Ok so we had rain Thursday last week... by aerating time on Sunday.... things were REALLY dry. I did it anyway and was not happy with the depth. So I went back and watered some areas in the time I had, but mother nature helped out! :) I got rain Sunday night and Monday a very hard rain... and a bit Yesterday. So I drug the aerator back out last night and had another go at it. AWWWW... so much better depth. I had already threw out 10 bags of Lowe's topsoil... so i went back for 18 more bags at Home Depot. Threw them out on the ground last night. So I have 28.... 40LB bags of soil tossed out on an aprox 15,000-20,000 sq foot yard. Whew! Now I had some 28-0-4... because of the rain it says i have to hold off for 1-2 days and not have it rain for another 1-2 days.... UGH! So I'm thinking can just a straight fertilizer go down w/o the water restrictions. What about a straight preemergence? I could take back the 28-0-4 and get the other stuff??? Whew it better green up after all this work! Thanks!

After overseeding, you want to wait as long as possible to mow. If you must, you must. Berfore overseeding, try to cut the lawn down to an inch and a half and bag the clipping--or get it down to what you can in what time you have to mow. The more you lay off your lawn after overseeding, the better it is for your seedlings. After a few weeks, they may be strong enough to take the trampling.

I recently read from a professional that he is having noticeably better results when he follows up aeration with crushing the dried plugs. It is a sort of top dressing. I like getting input from the pros because when they do something, they do it 30 or 40 times. That's good data. If you have low spots that tend to collect water, you could sweep from the high area to the lower area. While you have the plugs out of the ground, you could top dress with compost but you should really take advantage and water. Pretend you are trying to fill the holes and water for hours and hours. I'd start with 2 hours and see how your nerves hold up. Some people worry about the water bill, so keep that in mind. But having those holes in the ground is a great opportunity to get water deeper into your soil.

Have you heard of using corn gluten meal (CGM) as a fertilizer? Works great on Bermuda hybrids. Also if you can get your hands on some chicken poop, spread it around the yard before it rains... yields good results, worth it. Keep your mower blade sharp when cutting. If you feel like getting some exercise, you could get a non-electrical mower (what are they called!? I can't remember the name, sorry). Those work the best, the blades stay sharp, grass stays green even when mowed on hot days, and you can get a pretty low cut on them. Mow in different directions every time, it encourages growth.