Omaha Lawn Aeration and Overseeding
Do you aerate or overseed your grass? If you don’t, you may not even be aware of the many benefits it can provide. Aerating and overseeding your lawn can be important measures in preserving the life, health and look of your lawn. So, what are the benefits of overseeding your lawn? What do aeration and overseeding do?
Essentially, good lawn aeration and overseeding service is a great way to add health to your lawn and allow you to enjoy that emerald green you’ve always wanted. Aeration adds more oxygen to your soil, nourishing your grass, while overseeding introduces more grass seeds, including healthier varieties.
When you aerate and overseed together as part of a lawn care program, you reduce soil compaction and introduce more grass to any thin patches. With professional lawn aeration and overseeding service from Nature’s Helper, you enjoy the elements you need for a healthy lawn.
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The Purpose of Overseeding Your Lawn: Why You Should Consider Investing in a Lawn Overseeding Service
First, it’s important to understand what overseeding is. Overseeding is simply planting more grass seed right into your existing turf. Rather than replacing the existing lawn, you just plant the new seed on top, concentrating on thin or bare spots next to the growth you have right now.
Why would you do this? There are a few reasons. If your lawn looks old or worn out, overseeding with new grass varieties can give your lawn a refreshed, new look. Overseeding can also improve the health of your lawn by adding heartier varieties of grass to the overall landscape.
If they were originally seeded a long time ago, your turf grasses might not be tough enough for today’s environment. They may be prone to disease or insect infestation and require more water or fertilizer than normal to grow and flourish.
By overseeding with newer, tougher turf varieties designed to withstand harsher conditions, you strengthen the entire lawn and make it easier for it to thrive. Overseeding also offers the following benefits:
- Protects your lawn from being overgrown by weeds
- Reduces the risk of pests accumulating in your lawn
- Strengthens the lawn against erosion of the soil (which can also help in the event of a drought)
The Purpose and Benefits of Aerating Your Lawn
Aeration, as the name might suggest, is essentially adding air to your lawn. You do this by using an aerating machine with hollow tines to make small holes in the soil throughout the lawn area, allowing air to get deeper into the soil, where it can reach the roots. These holes also provide viaducts for water and nutrients to get to your roots. For optimum seed germination and growth, soil and atmospheric temperatures are most favorable in the late summer and early fall.
Why do you do it? The purpose of aerating your lawn is to relieve compaction, a situation where heavy clay soil is packed so tightly that air, water, and nutrients cannot effectively circulate through it. Aerating your lawn gives these precious elements more room to travel freely through the soil and invigorate your plants.
You should aerate if you aren’t happy with the look or feel of your lawn. Also, consider aerating if you have a new home where the lawn has likely had a lot of construction workers and equipment rolling over it, there is soil layering, your lawn gets heavy traffic or it feels spongy and dries out easily.
Combining Aeration and Overseeding
While aeration and overseeding each offer their own unique benefits, you can maximize your landscape’s potential by combining the two services. When used together, these services will create a vibrant lawn by improving the condition of the soil and adding the new seedlings needed to thicken what’s already there.
If you decide to have both of these services done, you’ll want to schedule the aeration before overseeding for good seed-to-soil contact. Aeration is an effective first step to loosen the soil for the best contact when it’s time to seed. Beyond improving the germination rate, aeration will help any fertilizer you add after seeding to penetrate the ground.
Used together, aeration and overseeding can have a tremendous impact on preserving your landscaping. You’ll see its effects in three key areas:
- Life: Aeration and overseeding are simple landscaping services that can significantly improve the life span of your lawn. Grass can quickly wither and die in some circumstances, especially in times of stress — like high temperatures or low rainfall. By looking after the soil and lawn grasses, you’ll be able to preserve your landscaping for many years to come.
- Health: Proper lawn care offers benefits ranging from better drainage to enhanced nutrient availability. Improvements in the aeration and soil structure translate to better overall health for your landscaping.
- Looks: Is your lawn not looking the way you’d like it to? Aerating and overseeding can help revitalize it. Instead of having a bunch of brown or bare spots, you’ll be able to enjoy lush, thick landscaping that turns heads for the right reasons.
Frequently Asked Questions About Lawn Aeration and Overseeding
How Often Should You Have Your Lawn Aerated and Overseeded?
Commercial properties relying on lush green lawns may aerate a few times a year. That is likely how your favorite golf green maintains their grass, even with heavy foot traffic. With most homes, you will want to aerate at least every other year and more often if your lawn sees heavy traffic or you have clay-based soil that compacts easily.
Overseeding after aeration works because the soil is primed to make the most of new seeds. Depending on your grass, you may wish to overseed every time you aerate or only every three years or so. When your lawn is not looking as thick and lush as usual, you may want to introduce more seed.
What is the Best Time of Year for Lawn Aeration and Overseeding in Omaha, NE?
There is no bad time to aerate and overseed your lawn, but you will get the best results. Root development is most active in September, so this is the ideal time to aerate. The best time to overseed is late summer and early fall or when temperatures are ideal for seedling growth.
Do I Need to Wait to Water My Lawn After Aeration or Overseeding is Complete?
No, it’s recommended that you water 24 hours before aerating. It is easier to aerate if the ground is damp, especially if you have compacted soil; however, if the soil is too wet you risk leaving track marks from the aerating machine.
You need to care for your lawn to reap the benefits of overseeding and aerating. After you have overseeded and aerated, it is important to keep the lawn moist.
We recommend running your sprinkler system three times a day for short bursts of up to five minutes if you’re using rotor heads and up to three minutes for mist heads. You want the lawn to stay moist, and the seeds to get moisture but not get soaked. After two months, you can water regularly.
How to Prepare Your Lawn for Aeration and Overseeding
If you’ve scheduled a lawn aeration service, there are a few things you can do ahead of time to ensure the best results. One of the most important steps is to make sure your lawn is mowed short. You should also clear away any debris, including grass clippings or sticks. Finally, you’ll want to water your grass to ensure the soil is soft before aerating. Taking the time to adequately prepare your lawn increases the chances of successful growth.
Do I Need to Wait to Mow My Lawn After Aeration of Overseeding?
Yes. You should not mow your lawn for two or even three weeks. This will give seeds a chance to grow and develop healthy root systems and ensure you’re not pressing down on the soil and undoing some of the work of aeration.
Is It Safe for Children or Pets to Be on the Lawn After Aeration and Overseeding?
While it is safe, traffic on your lawn will undo some of the benefits. Try to avoid having anyone walk on your lawn until enough weeks have passed and you’ve mowed your lawn a few times.
Should You Fertilize Your Lawn After Aeration or Overseeding?
Do not use herbicides for at least six weeks. However, lawn fertilization after aeration or overseeding is recommended. One of the benefits of aerating is nutrients can better get into the soil.
How Do I Know if My Soil Is Compacted?
There are a number of signs that your soil is compacted including:
- Water does not sink into the soil and instead runs off (in higher areas) or creates a puddle (in lower areas)
- Your plants or grass have stopped growing
- Trees are unable to develop deeper root systems
- There are completely bare patches in your lawn where weeds and/or grass do not grow or become patchy
- It is difficult to drive a shovel into the soil
- You have clay soil (compaction is common with soil that has higher concentrations of clay)
Many factors cause compacted soil, but the most common are heavy traffic and machinery. If you have moved into a new development, for example, the machinery used in building the area may have compacted the soil. Compacting is also caused by cars, heavy foot traffic, too much tilling and more.
The problem with compaction is the lack of air. Good quality soil is about half air, allowing nutrients and water to get to the roots and help them grow.
When the soil gets packed too closely, this cannot occur, and even trees and weeds can have a hard time growing in this environment. Maintaining a lush lawn when your soil gets compacted is as impossible as trying to grow gross without enough soil and water.
If you have compacted soil, you may notice water won’t permeate the soil and starts running off high areas and pooling into low areas. Certain areas can experience minimal growth, even among weeds.
If you try to use a shovel, you could find some resistance. One of the best lawn care tips in this situation is to contact a professional aeration service.
Are There Other Lawn Tips to Keep My Lawn Green?
Besides aeration and overseeding, there are a few ideas to keep your lawn lush and your soil healthy:
- Avoid excessive traffic on your lawn: Designate a path along an area that has not been aerated. Set down pavers and discourage walking on the lawn, especially if you had trouble with compaction. Never park vehicles or equipment on the lawn.
- Try plug aerators: Plug aerators remove small plugs of soil from your lawn, while spike aerators puncture holes in the soil. Plug aerators create more room in the soil, which is what compacted soil needs. Also, some spike aerators can create more compacted soil around the spike.
- Do not rely on overseeding and aeration alone: Your lawn is an ecosystem, and it needs more than just air and more seeds. A good irrigation system, fertilizer schedule and careful attention can help. If you’ve seeded and still don’t have a lush, emerald lawn, call lawn experts for plug aerator service near you.
Tip: If you want to test your lawn for soil compaction, simply take a strong, metal rod and steadily push it into the ground. If your soil is compacted, the rod will only be able to penetrate a few inches or so before it stops. If your soil is healthy, the rod should be able to penetrate much farther (in some cases it could even reach several feet deep!).
When Should You Aerate and Seed Your Lawn?
If you’ve never overseeded your lawn before, or you’ve had the property for some time and it is starting to show wear, you should consider overseeding. Before doing so, our experienced team will analyze your lawn to make sure whatever is causing your lawn to deteriorate is a function of the existing grass and not something like poor watering, poor drainage or poor soil condition.
Conditions that are bad for your existing grass will be bad for your new grass too. Even if the new grass is tougher, you want to give it the best chance possible to prosper, meaning taking care of any existing issues before overseeding.
The ideal time for aerating your lawn is during cooler seasons like spring when the grass has the opportunity to grow into the areas where soil plugs have been removed or in the fall when the development of root systems are the most active.
How Often Should You Aerate and Overseed Your Lawn?
Most residential lawns should be aerated about every other year depending on your soil composition, the traffic on your lawn and the amount of moisture your lawn receives. Additionally, it is a good idea to aerate your lawn if your soil appears to be compacted to ensure your lawn stays healthy and lush.
In many cases, you’ll want to overseed your lawn after it has been aerated (for best results), or at a minimum of every three to four years in order to maintain a thick lawn.
What Is the Difference Between Dethatching and Aerating?
Dethatching involves removing the layer of thatch (leaves, stems and roots) between the grass you see above the ground and the roots under the soil. If this thatch gets too thick, it can prevent air, water and nutrients from getting through. You would consider dethatching instead of aerating if the lawn is spongy and you can see thick growth in between the green shoots of grass and the roots.
What To Do After Overseeding Your Lawn
It’s important to keep new seed damp until it has a chance to germinate. Water in short bursts 3 or 4 times a day, every day, until the seed has established roots. This watering schedule will also help break down the plugs that resulted from aeration. Try to keep all traffic off of the lawn until the new grass has a chance to establish itself, and don’t mow for at least 3 weeks.
Professional Lawn Aeration and Overseeding in Omaha, NE – Nature’s Helper
Looking for lawn aeration and overseeding services in the Omaha area? Nature’s Helper, the experts in sprinkler lawn care, can also help you with aerating and overseeding your lawn to make sure it’s done right and gets you the best possible results. We have over 25 years of experience and are committed to helping homeowners and businesses receive the landscape services they need — for the best price. When you hire a professional to take care of your aeration, we ensure that your lawn is a good candidate for aeration.
You also won’t have to worry about whether or not you’re doing it correctly. Aerating or overseeding a lawn that doesn’t need it or using improper techniques could damage the area, which is definitely something you want to avoid. Contact Nature’s Helper today for the best Omaha commercial aeration and overseeding services!
