"blueman" wrote in message
...
I have a relatively small lawn (maybe 5 thousand square feet spread
across a couple of patches) that has developed seemingly more brown
than green spots, including a bit of a mat of dead grass.

I know I need to do something to condition the soil and re-seed this
fall.

I am considering aerating, dethatching, and then overseeding. I am
confused about which of these tasks requires a power machine (and
hence rental) vs. the ability to do by hand.

If the marginal benefit is not too great, I would prefer not to have
to rent 3 separate machines.

- My understanding is that aeration requires a power machine to do it
right, so presumably I need to rent an aerator.

- Do I need a dethatcher or could I do just as good a job with a special
dethatching rake?

- Do I need an overseeder machine or can I do almost as good a job with a
standard Scott's broadcast spreader?

- If I rent an overseeder, do I still need an aerator or will the
overseeder do a reasonably good job of opening up the soil?

- Finally, is this the right order of operations:
Aerate
Dethatch
Fertilize/lime
Seed/overseed
Water
Water
Water...

Thanks

Blueman. You have got some excellent advice to your question, especially
checking things out your soil before you do anything. One matter I will add
that no one else has, and it is not a big things, see what the soil life is
like. Kay suggested cutting a core out of your soil. When doing that check
to see the worm life in your soil. If you have sweet stuff all worms it
indicates that probably your soil is not functioning that well to support
growth. You can bypass the soil life and grow grass however having a
functioning soil life will make it easier to get a nice lawn and keep a nice
lawn. You may well have to do everything else suggested to you, but once you
have gotten there simple things like mowing higher, mulching grass in to the
lawn, going very lightly on chemical sprays and changing synthetic
fertilisers to organic fertilisers (though mulch mowing will deliver many of
the nutrients back in to your lawn) will encourage your soil to operate as
it should and support a nice healthy lawn. As an example, a good population
of worms do a good job of keeping thatch under control and build up a layer
of humus that retains moisture.

rob