How to Fix Holes in Your Lawn

Fill the hole with topsoil and firm it down then reseed it as if it were a bald patch. In removing the plugs of soil from your lawn, this process severs roots, rhizomes, and stolons. The effects of this stimulate your grass to produce new shoots and roots that will fill in the holes and increase the density of your lawn. They help aerate the soil, loosen it up, and are more beneficial than a problem. The little mounds will eventually disappear, and the holes will fill in.

Manure with a high content of bedding materials may rob more nitrogen from the soil than it provides. A knife-type of tine also can be used to shatter dry soils and create many cracks in the ground that also serve for aerification. Most lawns receive a real benefit from solid, hollow, and shatter tine aerification. Lawns like Barry’s, struggling to grow in heavily compacted soil, may fail to thrive or die out no matter how much water and fertilizer you give them.

Winter freezing and thawing cycles and earthworm activity can help loosen slightly compacted soils. If the lawn has a thatch layer in excess of 1/2 inch, then core cultivation can be used as a preventative approach to control excess thatch build-up. In addition to the deeper roots, the plugs of soil that are deposited on top of the ground help decompose thatch – without the risk of turf damage that power dethatchers pose. If you are doing a light fall overseeding on a fescue lawn, the holes left by the aerator make a perfect place for the seeds to fall into and germinate. Spiking will put holes in the turf, but it actually compacts the soil rather than removes the core.

Aeration helps to prevent soil compaction and enables oxygen and water to get to the roots of the grass. Soak the food into the soil by watering (see second image below). Feed any new plant with plant food in the spring and fall until it reaches maturity. Because the grass clippings will be pulled into the soil and decomposed by soil organisms, you will need much less fertilizer. It is a myth that grass clippings cause thatch.

Without lawn aeration, grass roots tend to knot into each other instead of growing vertically into the soil. Due to the root’s diminished contact with the soil’s nutrients, lawn grass becomes vulnerable to predators like worms and insects as well as weeds like dandelions or crabgrass. Some professionals prefer to use a blend of 60% compost and 40% coarse sand because it is heavier than pure compost and will move more easily through the grass to the soil. If the soil is saturated with water or even too dry, it may lead to poor results.