Lawn Aeration
We also offer aeration services as it is an important part of total lawn care.
What is aeration?
To achieve and maintain a beautiful lawn, you should follow basic lawn care practices such as mowing, fertilizing, and watering your lawn. Another aspect of lawn maintenance is ensuring that nutrients can reach the soil beneath your grass. Aeration can be a vital element to a healthy lawn, as it allows air and water to penetrate built-up grass or lawn thatch by alleviating soil compaction. Compacted soils have too many solid particles in a certain volume or space, which prevents proper circulation of air, water and nutrients within the soil. Excess lawn thatch or heavy organic debris buried under the grass surface can also starve the roots from these essential elements.
When should aeration be done?
Just like you wouldn’t mow a lawn that’s soaking wet or apply a winterizer fertilizer in June, aeration also requires specific timing. The time of year you tackle aeration and how often you aerate depends on grass and soil type. Fall is the best time to aerate cool season grass, like fescue.
When should aeration be done?
Aeration as part of your landscape maintenance plan
Plan to aerate just prior to fertilizing or reseeding your lawn. Aeration creates openings for nutrients and seed to penetrate soil. Control weeds prior to aerating, because the process of aerating can spread weed seeds or portions of weedy roots. Aerate when soil is moist, but not saturated. The tines of a lawn aerator penetrate moist soil more deeply; soil that is too wet clogs tines. This may mean you’ll water for one hour one day prior to aerating, or if your soil is hard, for shorter times on several days prior to aerating. Avoid aerating during drought or high heat. If you aerate in these conditions, you’ll stress the lawn by allowing heat to dry soil.