Question
Charlotte,

My wife and I bought a house a few months ago.  It has a GREAT big backyard that I like very much. However, it can probably use a core aeration and overseeding to help fill in the gaps and increase overall vitality.

I was told by someone that when overseeding, to overlay the seed with an 'organic material.' Am not sure what this means.  Also, with respect to fertilizer, we just got a bulldog puppy - accordingly, I'd like to fertilize the lawn BUT use something organic to prevent any problems with the dog. Any product that you would recommend?

Thanks in advance!

Rob

Answer
Hi Bob;
Congrats on becoming a parent. I have 4 dogs and 1 cat, and a whole bunch of birds. The birds belong to my husband, 2 cages of tiny little diamond doves.
I have no lawn problems with dogs, except an australian shepherd that can't be trained out of digging. I have managed to get him to restrict the digging to certain spots.
What I am going to tell you is going to sound like I have gone nuts, but by golly, since I have been doing it, I have the most beautiful, weed free lawn you ever saw.
I use NO poisons.
I have livestock, (toads, lizards and grass snakes). They keep the bad bugs out of my lawn much better than insecticides ever did.
I have not fertilized in years, and my grass is dark green, thick and WEED FREE!!!
I used to do the spring routine, and the fall routine, spray once a month for aphids,used systemic rose food with insecticide in it. I still saw aphid damage in most of my roses when they opened.I haven't seen aphid damage in years, and my roses smell so much stronger. My little lizards eat all those aphids.
Our lawn care program consists of Spring, put down sugar,top dress with compost, water it in well. Mow, edge, and water through the rest of the spring and summer. Put down sugar in the fall.
Dry molasses was what was recomended, but sugar would work if you couldn't get dry molasses. I tried both, and in my opinion, the sugar does better.
I use 1 pound sugar per 250 to 300 sq.ft of lawn and garden.
The weeds I had were crabgrass, johnson grass, dandelions, clover, chickweed, dollar weed, and some I couldn't identify.
I didn't like to use weed killers after I learned cats are attracted to it, and will seek it out to eat, and of course die an awful death. Dogs chew grass sometimes. If they have an upset stomach, and sometimes just because they like it.If they chew on weeds that have been treated with weed killer, they will be poisoned, so I pulled the weeds, and the crabgrass johnson grass and dandelions, I dug out with an asparagus cutter.
That is hard on the back, and the knees, and it doesn't do a whole lot for your disposition.
We worked in our yard and garden all the time, and now we do little work, and our yard is a lot better than it ever was.We enjoy it, instead of breaking our backs on it.
I don't aerate, I let my earthworms and cockroaches do it.
Cockroaches are the greatest little aerators, but I cannot abide even one in my house, so I use rosemary on all the cabinet shelves, under fridge etc, anywhere they can come in or hide, and you never see a roach in my house, or an ant or spider or house fly. I use herbs for all these.I grow my own herbs.
I don't know diddly about seeding. Every time I put down seed, the #%^&* birds ate the seeds. I have St. augustine and Burmuda grass.
If you have grasses that grow in runners, like St. Augustine and Burmuda, they will fill in the bare spots by themselves, if they are handled right, and you can always put in some plugs to fill in.
Let me explain why the sugar works so well.
Fertilizers do not enrich the soil, they feed the things growing in the soil, they wear out, and wash through with watering and rains.Fertilizer kills beneficial microbes that DO enrich soil.
Weeds like poor soil, they will not thrive in rich soil. Make rich soil, and what weeds that come up, will die out soon. Those little microbes work year round enriching your soil.The first time I put down sugar, I had a yard full of weeds. My then next door neighbor let his yard go to weeds. I think someone told him they were a cash crop.
Seed blew into my yard, and every spring, the digging and pulling began.One spring,My back would not let me get out there to pull, and hubby was working too many hours to have time to do it. About 2 weeks after I put down the sugar, about half the weeds were gone, a couple more weeks, and there was hardly one to be seen.No pulling or digging.
Some came up the next spring, but not as many, and they started fading away in a couple of mowings, and were soon gone. The 3rd year, no weeds even came up.No weeds have come up since.
I don't know what you mean by core aerating. When I used chemicals, I had to aerate.I took a garden fork and stabbed it into the ground every 6 inches or so. That aerated it.
See, insecticides kill bad bugs, but they kill the good bugs too, and there are infinitely more good bugs in your soil that bad ones.Many of them, tunneling through the soil, keeps it aerated.
Using fertilizers and insectices, toads lizard and grass snakes stayed out of my yard. they had no food supply here.They don't eat the good bugs, which i didn't have either.
I had a lot of annual rye grass that drove me nuts, and that also died out after I started putting down sugar.I had tried everything to get rid of that stuff, and nothing worked.
Make your soil rich, and the yard livstock will take care of the bugs, and the rich soil will do away with the weeds.
Watering is very important. Water deeply, to a depth of at least 6 inches. Re-water when the top 2 inches are dry. This makes a deep root system. Shallowing watering causes the roots to come to the surface to get water, and then they are more susceptible to heat and cold damage.
With a deep root system, if it is a drought season, the grass will go longer without water before it dies.
Since I started using the sugar, my lawn stays green longer in the fall, and greens up faster in the spring.
Go organic and you will never have to worry about that baby, or any other one, getting into something that will poison it.
I have all sorts of natural things I have learned to use to get rid of fleas, ticks, termites, all sorts of stuff, without having to use poisons. Also, my Asthma and Alergies are 90%better.
Sprinkle cedar bark mulch all over your yard. It is small, will setle into the grass, and you can't see it. It is too small to harm the lawn mower, and it keeps fleas, ticks, and termites out of your yard. I put a trail of it around the foundation of the house, termites swarm, but they don't land on our house.I do this in the spring, and again in early summer.
As far as the organic material to put down, I think they put a thin layer of straw.I hope I have made sense, it is 4am here.LOL
I gotta hit the sheets!
I wish I had known all this stuff 50 years ago, my back might be in better shape.
If you have any more questions, or you fell I can help with something else, write any time.
Charlotte