When yo aerate lawn with both cool-and warm-season grasses - Ask Extension
We want to aerate our lawn to make it absorb water better and decrease runoff. However, we don’t know the best time to do this. The lawn was first p...
Knowledgebase
When yo aerate lawn with both cool-and warm-season grasses #880158
Asked August 04, 2024, 4:11 PM EDT
We want to aerate our lawn to make it absorb water better and decrease runoff. However, we don’t know the best time to do this. The lawn was first planted in 1968, long before we moved in, and has been over seeded since then. A contractor said it is zoysia, but it is observably a mix of warm-and cool-season grasses, probably also including bluegrass and fescue (based on an ID of some that grew tall) and definitely including nimblewill (which doesn’t bother us). Given that it’s a mix, when is the best time to aerate?
Montgomery County Maryland
Expert Response
The warm-season grass(es) in the lawn might not be zoysia...they could be, as you noted, Nimblewill (a warm-season native, which when dormant can look a bit like zoysia) or Bermudagrass. Of course, it's also possible that they are a mix of both. Complications of care between warm-season and cool-season turf types is the main reason we don't recommend mixing them (though researchers are looking into it for certain benefits), though we realize you weren't the ones that first established the lawn.
We would suggest moving forward as if the entire lawn were a cool-season grass mix, unless the majority of the lawn is already the warm-season grass(es). Therefore, aeration should take place just before overseeding and fertilization in late summer/autumn. If we get some soaking rain in the next few weeks, it could be initiated just after that, by the end of this month.
Miri
We would suggest moving forward as if the entire lawn were a cool-season grass mix, unless the majority of the lawn is already the warm-season grass(es). Therefore, aeration should take place just before overseeding and fertilization in late summer/autumn. If we get some soaking rain in the next few weeks, it could be initiated just after that, by the end of this month.
Miri
Thank you very much!
Beth
You're welcome!
