Giving your lawn a breath of fresh air
Having a beautiful healthy well-kept lawn is pretty amazing. I have seen so many lawns over the years that were just eye-popping almost picture-perfect. Many years ago I was a foreman on a large estate that was surrounded by turf.
The owner really loved his grass and wanted it to be well maintained at all times. So I had the awesome responsibility of having my crew ensure that the lawn was well taken care of. We had our challenges at times with the weather along with many lawn insect pests problems
but we were on our game and did a pretty amazing job. The estate manager at one time paid me a compliment by saying that the grass was perfect and while I knew there was always room for improvement I excepted her compliment as we did our best trying to keep it that way
Lawn Aeration
The perfect lawn
Is there such a thing as a perfect lawn? Like I said there is always room for improvement. Even though a lawn may look flawless there are many maintenance procedures that go into a well-kept lawn which include.
- Choosing the right turf for the right location, the amount of foot traffic, full shade, partial shade turf, etc…
- Proper cutting heights
- Water requirements
- Watering methods
- Fertilizing
- Disease
- Insect pests problems
- Lawn aeration
This latter one Lawn aeration deserves our attention because this is so important to a lawn’s health and survival. While I must agree that some lawns may hold up well without this procedure it is still good to implement lawn aeration for optimal results.
It is also true that a lawn that has the most foot traffic needs this procedure done because of soil compaction which affects
- Water uptake
- Absorption of fertilizers
- Air circulation
- There is also thatch build-up that can be a hiding place for insect pests and encourage disease
Lawn Aeration
The good news is you can have your lawn looking as beautiful as ever by following these simple steps.
When to aerate?
The best time to aerate is in the spring when the grass is actively growing because your turf will recover quickly.
Tools to aerate the soil
There are many tools that can be used to aerate the soil from pitchforks to special footwear that is known as aeration shoes with spikes. These are inexpensive ways to aerate small areas.
and then there are the larger machines known as the core aerators that use tines which make or punch holes in the soil. These machines can cover large areas, but renting one of these machines can get pretty expensive so you can decide which method is best for you. One thing I want to point out here is when aerating the soil your grass will not get hurt as some people may think, as painful as this procedure may look your soil and your grass will benefit in a great way including the many soil microbes such as Bacterias, Amoebae, Alage, Fungi, Protozoa and Actinomycetes that help to convert organic matter to nutrients for our plants to take up by their roots. As the soil loosens the oxygen gets into the soil where it is needed by these microbes.
The benefits of lawn aeration
- Proper water uptake
- Proper absorbing of fertilizer
- Stimulates root growth
- Encourages air circulation to reach soil microbes
- Aids against insect pests and disease
How to aerate the lawn?
1. The soil should be moistened to soften it up so that the tines of the aerator can penetrate more easily.
2. If there are sprinkler heads, wires or any other object present indicate by using irrigation flags that are also known as markers.
3. Make several passes ensuring that aeration tines are driven about 2-3 inches into the soil.
Lawn Aeration
After lawn aeration now what
1. Great your job is done. The next step is to allow the cores or pieces of soil to remain on the soil surface these cores contain soil microbes that we discuss earlier that benefit our turf. The cores once dried will decompose.
2. Immediately after aerating you can add a thin layer of sand over the soil surface along with reseeding the area. Using a roller will help press the seeds so they make contact with the soil. These rollers can be rented.
3. Keep the soil most because this is most crucial in order for your lawn to bounce back to good health.
4. Using a liquid fertilizer at the time of reseeding or a few days after has proven to be effective.
5. Continue to monitor grass and before you know it you will have a nice beautiful healthy lawn as you reap the rewards of your labor.
The final word
Lawn aeration is a proven method that works and is used by homeowners as well as mega landscape companies that carry out large projects on football and soccer fields as well as baseball diamonds so it only makes sense to take advantage of this method that has proven to be effective.
So give your lawn a breath of fresh air. Your lawn will love you for it and you will have a turf that you will be proud of as your lawn becomes the talk of the neighborhood.
About the author
Norman loves being in the garden, both at home and for his job....
he is 'Natures Little helper' being outdoors, growing his vegetables and flowers from an early age.
Now having spent over 22 years in the profession he want to give some of his knowledge to others...
his vast array of hints and tips you will find scattered over this site will help you no end growing plants in your garden.
Thanks for an interesting article on lawn aeration. I didn’t realize it was such an integral part of maintaining a healthy lawn.
Great info on why it’s important, the best time of year to carry it out and how to do it.
I look forward to my lawn becoming the talk of the neighbourhood (in a good way).
Hello Ann so good to meet you. Lawn aeration is so beneficial to the overall health of our lawn. So happy that I cold help and please let me know how it goes. Have a good day.
I had an offer through from my garden centre for a lawn aerator recently and seriously considered it.
I love my lawn, it’s not large but it is well kept and I thinking it would benefit from aeration.
I was told you could do it with a pitch fork and then add sand. Do you recommend this ?
As I said it’s not a huge lawn bu5 still think it would take me a while with a pitch fork.
What are your thoughts ?
Hello Karen so good to see you. A well keep beautiful healthy lawn sure can turn heads therefore it is good to do all that we can not just to turn heads but to ensure that we are giving our lawns what it needs. The method you are talking about is great especially if the lawn is small.
Give it a try beside you will be getting a good workout so that is also a great benefit. Please let me know how it goes. Have a good day.
HI Norman,
This is interesting and very helpful.
I didn’t know before I read your post about lawn aeration. We only water our lawn and cut it and remove the dandelions.
I will tell my husband about this. So we need to do this now because it’s already spring.
Thanks for this very informative post.
Marita
Hello Marita so happy that I could help and it is good to meet. All the best of success and have a good day.