Now is the time to begin planning for fall topdressing and aeration. Depending on where you live in the country you may have already begun the process. This year had widely varying moisture conditions across the country. Some areas were very dry while others had more than enough moisture. The people in the dry areas could very easily see the affects of poor levels of organic matter in their soil. The turf browned out faster and the recovery time will be slower when the moisture does come.
The best lawns always seem to be those made in the fall so if you had poor conditions it may be that you will want to over seed too.
Get going now to find a source of good quality compost. If you want to put down 1/4 inch of compost you will need 3/4 of a cubic yard of topdressing material for every 1000 square feet of turf area. Many people like the idea of topdressing first and aerating second. This makes a lot of sense since there will be no cores to drive over and smash with the topdresser. Also the cores will now be on top on the topdressing and will dry out faster. after about two hours the cores will be dry enough to drag mat, which is simply pulling a drag mat device or a piece of chain link fence attached to a couple of two by fours over the turf to break up the cores. Dragging also helps level the turf area out.
By next spring your lawn will look great.
