As lawns start to green up…

experts encourage seeding and aerating

Sundown Gardens Nursery in Carmel, Ind. is busy again as people try to maintain and protect their lawns heading into fall.

“I will say the landscaper softscape side certainly slowed down when it was 100 plus degrees but in the fall it usually ramps back up and that whole cycle is a little bit typical,” said Scott Senefeld. “It’s just the extremes we’ve seen this year that have played a part of it.”

He said it’s time to seed and aerate now. Many customers are seeing their lawns greening up in patches. That’s pretty normal, said Senefeld.

“We’ve seen a really big bounce back in turf. Obviously there were a lot of lawns that were very burned by the dry conditions and we’ve seen a lot of bounce back that’s where the green up has been most evident. The plant material takes a little longer to bounce back depending on the age and maturity of the plant,” Senefeld said.

Unfortunately, explained Bill Greenwood with Greenworks Lawn Care, patches that are still brown at this point are likely not coming back. He said he’s been aerating for customers who hope to protect and salvage their lawns.

Tim Jenniges with Jennco Enterprises said he’s been back on the riding lawnmower more in the last two weeks as the grass grows again.

Senefeld tells his customers to consider drought resistant grassseed and to plant hearty shrubbery and trees like Evergreen and Spruce.

Anything that goes in the ground now will need lots of water, which may be tough during continued watering bans in Central Indiana. Noblesville city officials recently lifted watering restrictions and Carmel is under a voluntary ban unless you get your water from Citizens.  Citizens customers in Carmel are under a mandatory ban along with Marion County, Brownsburg and Fishers.