Yes, indeed. Just as Billlll said. That core aeration will pull plugs out, and the organic matter (mulched debris from the lawn, because you mulch mowed; or, added mulch) can fall into the holes, along with some soil, as the cores break down. As to those parts of the cores that break down, and don't happen to fall into the holes, hey, those cores are breaking up, spreading out, over, above, the layer of organic matter sitting on top of the soil. And will gently subside. Not far, but yes, will subside. Which means, to some degree (and it's probably measureable: should we splurge? Say five percent? Maybe only four? Two?) that soil is being MIXED with organic matter. But it looks like a lawn, the entire time (excluding the day after you aerate, and go stare at the cores. Quit staring. Get in the car, and look at it from the road. Looks great. Park the car.). Plan on core aerating, and mixing up that core aeration with application of mulch, or of Milorganite, or of just the existing thatch layer (there is one: it's needed), and letting that lawn kind of mix itself. Each year. Perhaps, twice each year. Let's take an imaginary square, about a foot by a foot, on your lawn. The first time you run a core aerator over it, you have a series of spots (which are really columns, they're about three inches deep) which now have a better organic matter to dirt ratio. It's surely not the whole square foot area, is it? But the NEXT time, assuming the aerator will hit a different area, you have another series of holes/columns, now improved (and the benefits of the last prior improvement have not disappeared, have they?). And the next time, yet another series of holes/columns, now improved. You can see that a regular schedule of core aerating will have the effect of adding that organic matter, with all the benefits of same, without the obvious appearance of tearing the heck out of it. No, it will look like a lawn. But maintaining the program of regular core aeration will stir up, mix up, a significant portion, drifting toward 100%, over time. So give it a regular program of core aeration. That will improve a lot.

Absolutely the most important thing to do is get your soil in shape. Plan on adding compost to it every year. Many people love composted horse manure, but composted community yard waste is good, too. Scatter your fertilizer (I use alfalfa), then cover with roughly three or four inches of compost. It doesn't have to be exact. Then on top of the compost put a layer of mulch to protect the compost from being burned up by the sun. Use what ever is cheap or free in your area. I use wood chips from tree trimming services as my mulch, delivered free to my door because they don't want to pay to put them in the landfill. In some places pine straw is very cheap. You can buy fancy bark nuggets but they are not only expensive, they aren't as good because they take too long to decompose. You want decomposition and renewal to be taking place constantly. For heaven's sake don't get that dreadful mulch made up of chopped up tires, an environmental nightmare. IMO it should be illegal. I also don't like the chopped up wood pallets dyed peculiar colors, but it is at least wood, not a chemical soup. I also get my compost at a very low cost from a local stable. If I load it myself it is free. Too much work. I gladly pay the modest fee to have it loaded. My own soil is a sandy clay, about 65% sand. Once at spring is the only time I fertilize. If your soil is even sandier you may need to do a second fertilizing because it washes out of sand. However as you keep adding compost each year the texture should improve so that eventually you may not need to. I also do only a single fungicidal spray at pruning time, either copper or sulfur. In your more humid climate that may not be adequate. You'll have to check with gardeners more familiar with your conditions. Rosefolly

fcoffill - Wish you could have been along. I know you would have loved it. The gardens are just beautiful. Hope you get to visit sometime, they have two locations. Just got back from the ARE. Actually left at 9:00 this am, so you can imagine what a good time I had. Well I did stop at DSW on the way home, but that's another discussion. The weather was perfect and I attended two seminars. The first was John Shoup's excellent talk on roses. We all got free rose cuttings in a little baggie along with rooting mix.

Seems like a strange directed tariff against countries that we aren't really mad at. I will tell you that Ipe (wood from Brazil) already had a significant price increase (like 25%) around March and that was blamed on the weak dollar. As emerging economies are growing and we have a weak dollar policy, all commodities sourced from other countries will go up in price. It is hard to encourage manufacturing and jobs in the US and keep prices of imported products low. So until we have better employment numbers, the trend will likely continue. Not to mention the deficit.... Anyway, I doubt it is a tariff issues, just a monetary policy issue.