The Tool Kit Staple That'll Help You Quickly Fix Your Patchy Lawn

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Sometimes a patchy lawn only needs a quick fix. Sometimes that fix requires a common tool you keep in your garage, like a power drill. For people who struggle with a patchy lawn, there's a good chance that it has to do with poor soil quality related to compaction. Over time, too much traffic on a lawn pushes the soil particles together, leaving little room for oxygen and water to flow freely. Ignoring this process is a way that you're secretly ruining your lawn. Eventually you end up with patchy, bare spots in the turf. While you can overseed these areas, the fast way to ensure seed germination is to create plenty of soil-to-seed contact. Aeration, a process where soil plugs are systematically removed from the ground, can also help break up compaction for healthier growth. 

Typically, aeration requires a core aerator to remove small 2 to 4 inch soil plugs from the ground. Thankfully, you don't have to break out a bunch of large tools or accessories to handle a single bare spot. However, if you have a goal of removing soil plugs, a drill will not work exactly the same as a core aerator tool. You will be able to break up compacted soil to introduce more oxygen and nutrients, but it won't remove soil plugs. However a drill doesn't take up a lot of space, it's a tool you likely will have on hand for other projects, and it works efficiently for repairing small bare spots. 

Using a drill to help repair bare spots in your lawn is simpler than you might think. On TikTok, @jimmylewis_1 shows how they use a drill to make holes all over a patch of lawn with no grass. Find a large and sturdy drill bit to create half-inch-sized holes in the ground. The drill bit should press smoothly into the soil, with just a light pressure from the drill. Next, spread grass seed across the spot in an even layer, followed by a light layer of topsoil. By opening up holes in the soil, light, water, and nutrients can help speed up seed germination, turning the bare spot green again. Remember to keep your lawn looking green all year round with this quick fix afterwards, and keep it watered appropriately. 

Lawn aeration can be a tedious process involving different tools and methods. If you just have a few patchy areas of your lawn, you want to be efficient. Using this drill hack can speed up the time it takes to aerate and overseed those bare spots. To increase the utility of this method, try using a special drill bit to remove soil, like this 4 Pack Auger Drill Bit for $29.89. While drilling the ground might appear to be a strange method for lawn care, it also works in a pinch when you don't have access to the proper tools. Once you determine why your grass is growing patchy and how to easily fix it, you can have more time to simply enjoy your lawn.