Equipment You Need To Aerate Your Lawn
Before you can aerate your lawn, you need to buy or rent an aerator. Aerators are specialized equipment, and there are three main types. Heres what you need to know:
Spike Aerators break up thatch and compacted soil by piercing holes in the ground. There are several types of spike aerators, including tools that look like pitchforks, spike rollers, and even spiked shoes that you strap to your feet and aerate as you walk on the lawn. Some people love spike aerators because they are simple and usually the cheapest type of aerating equipment. Others claim that they are the least effective and can make compaction worse by pressing the soil between each hole closer together. If you decide to go with this option, make sure you read reviews and understand how to use it properly.
Slicing aerators are the next best option. They use rotating blades to slice through thatch and soil to loosen it up and create space for water and air to flow. Like spike aerators, there are inexpensive options to choose from, but there is debate over their effectiveness.
Should You Be Aerating Your Lawn
One of the most common questions from homeowners is how to determine if they should be aerating their lawn. Your lawn is probably a good candidate for aeration if it:
- Gets heavy use, such as serving as the neighborhood playground or racetrack. Children and pets running around the yard contribute to soil compaction.
- Was established as part of a newly constructed home. Often, the topsoil of newly constructed lawns is stripped or buried, and the grass established on subsoil has been compacted by construction traffic.
- Dries out easily and has a spongy feel. This might mean your lawn has an excessive thatch problem. Take a shovel and remove a slice of lawn about four inches deep. If the thatch layer is greater than one-half inch, aeration is recommended.
- Was established by sod, and soil layering exists. Soil layering means that soil of finer texture, which comes with imported sod, is layered over the existing coarser soil. This layering disrupts drainage, as water is held in the finer-textured soil. This leads to compacted conditions and poor root development. Aerating breaks up the layering, allowing water to flow through the soil more easily and reach the roots.
Do You Have Aerating Tips To Share
Now that you know how often you should aerate your lawn, its time to get to work!
What has been your experience with aeration? Does it improve your lawn? How often do you do it? What type of aerator have you used? Let us know in the comments below!
The information in this post was based on consulting with local landscapers and my own research. These are the sources Id like to thank:
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How Do You Aerate My Lawn
We use a machine called a core aerator . A core aerator removes plugs of soil and organic matter from the lawn and deposits them on the surface where they are left to dissolve and decompose over time. This decomposition or breaking down of organic matter feeds the soil and all of the beneficial microorganisms in the soil. This ecosystem that exists in the soil is an important part of having and maintaining a healthy lawn.
When Lawns Need Aeration
It may not seem your lawn could get compacted, but it happens easier than you may think. Vehicles or small equipment driven on lawns are more obvious offenders, but even outdoor entertaining or yard play by kids and pets can leave all or part of your lawn compacted. If you live where heavy clay soil is the norm, annual aeration is probably needed to keep your lawn from becoming thin and weak.
Dethatching and aerating are two different tasks, but they often go hand in hand. Thatch is the layer of decomposing organic matter that forms right at the lawn surface, between soil and grass. When thatch gets more than 1/2 inch thick, it works like compaction to prevent the flow of air, water and nutrients grasses need. Aggressive spreading grasses, such as Kentucky bluegrassin northern lawns and Bermudagrass down south, form more thatch than many other grass types. Aeration helps penetrate and reduce thatch buildup or prep it for removal through dethatching.
If your grass often looks stressed and your soil is hard to the touch or rainwater puddles up where it used to be absorbed, you may have compaction problems. Confirm your suspicions with a simple “screwdriver test.” Take a regular screwdriver and stick it into your lawn’s soil by hand. It should slide in fairly easily. If you meet resistance, your soil is compacted, and aeration can help.
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Combine Aeration With Overseeding
Overseeding is a terrific way to address patches or other weak spots in your yard. The increased root growth of fall combined with aeration helps you get the most out of an overseeding treatment. Aerating the lawn creates a fertile bed where a new seed has the best chance of taking root. The combination of air, nutrients, space, and water allows a new seed to flourish and will help fill in a patch of grass. If you are already investing in seed and fertilizer, it makes sense to take the step of aeration to ensure the most accelerated and healthiest growth.
Why Aerating Helps Lawns
Grass roots need air, water and nutrients to grow thick, deep and strong. When soil becomes compacted, even slightly, it inhibit the flow of the essentials that support thicker, healthier turf growth. A layer of compacted soil just 1/4 to 1/2 inches thick can make a significant difference in the health and beauty of your lawn.1 Aeration creates holes down into the soil to alleviate compaction so air, water and nutrients can reach grass roots.
Deprived of their basic needs by compacted soil, lawn grasses struggle in stressful situations, such as heat and low rainfall, and lose their healthy, rich color. Grasses gradually thin and eventually die out completely, for lack of the oxygen, water and nutrients available just inches away. Even a single aeration session can open the avenue for these essentials to reach their mark and put your lawn back on an upward trend.
Core aerators pull small plugs of soil to the surface.
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Why Thatch Damages Lawns
Too much thatch can hold excess water, leading to reduced oxygen that reaches turf roots. It can also increase pest problems by harboring disease-causing organisms and insects.
The build-up of lawn thatch makes it difficult for your lawn to breathe. Lawn aeration performed in spring or fall helps control lawn thatch. The process of lawn aeration can be as simple as poking holes in the soil by hand or with a pitchfork or spading fork here and there , but this would work only for superficial cases. For those in greater need of lawn aeration, this approach will not be sufficient and you will need to perform core aeration. You should also remove as much lawn thatch as you can in the fall by raking deeply rather than just skimming the autumn leaves off the top of the lawn.
How To Know If Your Lawn Has Too Much Thatch
The best way to determine if your lawn has too much thatch is to walk on it and feel it with your bare feet. Lawns with too much thatch feel spongy and bouncy. Healthy lawns are soft but firm.
Feel the grass with your hand and fingers too. Your finger shouldnt be able to press more than a half-inch into the thatch. If youre still not sure, dig up a small chunk of turf and look at it from the side. If the layer of thatch is thicker than a half-inch, your lawn has too much.
If thatch is accompanied by compacted soil, the best solution is aeration. If thatch is the sole problem, you can dethatch your lawn by raking it manually or renting a power dethatcher from a home improvement store like Home Depot.
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Grasses Expand Their Roots In The Fall
During the autumn months, roots start to expand and strengthen themselves for the coming winter months. You can support this process by loosening the soil with aeration and adding seed and fertilizer. With more room to grow and plenty of nutrients, your grass will have the strength to withstand the cooler months and pop up in the spring as beautiful as ever.
How Often Should I Aerate My Lawn
Lawn aeration should be performed at a minimum of once every two years to maintain an average looking lawn. Annual aeration is the most common choice by homeowners, as aeration is not a very expensive service offered by most lawn care companies. If your lawn is heavily trafficked , aeration can provide even greater benefits if you have it done twice a year. The optimal time of the year to have aeration done is in the spring when the lawn is begining to transition from dormant to growing. In Winnipeg, this occurs near the end of April/begining of May. If you plan to have your lawn aerated twice a year, it is best to have it done early spring and then again in the fall. The best time in the fall in Winnipeg is late September/early October. Waiting too long in October can actually result in negative effects towards the lawn, so it is best to err on the side of caution and aim for late September.
For the 2020 lawn care season, Cleanr Property Maintenance will be offering $119 power rakes when you book before April 15th, up to 3,000 square feet of turf. For an additional $69, you can add aeration and have the healthiest lawn in the neighbourhood.
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What Equipment Do You Need To Aerate Your Lawn
Lawn aeration is a simple yet highly effective way to improve the health of your lawn. You do not need expensive equipment to carry out this procedure so anyone can carry it out without having to invest in expensive equipment. Below is a summary of the different types of aeration equipment you can use to aerate your lawn.
- Garden Fork This is the most simple way to aerate your lawn and everyone has a garden fork so it is accessible to most people. Simply push your garden fork as deep as it can go into your lawn and do this all over your lawn at 1-foot intervals.
- Plug Aerator A plug aerator is the best option if you are aerating your lawn because of soil compaction. When it aerates it removes a small core of soil which allows the remaining soil to spread out and this achieves a less compacted lawn, which means a healthier lawn.
- Aerator Shoes These shoes do an excellent job for such a simple device. They are simply spikes that attach to the bottom of your shoes so all you have to do is walk over your lawn and it will aerate as you do so. This makes lawn aeration a simple task anyone can easily do and it might keep you fit as you do it.
- Push Aerator A push aerator is a simple device that looks similar to a simple push lawnmower. You simply push it over your lawn and the attached spikes will rotate and aerate your lawn as you go.
Establishing A New Lawn
The best time to establish a warm-season lawn is in the early spring. Some experts suggest that you can do so at any time during the growing season, however we would disagree assuming that youre reading this because youre looking for optimal results.
There are three different ways to establish a new lawn:
- Sodding: This is the quickest, most expensive way to establish your new lawn. Water regularly and dont set a mower on the sod until the roots have penetrated your pre-existing soil. This usually takes 3 4 weeks to happen.
- Overseeding: You can either overseed your existing lawn with a grass type that blends well or simply start over completely. Be warned though, starting a new lawn by seed takes a lot of patience and care.
- Plugging: This is more for fixing areas where the grass is sparse. Adding plugs in a cross pattern about six inches away from each other should do the trick. Make sure to water!
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When And How To Aerate
Lawn aeration should happen when grass is at its peak growing period so it can recover quickly. Aeration may be undertaken in the late spring or early summer for warm-season grasses, such as Bermudagrass.
But for lawns planted with cool-season grasses , early spring or fall is the best time for core aeration.
You can easily rent a lawn core aerator from a big box store or rental center. Since you should not need to aerate your lawn very frequently, it makes better financial sense to rent rather than purchase the aerator. Typically, if you donât see any issues with your lawn, you can aerate every two to three years. However, for high traffic areas or if your lawn grows in heavy clay soil, annual aerating may be necessary.
This lawn aeration equipment will pull plugs, or âcoresâ of soil out of the ground, letting air in. These plugs should be two to three inches in depth. Such a plug should be pulled out of the lawn at about every three inches. The plug removal process is facilitated by watering the lawn the day before, but donât water to the point of muddying the soil. Leave the plugs on the grass: theyâll break down and add nutrients to the soil. Water every two to three days after aerating.
Likewise, if your thatch problem is severe , rent a vertical mower from a rental center. Alternatively, hire a lawn service to do the job of lawn aeration for you. For more on dethatching, please consult this information on raking leaves.
What To Do Before Aerating Your Lawn
- Mow your lawn before watering and aerating it.
- Be sure to water your lawn thoroughly two days before aeration. The tines on the aeration machine penetrate loose soil better than dry soil. If the soil is too dry, the tines will have trouble effectively piercing the ground.
- Avoid aerating immediately after an extended period of rainfall. Soil thats too wet will stick to the inside of the tines instead of falling easily back into the lawn.
- Plan to pass over your lawn in two or more directions. This ensures a more even, thorough coverage. Most sources agree that you should aim for 20 to 40 holes per square foot.
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When You Should Aerate:
The best time to aerate is during the growing season in early summer or early autumn, when the lawn is growing most actively. These times are best because the grass can easily heal by filling in any open areas after the plugs have been removed. Ideally, you should aerate the lawn with a cool season grass selection in the early spring or fall and warm season grass in the late spring.
What Are Signs Of Compacted Soil
The screwdriver test is a simple yet effective tactic for determining whether the soil is overly compacted and would benefit from aeration. A screwdriver with a six-inch blade is all the homeowner needs to perform the test. Push the blade of the screwdriver into the soil in the lawn.
The results of the screwdriver test will be telling. Encountering resistance when pushing the screwdriver into the soil suggests that the lawn should be aerated. Being unable to push the tool into the soil so that it meets the handle is a definite indication that aeration is required.
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Why Fall Is The Best Time To Aerate
Fall has ideal conditions for your grass to grow. When you aerate your cool-season turf in fall, it will help the grass return stronger and healthier than if aeration had been done during the spring or summer. Similarly, warm-season turf should be aerated in the spring. Aerating your lawn in the fall helps prepare your yard to recover quicker and flourish come spring. The ideal time to aerate your Georgia lawn this fall starts at the end of September up to a couple of weeks before the first frost.
Can You Aerate Your Lawn Too Much
If you walk on your soil and it feels rock solid and is looking thin or patchy, these are signs that it could probably use aeration.
But if your grass is healthy and thriving and hasnt been impacted by a lot of equipment or foot traffic, it likely doesnt need aeration.
Once annually is usually enough in most cases, and for healthy lawns that receive regular maintenance and are performing well, every two to three years may be sufficient.
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Is Lawn Aeration Worth It
Lawn aeration is beneficial to almost any soil but it offers the most benefit for soils that are heavily compacted. Clay soil, for example, has very small pores and does not allow air exchange.
It also restricts the growth of roots and encourages microbacterial activity that is present in healthy soils .
If grassroots cannot grow deep, the turf will be less hearty. This can result in grass that is highly susceptible to drought.
If you have Centipede or St. Augustine grass, we have more info on drought tolerance here:
The point is this: lawn aeration is intended to break up the compaction of soil, allowing for deeper root growth, healthier grass, and better water absorption.
Remember, healthy soil means a healthy, thriving lawn.
When my wife and I built our house, I was faced with growing grass on some of the most challenging red clay soil that youve ever seen.
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I had a local dirt company prep the ground with what we call topsoil around here but its not a nutrient-rich material. Its just dirt and thats better than seeding straight into the clay.
I sodded close to the house but with over two acres there was no way I was going to be able to do the whole yard. And so, I seeded. Thats my shop in the background and the yard in front of it was one of the areas that I seeded.
