Do you really need to aerate your lawn?

Aeration, what's it for?

There are several different styles of aeration on the market today to help with your yard care.  I will cover the most common ones here, and explain the benefits of aeration.  To answer the question of whether you need to aerate your lawn, the short answer is yes. 

The most common methods to aeration your lawn are:

• Core Aeration
• Spike Aeration
• Slice Aeration

While aeration can be done yourself, you can also call on the professionals.  Once you decide if you will DIY it, or leave it in someone else's hands, it is important to explain why aeration is beneficial.

Why is aeration good for my lawn?

Lawns will naturally compact over time.  This denser soil makes it more difficult for the grass roots to push through and establish.  The roots are the foundation of your plant.  Poor, unhealthy, roots will result in a unhealthy grass. 

Proper aeration will, literally, open up the ground.  Allowing the roots to breathe and grow.  This newly opened soil (in the form of small holes), will also allow water to penetrate deeper into the soil.  If the water is deeper, the roots of the grass will naturally grow deeper to find this water.  What you end up with is longer, stronger, roots that can better withstand stress, drought, and disease.

If you have a clay soil, we need to do some additional steps, which we will cover in another article.

Core Aeration

Core Aeration for your lawn care regiment is a great way to keep your lawn in shape.  Of the three aeration techniques, this is the best one to choose.  Core aeration pulls what is called "plugs" from the soil and as the machine rolls along it drops these  plugs.  Once you are done you will have thousands of little dirt plugs (about the size of someones finger) all over the lawn.  One of our clients told us it looked like a thousand chihuahua's visited his lawn!

You can follow up your aeration with some fresh new grass seed and your lawn will look better and better. 

Spike Aeration

As this technique of aeration suggests, spike aeration large spikes (about the width of a pencil) are driven into the ground.  You can find these "machines" at a box store.  Just look for the shoes with spikes on the bottom of them.  Alternatively, they do have large rollers that can be towed behind a tractor or riding mower. This technique will actually compact your soil even further as the spikes are simply pushing the soil out of the way.

Slice Aeration

In similar fashion to the spike aeration method, a slice aerator is simply not as good as a core aerator. This machine will use large discs, similar to a saw blade, to cut into the ground.   You will see this slice aerator drug behind a tractor or riding mower as well.  Typically weighed down with bricks to keep the blades in contact with the soil.

Core Aeration, got it.  Now what?

Whether you decided to rent the core aeration machine to do it yourself, or you have called on a professional, when to core aerate is important.  It is recommended to aerate in the spring and fall.  You want the ground warm and moist.  Not so wet that the machine is going to till up the ground, and not to dry that you won't get any penetration.   Also, if the temperature is very hot, you will be opening up the ground to this.  You don't want to desiccate the roots of the lawn by opening the ground to some dry, hot, air.

All done? 

Not quite.  There is a lot more to lawn care than just sitting back and watching the grass grow.  Proper watering, fertilization, over-seeding...they all play a part in having a lawn that is the envy of your neighbors.