Early Spring Lawn Prep Question

[SOS]

I have a question on order of activities. I have about 3+ acres of grass around my house and very bad ground so I added some top soil and seeded it about 2 or 3 years ago. Now, each year I aerate, put down grab grass control, fertilize, lime, and over seed in the spring and late fall and the grass has been staying but not filling in as I expected. Does anyone know the proper order or sequence for Aerating, applying Grab Grass Control, fertilizing, liming, and seeding?

A little info on the area: the land is in middle/eastern VA., made up of sand & clay mix (sand loom is what one person called it here), with a lot of pine and holly so its acidy, and the temperature allows grass to grow from March through October/November and its been very dry in July and August over the past few years.

 

[beenthere]

Have you had soil analysis done on samples? What do those results show?

I thought aerating was for old lawns, not new ones. Might be causing more harm to the grass roots than helping.

 

[bx24d]

Try Scott's website and your local university's cooperative extension. These two resources have been very helpful to me when I had similar questions.

 

[westbrooklawn]

First of all, get a soil test. It will tell you what kind of fertilizer you need, and how much. It will also tell you what your PH is, and if you need lime or not. Assuming you are growing fescue, a general turf plan will include a fertilizer with pre-emergent crabgrass control in Feb. and April (don't overseed during this time since the pre-emergent chemicals will not allow new seed to germinate). Apply lime anytime if warranted per soil test. Aerate, fertilize, and overseed in September. Do a winter application of fertilizer in November. Again, this is a pretty generic plan...