Transforming a spotty, diseased yard into a beautiful, lush lawn takes time & effort. Each part is just as significant as the next in transforming your yard into a lawn. During the first season, you’ll be on the right track. By the second and third seasons, you’ll have a healthy, thick, and lush layer of turf.
With our Total Lawn Renovation Program, we implement all of our core competencies in order to completely transform your property.
Core Aeration
Aeration involves perforating the soil with small holes to allow air, water and nutrients to penetrate the grass roots. This helps the roots grow deeply and produce a stronger, more vigorous lawn.
Aeration is the naturally occurring process of air exchange between the soil and its surrounding atmosphere. Practically speaking, aeration is the process of mechanically removing small plugs of thatch and soil from the lawn to improve natural soil aeration. It’s commonly called “core aeration” in the lawn service industry, and you may have heard of it as soil cultivation (coring, spiking and slicing). Most homeowners simply call it aeration.
The main reason for aerating is to alleviate soil compaction. Compacted soils have too many solid particles in a certain volume or space, which prevents proper circulation of air, water and nutrients within the soil. Excess lawn thatch or heavy organic debris buried under the grass surface can also starve the roots from these essential elements.
Overseeding
Overseeding is the planting of grass seed directly into existing turf, without tearing up the turf, or the soil. It’s an easy way to fill in bare spots, improve the density of turf, establish improved grass varieties and enhance your lawn’s color. If a lawn looks old, or just “worn out,” if it needs growing amounts of water and fertilizer to thrive, or is disease or insect prone, it’s a perfect candidate for overseeding.
Overseeding is one of the most important lawn care tasks, yet few homeowners ever do it. So, you ask, if I fertilize my lawn properly, why do I need to add new seed, especially if my grass looks pretty good right now? The answer is grass is not immortal. After five or six years, grass plants will slow down their reproduction rates; they get tired just like we do as we age. Thin grass invites weeds.
Overseeding compensates for that natural slow down of the turf’s reproduction. There are two major benefits to overseeding every five or six years. First, you insure your lawn stays thick and dense, or if it has thinned, you will make it thick again. Thick grass has few if any weeds if it is mowed over 2 inches tall.
The second benefit is disease resistance. The new varieties of seed you sow this year will have better disease resistance than those varieties already in your lawn.
Your goal is to have a lawn that is as dense as brand new quality sod. Go to the garden center selling sod and try to spread the grass blades to see if you can see any soil. Usually, the grass is so thick you cannot see soil of brand new sod. Now go outside and check your own turf to see if by spreading the grass blades you can see any soil. It is likely the soil will be readily visible. That means your lawn needs to be overseeded.
Verticutting & Power Raking
Verticutting, or vertical mowing, removes thatch buildup in the lawn so turf can breathe easy, better absorb nutrients, and soak in much-needed moisture. Thatch is a layer of dead stems and roots that forms between the grass and soil. It isn’t all bad. Small amounts can actually reduce compaction in high-traffic commercial areas. But when thatch exceeds a half-inch, all that biomass starts eating up the good stuff that belongs to your turf: air, water and food. Plus, insects and disease fester in thatch—more bad news.