Leah, eventually it does recover. Lisa is/was a special case of someone who will do anything and everything to cure any minor flaw in her garden. She used to post these pictures that anyone would be extremely proud of and point out some detail not to her liking. Well, two of her pictures are in this thread. Anyway, you do not need to do core aeration. The lawn gurus on other forums have come up with a better way to do whatever you thought core aeration would cure. If you would start a new topic on Houzz and tell us what your lawn issues are, we can take off from there. Posting to Lisa's topic will not get you the attention you deserve. Be sure to tell us where you live when you post, as Lisa did with her initial post.

I have a 22 inch lawn mower with a 6.5 hp Murray engine. Last year, I decided I wanted to paint the thing and I snapped the right rear bolt that holds the motor down. I got my brother to start drilling it out and he decided to try and use an easy out on it but the easy out broke so I can't drill out the bolt anymore. Do you think it would be okay to run the thing with only 2 of the bolts holding the mower down? I am also looking and getting a weedwacker, probably a four cycle Echo. My dad told me to get a used one because he was talking to a landscaper one day and that guy said that new weedwackers are difficult to start because of the emissions stuff they have on them. Is that true? Or is it just because the guy has to start it up multiple times a day due to going to different job sites. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

Aerate. The benefits are there, and there is no downside. Other than the time it takes.

morpheouspa. Gloves down here for a moment. What claims are you referring to that I have made about mechanical aeration? Granted, I do claim that there are purposes for which the employment of mechanical aeration can be useful and it irritates me to no end that people peremptorily discount mechanical aeration as being without any use. (in the past couple of months, I've seen were you have suggested? that plug aeration might be an aid in pursuing some outcome.) Are you saying that I have advocated mechanical aeration as a necessary continued lawn care practice? (Do you advocate the application of a surfactant as a necessary continuing lawn care practice?) Is it necessary to spam this site with links to hundreds of university turf programs that recommend home owner lawn aeration not only as a continuing lawn care practice, but for the prevention of disease, thatch LDS etc.? For what purpose? They are just conclusory statements, No more valid than anything you or anyone else can produce. What you linked to, rather than belittle you, look at the facts: First some of what they call aeration is plowing (bad for me) but anyway I counted 13 studies and of those, the majority showed some improvement to crop yield, none showed a decline. They do,make a conclusory statement that aeration will cause increased weeds. OK fine. Based on what? No ancillary evidence even? Did they atleast credit dchall for the quote or maybe daniel? So even though your site actually supports that aeration results in slightly greater % crop production than non aeration, I say irrelevant and useless for any support for either of us. This argument has been going on forever, but if you take the time to understand and observe, there are logical conclusions you can come to and when applied either work or don't. If X then Y, put it to the test, and if it repeats, then continue, whether it is surfacants, aeration, corn meal or Bayer. So recommend on your experience and give your rational when challenged. Caveat emptor. My goal for my lawn, and for those I give advice to, is to obtain a turf that in the shortest time possible will only require mowing, watering and fertilization. I endeavor to employ the least expensive, least labor intensive, but most effective methods for a healthy turf AND soil and those are the ones I promote. My questions were for the reader and therefor need no response from you . I will no longer joust this windmill with you or anyone else, but I will call out anyone who "make [an unsupportable} claim... or [spew} any other blatant lie"