aeration and overseeding. Now, core aeration or a core aerator is a
machine that goes across the lawn and it takes out plugs of soil and thatch and leaves them
back on top of the ground. As you can see here, these are just some of
the cores that have been pulled out by this machine. The advantage of leaving these cores
on the ground like this is that first of all, you've got a place that some of the seed can
germinate - not only in the holes that were created by the machine, but also some of the
seed will adhere to these plugs and you're going to get good germination.
Just throwing seed on top of the ground is not going to give you good germination. It's
got to be attached to the soil in some way. The other advantage of leaving these cores
on top of the lawn is that the microorganisms that are in the soil will melt down into the
thatch and help to break it down naturally. So, aeration is a very good process that you
should do on a lawn every year. It opens up the lawn, allowing for more air, water and
nutrients to penetrate into the root zone and to develop better root growth. And again,
it's a great place for seed to germinate because it will fall into those holes, germinate within
those holes, and as the hole collapses, that plant will actually rise up and you will have
a root system already built in with that plant when it gets to the top.
After you have aerated it and overseeded, then you're going to want to keep it watered
for about 2-3 weeks to make sure that that seed germinates. Now, it's not like watering
a new seed bed where there's nothing here. You do have moisture that will be held because
of the grass that's here, but you're still going to have to water it at a minimum of
every other day to make sure that there's enough moisture available for that new seed
so that once it germinates, it can continue to grow. One of the biggest reasons why seed
failure happens is because it is not watered enough.
So, for more information on core aeration and overseeding, contact your neighborhood
lawn care professional at Spring-Green. Or, visit my Ask the Expert blog at Spring-Green.com.