Garden Guides / Lawn Care
Match mowing height, watering, fertilizer, aeration, and overseeding timing to your grass type, soil, and season.
Use the foundation first, then choose a narrower guide for your exact task.
Foundational Lawn Care Guide
For most cool-season lawns in the Midwest, late summer to early fall is the best time to overseed. Northern locations may begin in early or mid-August, much of the central Midwest…
Read guideThese guides help you time lawn work to your grass type and soil temperature, and choose between jobs that are easy to confuse, such as dethatching and core aeration.
The lawn calendar sets each job by soil temperature instead of by month, because April in Georgia and April in Michigan are different seasons for grass. Feeding guides follow the same timing.
Dethatching removes a thick layer of stems and roots above the soil, while core aeration pulls plugs out of compacted soil. These guides tell the two apart, then time aeration by grass type and region.
Overseeding guides begin with whether seed is worth buying, then cover timing by region, seeding without an aerator, watering new seed, and when the new grass can take feet and the first mowing.
The remaining guides handle site problems, including grass weeds, St. Augustine grass thinning in partial shade, and a sloping yard that needs leveling.
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Most lawns never reach their potential because aeration and overseeding happen at the wrong time.
Overseeding in the Northeast is all about catching that short window when soil is warm, air is cool, and weeds are slowing down.
Thin turf and bare patches do not always mean you need to rent an aerator. If your soil is not rock hard, you can overseed…
Choose dethatching when a measured layer of thatch has become excessive. Choose core aeration when compacted soil limits air, water…
Most new lawns fail not from bad seed, but from feet, paws, and mower wheels showing up too soon because the roots remain soft long…
Those yellow stripes and crispy patches after fertilizing are almost always user error, not bad fertilizer.
Confirm whether the grass grows most strongly in cool or warm weather.
Use the grass type and current height to choose a safe mowing height.
Check moisture and compaction before adding water, seed, or fertilizer.
