Aeration

When you aerate—by punching holes in your soil—you reduce runoff, increase fertilizer effectiveness and aid root growth of your grass. Aeration boosts water penetration, which reduces runoff on slopes and helps water and fertilizer nutrients get down to the roots.

Repeated aerations over time will help your lawn better tolerate heat and drought. Aerate at least twice a year, in spring and fall.

Thatch

Aeration also helps remove thatch—a layer of organic or partially decomposed organic material that is above the soil surface. Thatch becomes a problem when the production of biomass (leaf, rhizome and tiller material) exceeds the decomposition of older biomass. Using too much fertilizer is the main cause of this imbalance.

Some thatch layers can be so thick that grass is "scalped" when mowed, water does not reach the soil and fertilizers become ineffective.

How to aerate your lawn :

Buy a manual coring aerator for about $20 from a nursery or home-improvement store. These stores also carry easy-to-use rental machines. Use this to pull out small plugs of soil and thatch. Or, hire a landscaping company to do the job for you.

Moisten grass a day or two before aerating to soften the soil. If the soil is too wet, it will compact more around the holes. If it is too dry, the aerator will bounce off the sod.

Make two to three passes to aerate severely-compacted soil to its proper depth of at least 3 inches. Space aeration holes about 3 inches apart.

Leave soil cores on the grass after you aerate. Your mower will spread them around and back into the soil with the next mowing.

Lower your mower's height to 1½ inches to stimulate new crown growth. Fertilize in late-September or early-October with a balanced mix of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium. Fertilizer not only improves turf quality, root growth and color—it also builds cold resistance into your grass. Fertilize once more in November to get your landscape through winter with style.