Question
Yesterday i rented an airator from Home Depot and it worked really well. I was not concerned about the clean up figuring my lawn mower will pick up all the plugs. For some reason the lawn mower idea did not work that well and now i am left with a big big mess.
I want to fertilize now but i want to pick up all the plugs first but I know that will take days since my lawn is so big.

1. question
1. is it okay to leave the million dog poop looking plugs on the ground? Will they just disolve when it rains?
2 . would it be okay to fertilize without raking up all of the plugs?
THanks
Jeff

Answer
Yes it is ok to leave the plugs. Unless you have heavy clay and you expect lots of traffic on the lawn and lots of rain, then the plugs will disintegrate reasonably fast. I have found that if you walk on a wet lawn, especially if the plugs are clay, when they are not completely disintegrated, they tend to matt down and smother the grass.

I have sandy loam, and we leave ours (do not pick up). It takes 1-2 weeks for the plugs to dry and fall apart. After a few weeks (unless the plugs are soaking wet) you can use a riding mower to destroy them.

If you drive on the lawn when the plugs are very wet, you risk that they mash down and destroy the grass (clay seems to be the biggest problem here).

Fertilizing before cores are picked up is ok.