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Use machine, not muscles, to prepare lawn for overseedingThe traditional way to prepare a lawn for overseeding is by wielding a steel rake. Those who've tried it tend to rejoice that times have certainly changed. "It's so much work that I'd only use a hand rake if I had just a few small areas to seed," said Rodney St. John, turfgrass horticulturist with Kansas State University Research and Extension. "Several somewhat portable machinery types are now available to help with the bigger jobs. "You just need to remember to avoid costly mistakes by marking any permanent sprinkler heads before you operate this type of power equipment. Then you can practice in an out-of-the way place." The most time-efficient approach is to rent and use a slit (slice) seeder, he said. It cuts a furrow in the soil, drops in seed, and immediately closes the furrow with packing wheels. For homeowners with compacted soil and/or heavy thatch, however, a core aerator can help to relieve those problems, as well as prepare the lawn for overseeding. "You need to go over an area at least three times in different directions. The aerator will remove 3-inch-deep soil 'cigars'--cores of dirt--and deposit them on the lawn surface," St. John said. "Then, when you've distributed your grass seed with a spreader, germination will mostly occur in the holes the aerator left behind. Because those holes stay more moist than a traditional seedbed, this approach also can require less watering to help the seeds sprout and grow." Over time, rain or watering will help the deposited cores disintegrate and blend in, he added. But, homeowners can help that process along and provide some seed cover by raking the area gently. The horticulturist said illustrations and more details about core aerating are available from any county or district Extension office or on the Web at http://www.ksuturf.com/Homeowners.html ("Turfgrass Publications for Homeowners"). A third equipment choice is the verticutter, St. John said, which is basically a slit seeder without a seeder and packing wheels. In operation, it functions much like a motorized steel rake, so is particularly good at breaking up thick thatch layers. "Homeowners can verticut to prepare the seedbed and then rake up the thatch debris," he said. "They'll switch to a spreader for seeding, but can verticut again to promote good soil-seed contact." St. John's discussion of these and the other steps in establishing or overseeding a lawn is available online at http://www.ksuturf.com/ListservArchive.html (Sept. 1, 2007, issue). 9/8/08 Date: 9/2/08 Advertisement
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