Often a poor lawn can be improved by using proper maintenance practices, including mowing, fertilizing, watering, and pest control. In some instances, however, portions of the lawn must be reseeded. You may consider re-establishing your lawn if:
- Less than 50 percent of the lawn contains the desired turf.
- Soil is excessively compacted.
- You want to replace existing grass with an improved variety more tolerant to pests, heat, and drought (Figure 1).
- You need to decrease weeds such as bermudagrass or quackgrass.
- You want to reduce thatch and reseed with a non-thatch forming grass.
- You want to improve a turf damaged by heavy traffic, white grubs, diseases, drought, etc.
Munshaw, Gregg, "Renovating Your Lawn" (2014). Agriculture and Natural Resources Publications. Paper 142.