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Treating dry soil can bring back a dormant lawn, but not a dead one. After nurturing a dry lawn back to proper moisture levels, you should closely observe whether your grass revives with the soil. If not, you may need to reseed your lawn or start fresh with new turf.

Overseeding typically involves spreading grass seed either manually or with a machine that sprays the grass seed out and onto the soil. With overseeding, the grass seeds sit on the soil, and some may fall deeper into the soil if you aerated beforehand. With power seeding, a machine cuts narrow rows into the soil and pushes the grass seeds directly into the soil.

The time you should wait before walking on new grass depends on whether you used seed or sod. If you laid new grass seed, it's best to wait about eight weeks before stepping on it, as new grass is fragile. For sod, it typically establishes itself in the ground in about two weeks. For heavy traffic, like driving a car across a new grass driveway, you might need to wait an entire season.

Depending on the lawn treatments, the best times of the year to redo your lawn are between mid-August and mid-September for overseeding and renovation treatments. For areas such as the southern United States, lawn aeration works best during the fall, when the temperatures begin to drop. Otherwise, early spring is your next best bet because the grass is fresh and ready to absorb nutrients, and the temperature isn’t hot enough to fry the grass and the renovation materials.