If you want to have a thicker lawn, you are definitely looking in the right direction – because a thicker lawn is the ultimate indication of a healthy turf structure (that will also be greener by default). In fact, a thicker lawn will resist all other problems and pressures that can hit your yard during the year. This is not about getting your lawn to grow – it’s about getting your already decent lawn thick and healthy… So in this article, I am going to give you guys the secret to getting your lawn thicker starting right now.
Learn To Grow Seed
If you want a thicker lawn, I want you to become a growing grass seed expert! It’s really not as difficult as you think and it will do wonders for the thickening process. In addition, growing fresh grass seed in your lawn adds in new cultivars that have been engineered to withstand drought and heat, as well as be disease resistant. I recommend that no matter what your lawn looks like, you grow fresh grass seed in it every fall anyway. Either way, here are the best ways to grow grass seed to make your lawn thicker (and a goofy video I did to help drive home the point)
Pretty funny, I have gotten tons of feedback telling me this vid is annoying and I should just get to the point and I have learned a lesson when it comes to doing vids… but the info is still good nonetheless LOL so get through it!
Growing grass seed to make your lawn thicker boils down to these three elements: 1) heat 2) moisture 3) seed/soil contact
Get Your Lawn Aerated
Going right along with growing grass seed is aerating the lawn. In fact, I recommend you aerate your lawn in the spring and fall very single year no matter what. I want you to aerate, and then immediately spread grass seed.
Aeration is the process whereby we take a machine that is a little bigger than a lawn mower is taken across the lawn and cores of soil are actually removed. What this does is loosen compacted soil that that existing grass root structure has room to spread out. When you remove soil plugs, the voids that are left are filled in with grass roots within a matter of a couple days, especially in the fall of the year. Over a few weeks time, the rest of the voids will be filled in with organic material, but the roots that have pushed in will also be pushing up new grass blades, making the lawn thicker! Remember, a thicker root structure makes a thicker lawn!
Use The Right Fertilizer
Getting your lawn thick and green is about 50% dictated by the fertilizer you are using. I want you to keep in mind that fertilizer is not 
lawn food. Fertilizer for lawns is nothing more than nutrients that support photosynthesis (which is the process whereby plants make their own food utilizing the sun). The nutrients help make the lawn thicker by allowing it to push out more roots and more grass blades so it can create more of its own food through this process.
The nutrients that we mostly need are: (3 numbers on the bag of fertilizer) N-P-K
Nitrogen – pushes top growth (grass blades) and also makes them greener.
Phosphorous – Phos helps support the root structure and density of grass plants and also helps them withstand heat and drought.
Potassium – supports the overall xylem and phloem of the plant. This is the process whereby water is taken up into the grass blades and sugars are transported down and into the roots. This element is very important but is not needed in large quantities.
When you buy fertilizer, there will be three numbers on the bag. The first number is the nitrogen percentage in the bag, the second is the phosphorous percentage and the last is potassium. You’ll notice that with lawn fertilizers, nitrogen is almost always the highest because it’s the one that most interacts in making the lawn greener and thicker.
Best Tip In This Article
This all being said, you should get fertilizer for your lawn that is labeled “STARTER FERTILIZER.” Most of you think that starter f
ertilizer is something you use to help get new grass seed started – and while that is true, it is also an excellent balance of nutrients that will support an existing lawn. All starters aren’t created equally, but they are usually going to be formulated better than stepped fertilizers. If you use starter fertilizer on your lawn in the spring, you will be well on your way.
Mow The Lawn Tall and Regular
Just like I talked about above, the more grass blade surface that can soak up the sun, the thicker the lawn will be. You should cut your lawn taller to leave more leaf surface. I am on the far extreme and recommend 3.5 to 4 inches tall all year long. As far as regular goes, you want to keep the lawn cut tall but do it consistently every single week. If you miss a week and have to lop a lot off, it will stress the lawn out, and possibly stunt the growth. One of the best ways to keep your lawn green and thick is to mow tall all year long.
