I’m writing this to those of you who have basically done nothing for your lawn all year and are thinking that you may want to go ahead and try to salvage what you can before winter. I will tell you, this is a GREAT IDEA! The fall time across the Midwest is a very good time to rejuvenate your tired and crappy lawn.
Lawn Aeration
Fundamentally, this is the baseline that needs to be established in getting the lawn back in shape after the long summer and prior to fall. Aeration is a process whereby a machine is used to remove cores of soil from the lawn. These cores being removed leave holes throughout the lawn that are about the size of a roll of dimes – thousands of them. This relieves soil compaction and allows the roots of the lawn to expand. This is important because turf expands its root structure in the fall naturally anyway and aerating helps it.
Fall Lawn Fertilizer
Right after the aeration (same day) I want you to apply a well-balanced lawn fertilizer designed for fall. I want you to look for something that has a good balance of nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus. These three elements will help build even more root structure.
The numbers should be something like 20-20-10 or 25-15-10. If you are unsure, look for the term “starter fertilizer” or “lawn starter” and you will be all good! The reason I want you to apply the fert right after the aeration is because this will put the nutrients DIRECTLY into the root zone for immediate use once we get a little moisture.
Grass Seed
If you have some thin spots (maybe from an attack of sod webworms), or your lawn is thin overall, now is also the time to apply some fresh grass seed. You can put it down right after you fertilize with no issue. If you are doing a general overseeding of the lawn, you should apply 4 lbs of seed per 1,000 sq feet of lawn space using a broadcast spreader. Here is a video I did that will help you.
