Do You Really Need To Aerate Your Lawn?

Many homeowners like to have a nice lavish-looking lawn that gives their home great curb appeal. It is not easy to keep a green lawn. There are steps to be taken to keep your lawn beautiful. The weather does not always help your lawn. Pests and intense temperatures can harm your lawn each year.

Keeping your lawn disease-free by treating for pests and a consistent watering schedule will keep your lawn healthy. Aerating will help to keep your soil healthy, balanced and your grass growing strong and free of diseases.

Lawn Aeration
Aerating your lawn is a common practice for subjecting your soil to fresh air. Aerating will remove plugs of grass and soil. The holes that aerating makes will let nutrients and water drain down into your lawn. It will make your lawn healthy and strong down to the roots of the grass. When your soil health is up to pare and you have healthy roots, your lawn can recover from droughts and the hotter temperatures of summertime weather.

Benefits of Aerating Your Lawn
Lawns that have a lot of traffic get compacted down. A compacted lawn does not let the lawn breath or water down to nourish the grassroots. The best lawn care gives your grass oxygen, water and nutrients to grow lush and green.

Aeration Improves Lawns by:

• Giving your lawn the nutrients, oxygen, and water deep down into the soil.
• Developing stronger roots.
• Irrigates your lawn and helps it to absorb rainwater.
• Helps to develop a layer of topsoil under your grass.
• Pesticides and fertilizers do not runoff.
• Helps to stop mowed grass clippings from building up and blocking growth.

Do All Lawns Need Aeration?
No. Not all lawns need to be aerated. Lawn care for new lawns should not be aerated the first year. If you are questioning whether to aerate your lawn or not, you could take a six-inch-deep piece out of your lawn and exam it. If the roots of your grass only go down about 1 or 2 inches, you have compacted soil. A lawn that is compacted definitely needs to be aerated.

Signs Your Lawn Needs Aeration
If your lawn has heavy traffic and kids playing on it all the time, it may become compacted. Grass clipping that goes down more than a half-inch will also hinder your grass from growing. Another sign is if your soil health is made up of dense clay, it will need to be aerated.

There are natural factors that help with lawn aeration. Earthworms that grown deep down in the soil will help to aerate your lawn. In the Northern states, the winter cycles of freezing and thawing will also help loosen your soil and keep it from becoming compacted.

When To Aerate
If you have cool seasons where you live the best time to aerate is in the spring or fall. April is good just before you put the pesticides on the lawn. September is good when you are going to seed your lawn again. If you have warm seasons then late May through July is best for aerating. You will want to aerate when your grass is growing.

Lawn Aeration will keep your lawn beautiful and healthy. It will take time to develop new root growth, so be patient.