Lawn may need raking, reseeding

Getting your lawn ready for summer usually begins with raking. Remove deadgrass, old leaves and any other debris that accumulated over the winter.

Raking also allows you tosee any bare or worn areas that need attention, and it increases the likelihood of soil contact if you need to reseed some spots.

Aerate: Lawns that are heavily trafficked or were buried under large piles of snow for a significant amount of time can suffer from soil compaction.

You can hire a professional to aerate your lawn for you, or you can rent a core aerator, with hollow tines that will pull small plugs of soil out of the ground, allowing increased movement of water, nutrients and oxygen into the soil. Aeration also can increase the soil contact with seeds and promote new growth.

Seed: Fall is usually the best time toreseed thin or bare patches or to establish new lawns, but spring is the season we're in, and if your lawn needs seeding, do it now.

Apply the seed with a drop-type seeder or by hand.After sowing, lightly rake or drag the area. The seed should be covered to a depth of one-eighth to one-fourth of an inch. Roll the area lightly to ensure good contact between the seed and soil.

If you want to overseed an existing lawn, a slit seeder willensure good seed-to-soil contact.

After you plant the new seed, water lightly but regularly to make sure the reseeded areas stay damp until the new grass grows in.

When purchasingseed, select a high-qualitymix that is best adapted to your site. In the Quad-City region, Kentucky bluegrass is the best choice for sunny areas that receive at least six hours of direct sun each day. Choose a seed mix that contains at least two or three bluegrass cultivars. Because Kentucky bluegrass is slow to establish from seed, perennial rye grass is often included in bluegrass mixes to speed establishment.

The fine-leaf fescues(creeping red fescue, hard fescue, chewings fescue, etc.) are the best grasses for shady locations. In lawns that contain sun and shade, select a seed mix that is about 60 percent Kentucky bluegrass, 30 percent fine-leaf fescue and 10 percent perennial rye grass. Kentucky bluegrass will be the dominant grass in the sunny areas while the fine-leaf fescues will thrive in the shaded portions of the lawn.

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Lawn may need raking, reseeding