Kyle,
Good Morning. It is now September and now is the time to concentrate our effort to rejuvenate our lawns after the stress of this past summer. One advantage that Mother Nature provided us was with all the rainfall in August. This supplied ample moisture to our soil and this makes lawn care much easier than if we were dry. You asked about Perma Til. This is a good product to help with loosening the compacted clay soil. My advice would be to rent a core aerator and double, or even triple, the aeration. Core aeration will pull out a plug of soil. This hole will help allow oxygen to get into the soil. With the aerator you can apply you apply your organic matter and perma til and work that all into the soil as deeply as possible. You don’t want all this “good” organic soil and perma til to just sit on top of the clay because that is where the grass seed roots will remain instead of going down deep during this growing season. I think you are on the right path for doing a great job to rejuvenate your lawn. Once all this soil preparation is completed then you are ready to apply grass seed and a starter fertilizer. We have the warm soil. But, you will need to supply the watering. You should see germination in just a few days. Let me know if you have any further questions. Doug

Pam,
First, we do not do any landscape / lawn work. There are plenty of good companies in our area who do lawn work for a living. As for the crabgrass – you could see what you can remove by using a heavy rake. Just keep in mind that crabgrass is an annual grass and will be dying away. Unfortunately, there is a lot of seed on the ground that will germinate next spring.
It seems that you have two, very different areas to seed this fall. You want to be sure to find a good quality grass seed that likes sun and a good quality grass seed that likes the shade. So, be working on your prep work now – i.e. aerating, raking, etc. Then come mid-September you want to put down the grass seed and a starter fertilizer. Doug

Lisa,
Wow! You are right on schedule!!! I do like to add some compost / soil amendments on the soil after aeration. The holes in the lawn will fill up with this soil amendment. In addition, after putting down the seed and fertilizer I will sometimes recommend lightly throwing some soil amendment on top of the new seed for covering ( in stead of wheat straw). This covering will stay moist thus giving the new seed some extra longer time to be moist which will help with the germination process. Thank you for taking the time to send me your question and comment. Take care, Doug

Ray,
Glad that you found this blog informative. You should find my blog for next week as equally helpful. Let me know if you have any further questions. Doug

Venu,
Good question. One way to improve lawn soil is to add a quality compost or add some pro-mix after you have core aerated the lawn. These little holes in the soil when then be filled up with compost. Thus, the beginning of adding organic matter to the soil. However, if your lawn is well established and you are happy with how it looks then there is not much you need to do for the soil. What you do want to do is start up the lawn care program in September with doing an over seeding and a starter fertilizer. Doug