If your grass seems to be struggling to grow consistently or too much foot traffic wearing on your lawn? Core Aeration might be the answer to fixing your lawn. What is lawn aeration?
Aeration involves perforating the soil with small holes to allow air, water and nutrients to penetrate the grass roots. This lawn care process helps the roots grow deeper and produce a stronger, more lush grass.
Compacted Soil and Thatch
Compacted soils consist of smaller solid particles in a volume or space, which impedes circulation of air, water and nutrients within the soil. Excess lawn thatch or heavy organic debris buried under the grass surface can also starve the roots from essential water and oxygen.
When to Aerate Your Lawn
The condition of your soil will dictate if you need to aerate your lawn. Sandy soils or your lawn is growing well, you may not need to aerate. If you have heavily compacted soil due to high traffic areas or heavy clay soil, then you should aerate every 1-2 years. Aerate your lawn when your grass is peaking in growth. This allows the grass t0 recover, therefore early spring or the fall for cool season grasses is ideal. For those with warm seasonal grasses, late spring through early summer is recommended.
How to Aerate Your Lawn
- Remove any thatch build up with a rake or special thatch tool.
- One day before aerating your lawn, soften the soil by watering to 1 inch of saturated soil.
- Carefully avoid running over any sprinkler heads, shallow irrigation, septic, or utility lines.
- If you’ve never aerated your soil before or your soil is heavily compacted, hence you would go over the entire lawn twice. The second pass perpendicular to the first pass.
- Leave the plugs of soils on the lawn to break down as they add nutrients back into the aerated soil.
- When completed, water the lawn very well. Do not let your lawn dry out. Water your newly aerated lawn every 2-3 days during the next couple of weeks.