Why You Should Aerate Your North Texas Lawn
Core aeration is one of the secrets to a healthy lawn. The process is pretty simple, we use a lawn machine that punches thousands of small holes in your turf.
Possibly the most important benefit of aeration, considering we live in North Texas where many of our cities are under Stage 3 Water Restrictions, is that aeration increases your water retention and will lower your water bill.
Our infamous clay soils are made up of tiny particles that compact, getting tighter and tighter, over time. Eventually your soil becomes so compacted that it has a hard time taking in water,oxygen, and fertilizer The more traffic on your lawn, whether people or pets, increases the problem which is why golf courses aerate their greens and fairways several times a year.
As a homeowner, you dont need to go that far, but it is a wise investment to aerate your lawn once a year. The benefits are pretty simple. Once you poke thousands of holes in your lawn, you are creating little cups that will collect water, oxygen and fertilizer. These components will be able to penetrate deep into your soil down to the root system of your grass, which will lead to a healthier lawn.In the end aeration just makes good sense. Financially and environmentally, and better yet, the end result will be a much healthier and more beautiful lawn when you combine aeration with your ongoing lawn maintenance program.
When Is The Best Time To Aerate The Lawn
For warm season grasses such as bermudagrass, zoysiagrass and st. augustine should be aerated in late spring or early summer, when the grass is actively growing. This applies to our lawns here in Mckinney, Frisco, Plano, Allen, Melissa, etc. We recommend avoiding aeration practices when these warm season grasses are still dormant to avoid the promotion of unwanted weed growth. For cool season grasses such as fescue and rye varieties, we recommend a fall aeration prior to the annual over-seeding process. As a result, some of the seeds to get down into the soil where they can germinate and grow deeper roots.
Tools For Lawn Aeration
The most common tool for aeration is a core aerator, a machine with hollow tines that penetrate the soil and pull out plugs of soil. Depending on the machine, the tines can be up to about three-quarters of an inch wide and four inches deep. Some homeowners have used spikes either via a device or spiked shoes to poke holes in the lawn, but this method is not as effective as it can compact the soil deeper. Professionals often have the proper tools and training to provide long term health along with aeration services.
Read Also: Lawn Wolf Spider
Benefits Of Aerating Your Lawn
Aeration makes your lawn look healthier, and some of its benefits are explained here.⢠Aeration exchange air from the atmosphere to the soil.⢠It improves the water uptake in soil⢠It provides necessary nutrients to your lawn production.⢠It reduces puddling and water runoff.⢠Makes the grassroots stronger.⢠Reduces soil compaction.
Also Check: How Do You Get Rid Of White Clover In Lawn
Our Lawn Aeration Process
Our lawn aeration process aims to create small holes in the soil, so oxygen, fertilizers, and water penetrate deeper into the root system, called core lawn aeration. This process makes grass stronger and more resistant to weeds and diseases.
We aerate lawns in the following six steps:
- Our team marks off the heads of sprinkler systems to avoid accidental damage.
- We use a commercial-grade, gas-powered aerator to quickly and gently create pockets in the lawn to allow for better airflow.
- Our technicians make overlapping passes to maximize the effectiveness of the lawn aerators performance.
- The aerator pulls out grass plugs to expose the soil to the sun and air, loosen compaction, and clear thatch.
- We leave the grass plugs, as they have beneficial nutrients for the lawn. They will break down and return to the soil within a few weeks.
- Once the service is complete, we will leave paperwork at your door detailing the work weve done.
Lawn Core Aeration During Service
Our team performs lawn fertilization services for participants in our eight-step lawn care program in the weeks after our lawn aeration service.
Combine our lawn aeration service and lawn care program to get the healthy, green lawn youve always wanted, worry-free.
Recommended Reading: Violet Seeds For Lawn
Why Do Lawns Need To Be Aerated In Texas
Most areas of Texas have either clay-like soil or sandy soil, which are prone to becoming compact. Compacted soil makes it difficult for your lawn to grow as it doesnt allow water, air, or nutrients to penetrate the soil. Your grass will be starved of the essential elements that it requires to survive, and youll likely end up with a lawn thats thin and patchy.
Aerating your lawn is beneficial as it helps provide air to the plants and reduces the likelihood of the soil becoming too compact. It also helps to break up dead grasses and roots, known as thatch, that can create a barrier and smother living grass. Thatch can prevent water and fertilizer from reaching the living grass and may also cause grass diseases and fungus.
Aerating your lawn will help to reduce thatch build-up.
Diy Or Hire Professionals To Aerate Your Lawn
As with most lawn care tasks, it is possible to aerate your lawn yourself. However, before you set aside a weekend afternoon for the chore, consider the benefits of hiring a lawn care professional. When you consider the pros and cons of DIY aeration vs. those of hiring lawn care professionals, you might find that its worth investing in some expert help.
Also Check: Triple 13 Fertilizer Ingredients
Give Your Grass Access To The Vital Nutrients It Needs With Our Core Aeration Service
Core aeration is a vital step in combatting soil compaction and opening up the pores in your soil so your grass can receive all the nutrients it needs to thrive. We offer our core aeration service in the spring and the fall. We will come to your property with our core aeration machine that is designed to punch small holes into the soil throughout your property. These holes allow the root system in your lawn to get easier access to vital nutrients such as water, sunlight, and air. For the best results, you can pair our core aeration and overseeding services to help your lawn stay full and beautiful. Our core aeration service is available to commercial, residential, and HOA property owners in Tyler, Whitehouse, Flint, and surrounding areas of Texas. Call to schedule our core aeration service today.
What Is Lawn Aeration
Your lawn is like you. It needs to breathe. It will struggle to live if it cant get enough air. Nutrients cant reach the soil when it becomes compacted. A lawn deprived of air, water, and nutrients will never reach its full potential. It will suffer greatly in stressful situations like extreme heat or drought. Youll notice thinning and discoloration. Eventually, your grass will die out completely.
Aeration is the act of perforating the soil. Small holes allow necessary air, water, and nutrients to access the grass roots. Aeration results in vigorous, healthy lawns.
Read Also: How To Repel Rabbits From Lawn
How To Check If Your Lawn Needs Aeration
If you have patchy, struggling grass, soil compaction may be the cause. Testing your soil to see if it is in need of aeration is a simple task. Just follow these steps:
- Soil should be moist when testing.
- Push a screwdriver into the soil.
- If the screwdriver easily sinks 24 inches into the soil, you do not need to aerate.
- If the screwdriver does not penetrate, or it is difficult to push it 24 inches into soil, your lawn needs aeration.
- Test 35 spots in your yard. Soil compaction can differ across a single small yard.
Soil can become compacted by foot traffic, vehicles, excess rainfall, or even regular use by children and pets. Its important to test your lawn annually to determine if the soil is compacted.
Contact Us Today For A Free Quote For Lawn Care And Lawn Aeration Services
If youre looking to refresh your lawn or maintain even grass growth, call us today to schedule your lawn aeration service! Well provide a free consultation to anyone in the Crowley, Forth Worth, Benbrook, Burleson, Mansfield, or Arlington, areas. Were quick to respond, always show up on time, and guarantee your satisfaction! Give our trustworthy company a call at today to get the beautiful grass youve always wanted!
Don’t Miss: Peat Moss For Bare Spots
Fertilizing Your Yard In Texas: Best Practices + Time
Most homeowners have lawns with warm-season grasses such as Bermuda grass, Zoysia grass, or St. Augustine in Texas. These grasses grow best in Texass hot climate. Some yards in western Texas may have cool-season grasses as the temperature plummets during the night, especially in fall and winter. When you apply fertilizer to your lawn will depend on the type of grass as well as the kind of fertilizer youre using.
Fertilizing your lawn is a straight-forward job, but there are some things that youll need to consider to work out which time of year is best. Lets look and when to apply fertilizer and when not to fertilize:
Is It Necessary To Aerate Your Lawn In Houston
Should I aerate my lawn in Houston? Here are a few signs that your lawn is a great candidate for aeration:
- Is your lawn heavily used? Consider children, pets, and high commercial traffic.
- Was the lawn part of new construction? Construction traffic and a stripping or burying of the topsoil could negatively affect the health and appearance of your grass.
- Do you have a thatch issue? You may experience dry grass even when heat and drought are not a problem. Dig up a slice of your lawn . If the thatch is greater than half an inch, aeration is necessary.
- Was your lawn sod? If so, soil layering is present. Your lawn is not draining properly yet. This can lead to poor root development. When you aerate, water can finally reach the roots.
Use Zodega TISs Houston lawn and landscape services for expert advice and quality care. Youll notice the difference. We know exactly how to aerate your lawn to yield the results youre after.
Also Check: What Is The Best All Wheel Drive Lawn Mower
Don’t Miss: Dispose Old Lawn Mower
When To Plant Bermuda Grass
In Texas, when to plant bermuda grass depends on the temperature of the soil. Bermuda grass should be planted when soil temperatures are consistently warmer this happens when both daytime and nighttime temperatures are between 70 and 95 degrees. In most parts of Texas, this happens early in the year, often before spring actually arrives according to the calendar. You can plant bermuda grass starting in late February or March to grow a thriving lawn.
Bermuda grass grows quickly and well from seeds, sod, plugs or sprigs. This is one of the qualities of this type of grass that makes it so versatile. Of course, there are pros and cons associated with each method. Which one you choose just depends on your particular yard and needs.
Dallas And North Texas
Many lawn care experts in the Dallas-Fort Worth area advise that aeration service is most effective in the fall. Cooler fall temperatures prevent the ground from drying out after aeration, and there is less chance of a weed invasion after fall aeration than spring aeration. However, because many North Texas lawns are planted with warm-season grasses, spring aeration is also highly effective.
In North Texas, aerate in spring or fall.
- If you choose spring, aerate in April/May.
- If you opt for fall, aerate in late-September through October.
Read Also: Too Much Humic Acid On Lawn
Why Is Aeration Performed
The primary reason that aeration is performed is to relieve any soil compaction. Compaction occurs when soil has been pressed down too tightly. Air, water, and nutrients cannot penetrate the soil because the particles are compressed together.
Aeration combats excess thatch and organic debris that line the surface of the soil just below the grass blades that may starve roots from essential nutrients, air, and water. It is recommended that aeration is performed several times annually to see consistent results.
Why Do Lawn Aeration In North Texas
The number one reason for aerating anywhere is to alleviate soil compaction. Compacted soils have too many solid particles held together, which prevents proper circulation of air, water and nutrients. Excess lawn thatch or heavy organic debris buried under the grass surface can also starve the roots from these essential elements. Lawn aeration will help with both of these issues.
Lawn Aeration is suggested annually in most cases depending on your grass type and soil type. This is especially true if your lawn is heavily used, such as having children or dogs running around on it. Walking on your lawn should feel somewhat soft, not the same as walking on the concrete. If you have bare places that just wont fill in, you may have a compaction issue. Check your grass runners and if they are laying on top of the soil and not penetrating, this may be a compaction issue.
Recommended Reading: Tractors At Home Depot
When You Should Aerate Your Lawn
When lawns start to look unhealthy, aeration might be the best solution. When a lawn is aerated, small cores of dirt are removed form the ground, giving the lawn more oxygen, water and room to grow.
For those of you who want to consider lawn aeration, you have a couple of options. You can either hire a lawn care service or you can consider doing it yourself. If you are planning on doing it yourself, there are several factors that you should consider.
According to Shannon Dauphin from All About Lawns, the best times to aerate your lawn are considered spring and fall. She suggests that if you have a warm season grass in your lawn, you should aerate in the spring because it can recover more quickly. Cool season lawns grow more rapidly in the fall so it is better to aerate them during that time.
Taking Full Advantage Of The Aerating Process
After core aeration, not only is the lawn open for receiving air, water and nutrients, but it also the perfect time to add fertilizer. For an appropriate fertilizing product, check with a local lawn expert on the proper nutritional breakdown you should be using. Depending on the time of year and the health of your lawn, they can recommend the concentration of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.
Because of the small holes left by the plugs being pulled out, it becomes a terrific time to add lime or iron to the lawn. You can perform a soil test that will tell you the pH balance of your soil and that will determine whether you need lime or iron.
That abundance of small holes also creates the perfect environment for over-seeding your lawn. This is a process of adding seed to thicken the lawn growth or to fill in thinning or bare patches of grass.
Hopefully now you realize all the advantages of core aeration. Its an easy process that can be done by a landscape contractor or by renting the aeration equipment from a hardware store. Your lawn will be thankful and you will reap the rewards in no time.
You May Like: Keeping Rabbits Off Lawn
What Does A Compacted Texas Lawn Look Like
Compacted soil looks like a pathway has been worn into the lawn. With a closer inspection, you will find that the grass is shorter than the surrounding lawn. Sometimes grass may be missing entirely with only hard dirt on the worm areas of the lawn. Samples of soil compacted paths include a walkway to a gate or outdoor living area or even from routine trips to the outside trashcans. Areas where the rain beats down from the roof, possibly in areas where there are not gutters on the house to soften the rain pouring off the roof not the awn. This soil compaction in these high traffic areas or where heavy rainfall has caused compaction may be best addressed by adding pavers or gravel paths. This solution can also be a much easier battle than aerating and continually fighting to keep grass in those high traffic areas. Soil that has suffered from driving on the grass regularly when parking in the driveway can also cause soil compaction and may even damage a sprinkler head. Placing a landscape rock or small bordered flower bed in this area can be helpful to keep vehicles from running over the grass.
How Often Does Core Aeration Need To Be Done
We recommend once per year for the average residential lawn. If lawns are subject to heavy traffic or have a considerable amount of thatch, we recommend it more often. For example, a homeowners lawn around their childs play set is subject to compaction from the heavy traffic. A sports field is also subject to heavy traffic and increased soil compaction.
You May Like: Can You Rent Lawn Mowers
Lawn Overseeding Watauga Tx
Help reinvigorate your lawn by overseeding
Lawn Seeding or overseeding is done to keep Watauga lawns looking great! Overseeding is spreading grass seed over an existing lawn. Done right, its a straightforward process that gets results.
As grasses mature, thinning is normalespecially if you enjoy your lawn and use it often. In addition, the weather, kids and pets can be tough on lawns. Lack of water, too much heat, wear & tear as well as other problems can make it look worn and thin. Get your lawn back in shape with overseeding Watauga, TX. Winsome Landscaping will connect you with an overseeding professional that will get your lawn looking lush and green once again.
- Aerating Lawn Watauga, TX
