Heavier soil means compaction is the real enemy
Where sandy South Shore lawns fight drainage, South Hempstead's clay-influenced soil fights compaction. Foot traffic, parked cars on the grass strip and construction activity from nearby renovations pack the soil down, which chokes off oxygen to the root zone and leaves standing water after a hard rain even without a drainage problem. Core aeration is the single most useful thing we do here, and we schedule it every fall on maintenance accounts specifically to keep that compaction from building up year over year.