How Do You Determine When To Aerate Your Lawn
Unfortunately, maximum homeowners are uninformed when is the proper time for aeration. If you like that, here are some of the things that you need to know when is the appropriate time for aeration.
If your kids or pets heavily use your lawn for playing in the backyard, you need to aerate the lawn. If your lawn becomes spongy or if the grass dries lots faster, then this can be a hint that your lawn has excessive thatch. To be confirmed of this, you can remove a part of the lawn through a shovel. If you look at the thatch covering the blades of grass that surpasses 1.5 inches, you will move for aeration.
We also suggest you aerate your lawn if your lawn previously faced a lot of stress like construction. Lastly, if your lawn started as sod, then you need to aerate your lawn as the soil layering of sod hostilely affects the transportation of required oxygen, water, and nutrients by your grass.
Aerate With The Right Tools
A great lawn aeration tool is the . With optional attachments, the STIHL YARD BOSS® can cultivate, edge, sweep, dethatch, and, of course, function as a yard aerator, making it a great tool for many jobs around the yard and garden. You can also rely on a hand aerator and not necessarily need an aerator machine, depending on the size of your lawn. Other lawn aeration techniques include spike aerators, push aerators and lawn aerator shoes. The main difference between spike aerators and plug ones is that the former will only poke holes in your soil while the latter actually removes plugs of grass.
How To Aerate Your Lawn Manually
The following things are significant to aerate your lawn successfully:
Aerating your Lawn by Hand
There are many manual lawn aeration methods to penetrate essential water, air, and nutrients into the soil for proper grass growth. All the ways are uniformly effective.
Though manual processes may not be as fruitful as a machine, they can still deliver outstanding results. Besides, the manual tools are very affordable and eco-friendly. The main drawback of manual tools is they can be pretty exhausting and laborious.
Using a manual core aerator
Manual core aeration is the best method of manually aerating your lawn. It has a handle and a foot bar. You need to hold the handle through both hands to drive it into the soil. The foot bar offers extra leverage in the compacted soil areas. This tool works excellently on moist soil and aerates the lawn by interfusing the ground with sharp cylinders that make holes into the turf and dismiss tiny lawn plugs. In this method, it is necessary to drive the aerator over the whole lawn.
Using a manual spike aerator
Another good aeration tool is the manual spike aerator. It operates likewise to the manual core aerator, but it includes a number of spikes in place of cylinders. It conducts small holes into the turf to ease the soil and offer better penetration and flowing of water, air, and nutrients.
Using a fork
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What Are The Key Benefits Of Lawn Aeration
You can expect better water and nutrient uptake, stronger and deeper root development, less surface water runoff and a healthier optimised lawn.
Which is best – lawn aerating or scarifying?
Both procedures can help to optimise a lawn so it grows healthy. Scarifying removes excess matter from the surface will aerating allows more oxygen and moisture into the root area.
How often should a typical lawn be aerated?
A typical lawn can benefit from aeration once every year or two. There is rarely any benefit to aerating more frequently than this.
What are the best tools to aerate a lawn?
Petrol powered pluggers are the most effective and they can cover a huge area quickly. Manual pluggers and lawn spikes are popular with amateur gardeners.
What Time Of Year Is Best To Begin Dethatching Your Lawn
When the soil is moist and the lawn is growing, its a good time to dethatch. Thats early spring or fall for cool-season grasses. After the second mowing, dethatch in late spring through early summer for warm-season grasses.
If you dont have a lawn mower, you can mow the lawn by hand. You can also use a hand-held weed whacker, but be careful not to over-mow. If you do, the grass will die and youll have to start all over again.
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How Deep Should Core Aeration Plugs Be
For the best results, plug aerator tines should make holes 1-6 inches deep into the ground and remove plugs that are about 0.5-0.75 inches wide. Mechanical core aerators are great for long-term aeration because they remove plugs up to 6 inches apart, making your lawn soil loosen up significantly.
The problem with most plug aerators is that they are commercial machines. However, I bought one for my own home use, and it does a great job.
Is It Better To Power Rake Or Aerate
A power rake is only an option for lawns with thicker thatch, which is considered extremely hostile to the grass. In the case of excessively overgrown grass, the rake can be used to remove excess grass.
If you have a large area of lawn, you may want to consider a rake that is more suited to a smaller area. For example, if your lawn has a lot of shrubbery, it may be a good idea to invest in a lawn rake with an aerator.
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Hollow Tine Aerating Tips
- Whenever you use a hollow tine aerator make sure you mow the lawn close beforehand. It’s the devil’s own job to collect or smash the cores in long grass!
- If you prefer to collect the cores get a ‘dummy rake’. This is just a flat blade on a stick and moves the cores without snagging in the grass
- If you use the mower to smash the cores you’ll need long trousers, wellies and if your soil is clay a pair of goggles won’t go amiss as it will get dusty. Shut the house windows as well if it’s breezy.
- Finally, if you have used the mower now is the time to clean the air filter, a simple job with a bit of fairy liquid then swap or sharpen the blade. They’re going to need doing anyway!
How Often Should I Spike Aerate My Lawn
It is best to spike-aerate your lawn 2-3 times every season because the results do not last long. However, if you used a plug aerator even once in the last two seasons, you may need to spike-aerate just once a season to get rid of minor compaction problems.
Always test the thickness of thatch in your lawn two times each season to determine if it is too thick and causing compaction. If it is too thick, you may need to rent a mechanical aerator and dethatcher to help you get rid of the problem.
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The Clothes Line And Goal Mouth
Some areas of your lawn need more aeration to relieve compaction than others. These may be around the clothes line or the postman’s short cut across the front lawn. Relieving compaction by spiking with a garden fork or aerator sandals is not that difficult. The secret is to do it frequently, preferably every month. Alternating the aeration with a hollow tine aerator or fork will considerably relieve the compaction. Afterwards, put the sprinkler on the area for 30 minutes and stay off it for a day or two.
If the area gets worn out as well as compacted put a little grass seed in every time you aerate. Not much seed will germinate because of the traffic but enough will grow to keep it looking fairly respectable.
What To Do After Aeration
After you finish aerating your lawn, let soil plugs or extra soil dry where they fall. They’ll break down in rain or crumble the next time you mow, adding beneficial soil and organic matter to your lawn surface.
Right after aeration is a perfect time to overseed with premium Pennington Smart Seed and fertilize your lawn or do simple lawn repairs. Seeds and nutrients have direct contact with soil through the openings your aerator created and roots have fresh pathways for the things they need. The combination can help put your lawn on the fast track for quick seed establishment and thicker, lusher growth.
By adding aeration to your annual task list or doing regular compaction tests to check for need, you help ensure your lawn can reach its full potential for thickness, health and beauty. Pennington is committed to providing you with the finest in grass seed and lawn care products to help you achieve your lawn goals.
Pennington and Smart Seed are trademarks of Pennington Seed, Inc.
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Question: How Often Should You Aerate Your Grass
Answer: How often you aerate your yard depends on the type of soil you have and how badly it is compacted. The recommendation for most homeowners is to aerate annually with the timing dependent on the type of grass growing.
For homeowners that have a significant amount of ground compaction or soils with significant amounts of clay, this recommendation is bumped up to twice annually for the best grass growth.
Ohuhu Lawn Aerator Shoes
Best lawn aerator Shoes
The Onuhu Lawn Aerator Shoes offer professional-grade aeration without the need for electricity or fossil fuels. They are one-size-fits-all so that you can share lawn aeration work between your household members. The adjustable velcro straps ensure a good fit and eliminate the need for difficult to use buckles. When it comes to the actual aeration process, the 2″ long steel spikes easily penetrate the soil, allowing for improved aeration and drainage. If you’re looking for a low-tech and easy way to aerate your lawn , these shoes are a great choice.
Thatch
Briana Yablonski
Some lawn aerators also have a dethatching option. Before you buy one of these, check to see the level of thatch present on your lawn. Bunching grasses such as perennial ryegrass and tall fescue are not as susceptible to thatch buildup as grasses zoysia grass and bermudagrass.
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Tow Behind Plug Aerators
Tow behind aerators attach to your lawn tractor and do the aerating work as you drive the tractor. With these you want to go at the slowest speed you can to be sure you are getting good penetration and not tearing through the lawn. I have tried a number over the years and have good luck with this guy.
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Should I Pick Up Plugs After Aerating
You dont need to pick up the plugs after core aeration because theyre usually a thick mass of decomposing thatch with a lot of nutrients. You can leave them on the lawn to break down and release nutrients into the soil and feed the grass.
However, if you dont like their appearance, you can rake and add them to your compost. Once fully decomposed, you can use it for topdressing areas where you need to overseed the lawn, or even for growing new sod.
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Brush Sand Into The Holes
I’m often asked about brushing sand into the holes after hollow tining the lawn. They do this on the golf green as part of their top dressing procedure. They also use a soil virtually identical to the original so that the profile remains uniform throughout. Further, they may have to do this several times at weekly intervals after hollow tining because the top dressing only partially fills the hole and needs ‘topping up’ over time as it settles.
On a typical lawn you will find it very difficult to get sand or soil to go down the holes the remaining grass, moss and thatch can easily close over the entrance to the hole stopping the topdressing going in. Trust me this is a lot harder than it sounds on anything other than a very close mown near flat lawn and if the lawn or top dressing is anything other than bone dry it’ll just stick at the top of the hole!
This is one of the more crazy ideas for a lawn which will cost you too much in material and effort for the dubious benefit that may be derived! Therefore, don’t bother with this unless your lawn needs top dressing for other reasons or you have an ornamental lawn and can add top dressing that is a close match to your own soil at frequent intervals. See Top Dressing Mixes
How To Choose The Best Lawn Aerator
Depending on the type of aerator youre going to choose, there are several key features to look for:
- Manual hollow tine look out for strong, solid tines that will cope with compacted turf, a decent tread to prevent your foot from slipping, and a soft-grip handle for comfort.
- Manual rolling drum ideally you want a good number of metal spikes on the drum to create plenty of holes as a guide, 27 spikes will give you about 180 spikes per square metre. The spikes should also be at least 5cm long to ensure they penetrate the ground deeply.
- Mechanical aerator go for strong, good-sized blades and a collection box. If storage space is an issue look for handles that fold down and a collapsible collection box rather than a solid one.
Browse our review of the best lawn aerators below.
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Can Aeration Hurt Your Lawn
It does not hurt your lawn, and in fact, will make it healthier and more attractive. Some people dislike the look of the small plugs of soil and turf that are pulled up and scattered over the lawn, and if so, you can rake them up. Left on the lawn, though, they will quickly break up and decompose.
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Question: Can You Aerate Too Much
Answer: Yes, you can aerate too much. Once a year is sufficient for most lawns unless you have heavy clay soils or see a serious compaction problem due to traffic.
Aerating too often can reduce the thatch layer too much. Its recommended to maintain a thatch layer of ½ to protect the growing point of the grass blades, to reduce soil moisture loss, and to regular soil temperature.
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Aeration Using A Mechanical Aerator
- Watch out for obstructions like rocks, tree roots and old paths.
- Occasionally look behind the machine to make sure it is not lifting the turf as you go along.
- You should use the aerator in a couple of different directions
- Be careful not to turn the machine with the aerator spikes in the soil otherwise it will rip up the surface of the lawn.
Is Edenapp Able To Assist With Lawn Aeration Tools
Yes, Edenapp can assist you with aeration tools and help you determine what methods work best for your lawn. Edenapp provides professional aeration and all landscaping services all year round to make sure your lawn is at its best.
Lawn care is all in the details, and we take care of every single one to give you the lawn of your dreams. Contact us today!
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How To Use Lawn Aeration Tools
Aeration helps the soil to loosen, makes drainage better and improves airflow around the plants, and it enables root depth and root growth.
- Use a garden fork to improve air flow and to spread rain throughout your landscape. While using it, go over your lawn carefully with the fork.
- A hollow tiner is used in the same way as a garden fork and has the same spacing. Its designed to lessen soil compaction.
- A scarifier removes leaves, moss and thatch from the base of grass blades. This helps air to circulate and water and fertilizer to get down into the root system.
- A seed slitter will help you to cut into the soil and to drop seeds into the newly-established slits in the ground.
How Does A Lawn Aerator Work
When the spikes penetrate the ground, this creates narrow holes of around 2-inches deep, allowing air, water, nutrients, and fertilizer to reach the roots beneath the surface. As the roots have access to air, water, nutrients, and fertilizer, the lawn will grow better and become healthy and attractive.
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Should I Remove Thatch From My Lawn
Lawn thatch isnt bad, so you might as well leave them. As much its a layer of already dead organic tissue, it can be a good option for shading your lawn against extreme temperature and possible transpiration.
However, you should make sure there isnt too much on the grass, otherwise soil may have crippled supply of water and oxygen.
Question: Whats The Difference Between Dethatching And Aerating
Answer: The difference between dethatching and aerating is dethatching removes a dead layer of stems and roots known as thatch while aerating opens up holes in the ground using spiles or pulls soil cores out completely.
While they utilize a different method they both serve a similar purpose: allowing air, water, and nutrients to better make their way into the soil.
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