After a particularly hot, dry summer, lawns that were allowed to go dormant generally have started to snap back and are green and growing again. If you still have bare spots, or you want to improve the health of your lawn for next year, the next few weeks is your last shot for pre-winter lawn repair.
Planting grass
More Top Picks Electric Kettles
A bare spot that’s smaller than a dinner plate probably will fill itself in naturally. If you can correct the condition that caused the bald patch in the first place, the existing grass plants that surround the empty area will spread to fill the gap.
Excessive traffic that compacts the soil can cause bare spots. If people carve the same path through the grass, consider adding a barrier to encourage the traffic to move elsewhere.
Grub damage may be evident at this time of year, but it’s probably too late in the season for applying grub killing agents. The grubs, larvae of several species of beetles, are preparing to burrow down deeper into the soil and are ending the eating phase in which they feed on the roots of grass plants.
If you have large areas that are missing grass, then you need to reseed those places. Sandra Spees, information associate for the Montgomery County Extension Office in Ohio, said she prefers reseeding in early September or in early spring. But grass planted in the next couple weeks should have the four to six weeks it needs to become firmly established before winter.
If you’re concerned about being caught by an early frost, installing sod is an option.
If you’re not sure what kind of grass you have, use a knife to cut a small plug of grass a few feet from the bare spot and take that to a grass seed retailer.
The retailer should be able to tell you the species of grass you’re growing so you can buy seed of the same type. If you plant a grass type other than the one you already have, you can end up with a lawn with mismatched colors and textures.
Bluegrass, the most common type in the Midwest, and ryegrass can be planted into October, but the sooner you start, the better.
Apply a seed-starting fertilizer as directed, till the soil to a depth of about 5 inches and rake the surface to smooth it. Sow the grass seed and apply generous amounts of water.
You’ll need to keep the surface of the soil moist but not saturated while the seeds take root.
Aeration and winterizing
One of the best things you can do for the health of your lawn is aeration, a process that pokes holes in the soil surface to allow for better water and fertilizer penetration and to cut through excessive thatch.
You can rent a gasoline-powered, core-aerating machine for about $60 a day, but the machine is heavy and the work is fairly strenuous. Most lawn services will do the job for a fee.
The type of aerator that is most effective has hollow, tube-like tines on a rotating drum. As the drum turns, the tines dig out small plugs of dirt and drop them on the surface.
Before using an aerator, cut the grass shorter than normal. After you run that aerator, the yard will look a little haggard with plugs of soil lying around. They will break down naturally when they get wet.
Spees said people should aerate their lawns once a year if they can.
Many people fertilize their lawns on a seasonal schedule that calls for four or five fertilizer applications a year. That system works OK, but if you only want to fertilize once a year, the most important fertilization is the winterizing fertilization that is done around the time of the first frost, typically early November.
Lawn fertilizers have three main ingredients–nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K)–and the percentages of each will be indicated by a figure printed on the front of the bag. A bag marked 32, 6, 8 will have 32 percent nitrogen, 6 percent phosphorus and 8 percent potassium, for instance.
It’s the ratios between the numbers that are important, and Turfgrass Producers International says a balance of three or four parts nitrogen to one part phosphorus to two parts potassium is a good mix. You’ll need to do a little math in your head to get the right proportions, but 12-4-8, 15-5-10, 21-7-14, 16-4-8 and 20-5-10 are acceptable.
Nitrogen promotes the development of healthy-looking, green grass blades. At least half the nitrogen in the fertilizer you buy should be in slow release forms such as sulfur-coated urea, resin-coated urea, ureaformaldehyde or methylene urea.
While nitrogen benefits leaves, phosphorus and potassium strengthens the roots and improves the general health of the grass plant. An application of those elements at this time of year helps build a plant that will grow and spread vigorously, crowding out weeds.
More Top Picks Best Whoop Alternatives For Recovery Tracking
Phosphorus and potassium also help make the grass more resistant to stresses such as drought, insects and fungus.