Older houses have tons of advantages, things like character and mature trees, but they also often have tired yards with plats that are on their last very stringy legs.  Today we’ll look at the challenge of the old lawn and ways to revitalize them.  This can take a while as you’ll have differing ages on the grass and have to be patient as things grow. First step though should be a thorough watering.  Giving the grass a good soak will allow everything in your yard to soak up the water and will settle things.  After a week or so of good daily watering give your lawn 2 days off and let it grow.  At this point you are ready to start.

5 steps to refreshing that old lawn:

1.) Mow the lawn down as far as is safe – this may render it a bit yellow but you’ll have a good idea of where things are and are not growing.

2.) Aerate your lawn.  This will help free up very impacted soils.

3.) Top-dress the lawn with a mixture of fertilizer and toping soil making sure to add nitrogen.

4.) Patch the dead spots in your lawn.

5.) Over-seed the entire lawn evenly.

At this point you can sit back (figuratively) and the new watch grass grow in your old lawn.  You should hold off on mowing for a bit and focus on keeping things wet enough for the new seed to germinate and properly take root.  When you resume mowing do so with the mower set on high so you don’t catch the new grass shoots.  Make sure to keep up a monthly fertilizing ritual with something like  richlawn turf food .  After about 2 months you should have a solid idea of where things are with your revitalized lawn and if there are any additional steps you need to take.