Question
I have just a one year old lawn.  I was wondering what should I do to it this fall?  I was going to fertilize it and spray some weed killer on  it, but is there anything else.  I have some thin patches but not to many.  Should I roll it, arreate it, plug it, etc...?  Thanks so much for your help.

Doug Depinet
Ohio

Answer
Fertilize?  Spray? AGHHHHH!  NOOOOO!

Boy, am I glad you sat down to write to me, Doug.  I hope I'm not too late.

You say your Lawn is 1 year old?  Have you figured out what a terrific business this Lawn Care Products segment is?  There's HUGE bucks to be made selling homeowners all kinds of Mickey Mouse products to 'Winterize' 'Summerize' 'Tune Up' their Grass.  Be smart.  Ignore them.

Here's what an Intelligent Gardener will do this Fall in Ohio, courtesy of the Massachusetts Dept of Agriculture:

http://www.mass.gov/agr/pesticides/publications/IPM%20Lawn%20Guide%201A.1.pdf

First, you are going to need to know the pH of your Soil.  Your local Cooperative Extension Service will do that and much more with a complete Soil Analysis.  They charge more to change your Oil at the garage and this information will tell you EVERYTHING you need to know to take GREAT care of your Grass ALL THE TIME.  It will tell you what's in your Soil, what's not in your Soil, and anything else you need to do to turn it into 5 STAR SOIL for your 1 year old Lawn.  Give me your Zipcode, I'll tell you where to get that.

Now, the reason this is important TODAY is because Fall is the best time of year, as the Mass Ag people will tell you, for adjusting the pH of your Soil.  Lime goes down this time of year.  There's not reason to do that if your Soil does not need it.  If you have money to throw out the window and you don't have enough things to do already, spend some time reading up on Beneficial Insects and Ladybugs -- bet you don't know what a Ladybug LARVA looks like!  This is good to know and easy to locate on the Internet.  Or maybe you'd rather watch more TV.  Maybe you want to watch NASCAR races.  There's football, there's baseball, there's soccer.  There's poor children starving in Africa. Don't waste your time and U.S. Dollars on things you DO NOT NEED!  Get your Soil tested.  Fix the pH IF you need to.  Get the car superwashed.  Drop off a few dinners for some needy senior citizens.  Take a nap.  Life is too short.

Next, you may know by now that Spring and Fall are when our Cool Season Grass is growing like hotcakes.  You will need to mow it twice as much, maybe three times as much, as you did in August and July.  That, my friend, is why they call it COOL SEASON Grass.  Bluegrass, Fescue, Rye LOVE this Weather, the crisp air, the cold nights.  They're made for this.  But you have to mow them on schedule.

Since your Grass is growing like crazy (look out the window, I bet it grew a half inch since you started reading this), it will grow even better with a slow release Fertilizer that dissolves over months.  Milorganite is a terrific product for this.  There are other local products but some may be a little pricey -- Cottonseed Meal is terrific, and insanely expensive; ditto, Fish Emulsion, plus it smells bad; Bloodmeal, all of the above.  They're gourmet food for your Grass, but if you're like most people who take care of their Lawns, you want to be sensible, too.  If you want to do a real good job, they're worth it, but you can still have an incredible landscape if you just top things off with a nice dressing of Compost/Humus and/or Aged Manure.  These are the ultimate Grass Food and they will work for an entire year without burning any roots or wrecking any Soil Structure.  Earthworms love it, microbes love it, and your Grass loves it.

For the thin patches, get yourself the SAME Grass (probably Bluegrass, no?) and overseed... BUT...

WHY are there patches?  Something wrong with the Soil or Light there?  A little foot traffic perhaps?  What's cooking in those bare spots?  Let's make sure we address that, too, if we need to.  Fill me in.

If you really want to do your Grass a favor, pick up a bag of White Clover.  This is an incredible little Nitrogen-maker that fixes all the Nitrogen your Grass will need ALL SUMMER LONG without breaking a sweat.  Sprinkle evenly just add water.  You're done.

In the Spring, you're going to need a Corn Gluten Meal treatment around the Forsythia bloom time.  Corn Gluten Meal is a neat little invention from the University of Iowa that biologically halts Seed germination.  Your new Grass will have already germinated by then around those patches, but evil Weed seeds will be just getting off the ground.  Iowa State scientists figured it out with the proteins and enzymes a few years ago, and licensed their CGM formula around to make some money on it.  Scotts and Monsanto did not sign up, but lots of smaller outfits did, and you can buy it in a fancy bag or off the shelf from a farmer supermarket.  CGM will zap your new Weeds before they're cotyledons.  They'll never know what hit them.

As for aerating, this is a nice idea on paper, but if you have lots of Earthworms and Ants, the bugs will do all the aerating for you.  Otherwise, with heavy equipment and running around on the soil, you'll compact things and you may end up upsetting the Earthworms.  Plus you could wreck the soil structure and compact the Soil with all the equipment.  Better to keep the Earthworms happy (so far as I know, the Ants don't care).  You can do that with any or all of the amendments (Manure, etc) listed above and a healthy bacterial population in your Soil.  Concentrated Fertilizers are MADE of Salts, by definition they will sting and scorch not only your Grass but your microbes.  Ignore the Superbowl commercials.  Stick with Science.  (This is where I disagree with the Mass Ag people; they have you fertilizing over and over, but if you have rich soil, you do not need to do that more than once a year, and only with the right stuff.)

If you have Dandelions growing anywhere -- even ONE Dandelion -- pull it out by the taproot and toss it in the Compost pile.  (Got one of those yet?  Time to start one!)  Dandelions are perennial Weeds.  They will multiply in the time it takes you to SNEEZE if you let them -- you walk out there one beautiful Spring morning and the fluffy head is right there ready for a soft breeze to send it all over your Lawn.  Get rid of the Dandelion(s).  And watch for them.  They're sneaky.  Some people eat them; I am not a salad person.

How are your Lawnmower blades?  They should be nice and sharp to keep the Grass sliced clean.  If you have to obsess about something, obsess about this.  Get the blades sharpened.  Mow often.  You can't Mow a Lawn too much.  Just make sure you Mow nice and tall.  2 1/2 inches to 3 inches is usually best.  Mow over the dry brown Leaves that fall across your Lawn, and keep the clippings down.  Concerned aobut Fungus on the Lawn from the dead leaves and Grass clippings?  My friend, the only people who have to worry about Fungus on their Lawn are the ones who wipe out their Fungus Defenses.  They have to go to a lot of trouble to do that.  If you haven't done it, just don't start.  Meantime, you'll be building up your Soil (and the Fungus Defenses) by keeping those clippings and leaf pieces there.

That's it.  Any questions?