“Ever since I bought this house, I’ve been trying to get grass to grow in the front yard. This doesn’t sound like it would be a difficult thing, but I am having no luck whatsoever,” Clarice said. The Chestnut Hill homeowner is about to throw in the towel. “You know those green rocks they put in the aquarium? I’m going to order a dump truck load and have them spread all over the place if I don’t get any grass to grow this spring!”
Well, as the local lawn service in Chestnut Hill, we don’t want to see anyone forced into such drastic steps. An examination of Clarice’s lawn revealed she had several issues that were preventing grass growth. The first was heavily compacted soil. Perhaps due to the construction equipment that was in the area when her development was being built, the soil in Clarice’s lawn was hard as concrete.
The second issue is poor soil nutrition. This is because Clarice’s soil is so heavily compacted. Dense soil doesn’t allow sunlight, rainwater, or any nutrients to penetrate below the surface. Water and fertilizers just pool and then either evaporate or run off.
Does this mean Clarice is out of luck? Are there some lawns where grass just can’t grow?
Absolutely not. The entire reason lawn services exist is to tackle situations like this. For example, the heavy compacted soil that’s stopping the grass growth can be alleviated with soil aeration. Soil aeration is the process of loosening heavily compacted soil through the use of special equipment. This equipment introduces thousands and thousands of tiny (pencil eraser size) holes into the surface of the lawn.
And here’s a secret weapon that can be used to establish a lawn after soil aeration: power seeding. Strong grass growth is dependent on having a lot of soil/seed contact. When a homeowner scatters grass seed on top of the soil (this is how the grass seed bag will instruct you) there is only minimal seed/soil contact. Power seeding deposits the grass seed directly into the earth, to jump start growth. The seeds are coated before planting with a special nutritional coating that helps them grow fast.
