Like most homeowners, you want to have a healthy and thick lawn. With regular maintenance, you can achieve a dream yard for your home. Aeration is vital for any lawn, and you should accomplish this task on a yearly schedule. By aerating your lawn, you can enhance grass growth and relieve the compaction of the soil. However, there are some tricks to properly aerating the lawn and helping it to get that well-manicured look.
Does Aerating Help Your Lawn?
You might think that aerating the lawn is an unnecessary chore. However, your lawn’s roots need nutrients, air, and water to grow deep and robust. When the soil does become compacted, it can inhibit those elements from creating a thicker turf. It does not take much to prevent those nutrients from reaching roots. A layer of soil compacted to ½ inches can create a difference for your lawn.
When your lawn is deprived of its basic needs, the compacted soil can cause the grass to struggle to grow. It can even affect how your grass responds to stressful events, including high heat and limited rainfall. In turn, the grass can start to brown or look sparse in your yard. With extreme conditions, your lawn will die from lack of oxygen, nutrients, and water. The sad part is those essentials are just inches away and trapped by compacted soil.
Aeration is the key to keeping your lawn healthy. During this process, holes are created into the soil. Those holes can help to relieve compaction, and it will allow water, nutrients, and air to reach down to the grass’s roots. You don’t even have to aerate throughout the season. A single session can loosen up that compacted soil and get those nutrients to your lawn’s root system.
Do All Lawns Need Aeration?
Lawns can get compacted in a variety of ways, and it is easier than you may think. You know that vehicles can pound down the soil, but pets and kids can also cause the earth to be compacted. The type of soil in your region also plays a huge role too. If you live in an area with heavy clay soil, then you will need aeration to break up the clay for more water and nutrient flow.
Kentucky bluegrass and Bermuda grass are prone to forming thatch. If left untreated, thatch can build up a layer of decomposing matter that acts similar to compacted soil. Aeration can break up the thatch to help keep your grass growing throughout the year.
You don’t want to wait until your grass is stressed to start the aeration process. However, if you are noticing hard soil or water puddles in the lawn, you could have an issue with compaction. One easy way to check is with a screwdriver. You can take the screwdriver and stick it into the lawn. If it slides out quickly, then you don’t have a compaction issue. Yards with resistance to the screwdriver will need the help of aeration.
When Should I Aerate My Lawn?
Many people want to aerate their lawns at an optimal time. For most homeowners, the best time to aerate is before or during the prime growing season for your grass variety. While aeration is healthy for your lawn, you can still stress it out if it is not timed correctly. You should never aerate a dormant turf.
For those with cool-season grasses, you should think about aerating in the early spring or fall. Warm-season grasses have the most success with aeration during the late spring or early summer.
You should also think about aerating a lawn when the soil is moist. In many cases, the best time is the following day after a rainfall. Dry soil can be tough on aerating, and overly wet lawns will cause too much of a mess.
The Proper Way to Aerate
There are three different types of aerating equipment, and they can range from small hand-held equipment to large machines. A spike aerator will poke a hole in your soil with a spikey tine. Some models allow you to attach a sandal to your shoe with spikes. Slicing aerators have rotating blades that cut down into the soil and grass. Professionals mostly use core aerators. Rows of hollow tines remove plugs from the ground and create holes to allow your lawn to get those vital elements to the roots.
What You Should Do After the Aeration Process
Once aeration is finished with your lawn, you might be tempted to remove those soil plugs. However, you need to leave them on the grass. They will break down into the ground, and these plugs add more organic matter to your lawn’s surface.
The time after aeration is the perfect stage to seed or fertilize your lawn. These nutrients will have the best chance to make direct contact with the soil and roots. With these lawn care tips, you can help your lawn to create solid seed establishment and growth for your yard.
Aeration is a task that you should consider adding to your lawn’s to-do list. Regular compaction tests will give you an idea if your lawn needs to be aerated to help reach its growth potential. It enables you to make sure that your roots are getting the proper water and nutrients as well. Everyone wants to achieve a healthy and lush green space. By adding aeration, you can have the best-looking lawn in the neighborhood.
In any case, you will want to use a professional lawn service to aerate your lawn. Charlestown Landscaping will use the right equipment for your yard. We have the knowledge to help improve your lawn’s roots for a healthier yard. You could aerate on your own, but we can make sure that it is done right without damage to your grass. Our team will provide the correct aeration techniques to maximize the benefits of this process.
When you are ready for Charlestown Landscaping to help with your aeration project, make sure to fill out the contact form.