We’ve been talking about common lawn care myths that I have heard over the years, and today’s is one of the funniest in my opinion. Don’t get me wrong. The beer and grub worms myth is a good one, but this one takes the cake hands down: If I wear golf shoes when I mow, that’s the same as core aeration.

Core aerating the lawn (I am big on this as you know) is the process whereby a machine is taken across the lawn. This machine has 4-5 inch long hollow tines that pull cores of soil from the lawn…holes are punched, cores removed, aeration complete!

Core aeration manages the lawn’s thatch layer and also keeps soil compaction under control.

Many times over the years, customer have told me they don’t aerate their lawns in this way due to the fact that they wear golf shoes while they mow the grass. I think that’s funny and here’s why:

1. Golf shoes have spikes that are less than 1/4 inch long.
2. Golf spikes make dents in soil–if they can get through the thatch layer.
3. Golf spikes are almost always plastic nowadays.

The truth is that golf courses professionally aerate their greens and fairways every year–and they have more golf shoes stomping on them than anyone’s home lawn!

So in the end guys, don’t skimp on aeration. Rent the machine and do it–every spring and every fall–if you can. Leave the golf shoes for the 8th tee box!

Let’s continue with our mini-series about lawn care myths. In the last posting, I talked about beer and grub worms. Today, I want to talk about grass seed, and specifically, your lawn’s own reseeding process.

Chances are, if your lawn is healthy, in the late spring, right about this time of year, it starts to reseed itself. Healthy turfgrass naturally sends up seed shoots and pods ever year. If you’ve been fertilizing and watering properly, thousands of seed pods will be produced.

Many people mistake these seed stalks for weeds because, many times, they have a reddish color to them.

Anyway, one myth I often hear is that, when the lawn is reseeding itself, you should be sure to mulch your clippings so those seeds will fall back into the lawn and grow.

The fact is, guys, those seeds are not mature enough to grow. If you truly wanted to reseed your lawn this way, you’d need to let the seed stalks grow for up to 8 weeks until the seed grew, dried up, and fell off naturally. Only then is the seed viable. Of course, this does not work for a home lawn because we mow and trim weekly.

Now, you should still mulch your clipping during the seed stalk season because those unripended seedlings do contain good nutrients that we want to get back in to the soil to be used.

So, next time you see the seed stalks in the lawn, go ahead and be sure to mulch, not because of the seed, but because of recycled nutrients.