Getting the beautiful green lawn you dream of requires little steps that end up having a big impact. Watering and even the timing of water becomes important to the healthy growth and maintenance of your yard. Other proactive steps you can take only happen a few times each year. One process that will make all the difference in keeping your lawn green is aeration. Keep reading to learn about lawn aeration services and the most important benefits they bring to your property.
What is Aeration? Why Aerate Your Lawn?
At its core, lawn aeration is a process that lets your grass — and the soil beneath it — breathe more freely.
Many times, aeration pulls small cores of soil using a motor-based machine or hand tool. By using aeration equipment including machines like core aerators, the practice opens small holes in the ground with hollow tines that pierce the roots and thatch layer. This allows water and airflow into the root structure of the grass.
Benefit 1: Improve the Health of Your Turf
Aeration can improve your turf’s health. The task opens up the root area to better access air, fertilizer, and water. This brings deeper and stronger roots for your grass and improves the appearance of the soil surface.
Benefit 2: Break Up Thatch
Thatch is the layer of dead grass piling up on your lawn. If left to accumulate on its own, a thick layer of thatch buildup prevents rainwater and nutrients from getting to the grass root system below. Aeration can respond to this issue by bringing microorganisms that break thatch down from under the soil to the top layer.
Benefit 3: Combats Compacted Soil
The more compression in your soil, the less air, fertilizer, and water ends up getting to your lawn’s root system. Compression can lead to thinning or dead spots in your lawn. Core aeration of your lawn reduces soil compaction and helps to relieve some of the pressure by making it less dense and removing soil plugs.
Benefit 4: Paves the Way for pH Modification
Adding lime or sulphur after aeration makes the pH deeper in the soil change. This deep change makes more nutrients available for the grass roots network and encourages a healthy root system.
Benefit 5: Lowers Puddling and Water Runoff
Aeration can make space in the soil for more water to collect. If your lawn constantly has rainwater puddles after a storm, look into aeration to combat that.
When Should You Aerate Your Lawn?
Fall aeration is best. If you have sandy soil with no particular issues, you can aerate every two to three years. However, for areas with heavy foot traffic and for lawns growing in heavy clay soil, annual aerating may be recommended.
Do not aerate your lawn in early spring, because it may result in more weeds.