Anybody know of a good lawn aeration service in the Ankeny area? The guy I used in the past no longer is in the area.
Lawn Aeration Service
- Thread starter BillyClone
- Start date
I've had good luck with Ideal Cut. I think it's the guy's (Nathan's) first year in business, but he's done a great job and my and my neighbor's lawns.
https://www.idealcutlawn.com/
Two things he doesn't do at this time are power raking (dethatching) and top dressing. If you know anybody in the Ames area that has those services, I would be interested.
Why do you want to aerate and what do you want to top dress with? Some with disagree, but I don't find aeration that helpful unless you have crazy compaction. For about $120 you can buy an electric Sun Joe or Green Works dethatcher off Amazon and power rack your own yards It takes about twice as long as mowing as you need to run the machine and then rake up the mess. Throw down a couple of rounds of fertilizer this Fall and your grass will look amazing next Spring.
Couple questions: are you recommending dethatching in the fall and 2 rounds of fall fertilizer (winterizer) at full strength? What would the timing be for all three of these? Thanks.
Most people have crazy compaction, to be honest. By the time the sod goes down heavy machinery has done a number on it. It's easy to tell by watching what the runoff does after a rain. Half of my neighborhood might as well have green painted concrete.
Aeration is the best way to get nutrients straight to the roots of your lawn. I always follow up aeration with a round of fertilizer that have higher phosphorus and potassium numbers. Even mixing some 10-10-10 with your usual fertilizer in the spring and fall will help root growth and health and that is half the battle to having a nice thick lawn. Nitrogen mostly just helps the growth above the surface but the P & K promotes a healthy lawn below the surface. Next time you buy fertilizer if you don't already look at the numbers on the bag. The first is the nitrogen content, 2nd is phosphorus, and 3rd is potassium. A lot of the cheap fertilizers will be high in N and either have little to no P & K depending on the brand and what stage it is for. P&K probably won't do much good in the heat of the summer but adding a little extra to your mix in the spring and fall when it is cool you'll notice a big difference.
A+ has done our yard for a few years, and they've been good to work with.
https://store.extension.iastate.edu/Product/14284
Nice guide to reference. You can also go back on page and see multiple guides for all types of lawns.
Nice guide to reference. You can also go back on page and see multiple guides for all types of lawns.
plant native grasses and let that mutha ****** grow. u people are ruining the water and environment 4 ur children.
A sign your soil is healthy is when it rains, a bunch of earthworms are crawling around on your driveway and/or sidewalk. If that is happening, I wouldn't worry about aerating. Weed/feed and overseed.
For new construction they strip away most of the good soil and then level and lay sod over ****** subsoil. Not much you can do about that. Just fertilize the daylights out of it and water when dry. Use a mulching mower to mulch clippings to help build soil. In about 80 years someone will have a nice lawn.
The next few weeks are the best time to seed. I recommend you get a soil test but it's not a must. I use spectrum analytic, but your local extension office often offers them, or you can order the soil savvy kit off Amazon.
Power raking is not required unless you have a bunch of dead grass or if you want to seed. If you can push a screwdriver into moist soil, you don't need aeration.
As far as fertilizer, you want the grass to store energy in it's roots for winter and recover from the summer. Without a soil test I can't make specific recommendations, but as it gets later in the Fall, you want fast acting nitrogen because slow release will be wasted.
In the next few weeks, assuming we don't have a heatwave, I'd put out fertilizer with something like a 24-4-10 analysis or something like that. Aim for maybe 3/4 to 1 pound of nitrogen per thousand square ft. If seeding, use a starter fertilizer with some more phosphorus. Follow that up 4-6 weeks later with another round at maybe 3/4 or 1/2 lb of nitrogen per thousand square ft.
if you're really serious about great lawn then a late feeding of fast acting nitrogen about the time of your last mow of the season. This should be fast acting so a hose end liquid fertilizer is a good choice. This is optional step. You're not trying to get growth, but the grass plant is storing carbs in it's roots and this is what you're trying to help.
So in summary, 2 rounds of fertilization with an optional 3rd late application of fast acting nitrogen.
@nocsious3 , Any recs on creeping charlie and clover killing in the fall or better to wait till spring?
Fall is the best time to kill weeds as actively growing weeds are the easiest to kill. Probably the easiest way for most homeowners to tackle the creeping Charlie is to buy the hose end sprayer of Ortho weed-b-gone chickweed, clover, oxalis killer. You'll want to hit it twice a few weeks apart. You want something with the acting ingredient of triclopyr.
In past years when I'd patched/seeded in the fall, I'd just buy a bunch of bags of topsoil and some seed from Home Depot or wherever. Results have been mixed.
Recently I'd just read that I should be using "lawn soil," which frankly I didn't know was a thing. I guess I'd just overlooked it at the store, or perhaps saw it and assumed it was a marketing gimmick to get me to pay more for soil. Anyway, if I did that plus ordered better seed (like a recommended blend from superseedstore.com), would you expect I'd get better results?
One of these years I'd like to try the deep aeration/compost treatment in the fall. People seem to get great results from that.
I don't have creeping Charlie, but in general if you put down weed killers, does that affect the germination of overseeding?
