You already know that mid-summer is not the time to aerate. To answer your question, lawns can be aerated in summer (golf cousrses do it and I have done it when the lawn was not stressed), but the lawn must be heavily watered thereafter to prevent adverse effects of the aeration. Although aeration will reduce thatch by removing it as the plugs are pulled, to be effective you are going to need no less (bare min.) than 20 holes per square foot. Rental machines make 6-9 holes per sq ft per pass.That's at least 3 passes min. Your problem may not be compaction. Are you aware that thatch impedes root depth growth? If your thatch is as bad as you describe, your time may be better spent using a power rake rather than aerating. But dethatching is even more agressive than aerating and should only be done when turf grass is in growth mode in the Spring or Fall.

This is a bad time to try to plant just about anything and expect it to grow. But you almost need to do something so your yard doesn't just wash away with the first good rain. If you're going to plant a traditional lawn of Kentucky bluegrass or fescue, you're probably going to have to go with sod, because it will be just about impossible to keep seeds moist enough to germinate, then the new grass watered correctly to stay alive through the heat of the summer. Sod can be planted just about anytime, but it's much more expensive than seed. If you want a lawn that uses very little water but goes dormant in the fall and stays that way until probably about the middle of May, this is just about the perfect time to plant buffalo grass and/or blue grama. They're both warm season grasses, and many people plant them together. They'll be green with little or no watter during the summer, but they go dormant when it cools off and green up later in the spring than cool season grasses. If you buy seed, you'll need to keep them moist until they sprout, and then cut back on the water until they get established, at which point you can pretty much stop watering. Buffalo grass is also available as plugs or sod for faster establishment. Plugs are more expensive than seed and sod is the most expensive. In addition to faster establishment, another benefit to the sod or plugs is that you can get buffalo grass that produces neither seeds nor pollen that way. I don't think I'd try starting any shrubs or trees now.

Around May last year, after finally getting some plants into the yard, I got some cutworms in my garden area. Never had seen them before or experienced it. They were there for about 1 month before they matured and took off (I guess -- unless I managed to kill or control them, or the plants got bigger) So protect those seedlings, especially if they are still as small as what you describe. You'll have to learn to recognize some of your seedlings, especially if some of them self-sow. Next year, you'll have to contend with weed seedlings and your perennial seedlings in the same area. But I think your timing will be fine. Many people will just be planting directly to the soil in a few weeks and those seedlings also survive just fine. In fact, some of my unfortunate luck with transplanting seedlings is that I don't transplant correctly. That probably kills more seedlings than sun or rain at the beginning.

Sue, I FOUND some (good ole dependable Ace Hardware store) and they are in pretty good shape considering...I was expecting a mercy revival. SOOOOO, now I have average sized, ready to plant plants. I also got a few bigger ones, with much more folliage already on them. If memory serves...we got an early frost last year (only one, but you know it only takes one) sometime in December/January. We typically dont get a real harsh or cold winter...I've posted this before, last year we had about a week or two all winter, when it got below freezing and when it did, it was a few days at a time. I intend to put all of these newer plants in containers, so I can move them into a protected area or at least put them somewhere where I can put some kind of protection around them. And this time, they will be on my spraying regime from day one...I guess I was being naive to think they could do ok without some help. I was told something interesting by a guy I met recently, a local farmer...he says that tomatoes do not really need to be in full sun. And in fact they do better if they get some shade during the day. Something else he mentioned that I've never heard of...he said if when you plant the tomatoe, if you put it completely on it's side and bury 90% of it's lower section leaving just the tops above the ground, that everywhere there are nodules (for lack of the proper term) they will root and grow a plant. so he said you can get 5 or 6 plants instead of one? has anyone ever heard of this? cool concept if it really works. I will have to ask him if he divided the plants up after they all grew. otherwise they'd be too crowded.