overseeding

brandonriffel · 10-08-2009, 01:21 AM

If my lawn looks healthy, is a nice dark green, do I need to seed it every year? I'll put down a winterizer, but I usually don't even core it. I see my neighbors doing core aeration and seeding and feeding every fall, is this needed?

Cork-Guy · 10-08-2009, 04:53 AM

You really only need to re-send if your lawn has patches; I've read about people letting their grass grow long at the end of the year so it naturally seeds, however I've never tried this myself.

house92 · 10-10-2009, 03:44 PM

I've read that one only needs to re-seed every 4 or 5 years. I'm not one who enjoys lawn work, so I rarely do anything other than mow, and my lawn looks fine. When I was growing up, we never did anything other than mow and it looked fine as well. Never doing anything is probably extreme by today's standards, but it shows that a lawn will be ok without all the pampering some people give it every year.

mudmixer · 10-10-2009, 04:49 PM

Core aeration is a great thing to do. - Just look at a golf course.

It can make the soil better, the fertilizer to go farther and makes watering and rainfall more effective. The rain does not run off and the fertilizer goes into the soil instead of down the storm sewer where is screws up the lakes, river and streams and ends up being wasted.

With good maintenance and weed control, over-seeding should really not be needed except in smaller problem areas.

bob2044 · 10-10-2009, 06:39 PM

If the lawn looks real good - I would do neither. I've done core aeration and over-seeding in the past. Only over-seeding if there's an obvious problem (patchy or thin looking) and core aeration with heavy clay soil to help water and nutrients more easily get to the roots.

brandonriffel · 10-11-2009, 07:50 PM

Thank you everyone. As usual, I will probably do nothing. It's worked so far for me, and I'm pretty lazy when it comes to tending my lawn. I'll just put down the winterizer and cross my fingers.