Lawn Aerating

Any homeowner with a front or back yard will find that their lawn requires several different practices of good maintenance. Watering and fertilizing, along with regular mowing, are only starters. Lawn aerating is another sensible procedure to practice on an annual basis.

This article covers the idea of lawn aerating, along with the various pieces of equipment necessary for doing it effectively, and the smartest techniques to use.

Lawn Aerating Explained

Lawn aeration is the procedure of utilizing a liquid, mechanical, or manual lawn aerator in order to properly aerate the home owner’s lawn. This creating of numerous holes along the surface of the lawn, ideally twelve such holes in a given square foot of lawn, permits and encourages a deeper root growth, along with reducing the soil compaction level. Such a lawn aerating permits water, air, and nutrients to directly reach the root system.

More than simply yielding a more attractive lawn, lawn aeration encourages a deeper growing grass root and thickens up the grass itself through permitting the roots to expand their growth deeper in to the surrounding soil.

Holes created by the process contain water which will soften up compacted soil and allow clay soils a greater amount of room to both breathe and to expand. Besides this, there are several other lawn treatment procedures which go directly along with lawn aeration. Among these are fertilizing, liming, thatching, and over-seeding.

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Types of Lawn Aerators

• Spike Aerators
• Hand Aerators
• Liquid Aerators
• Towable Aerators
• Plug Aerators
• Rolling Aerators

Frequency of Optimal Lawn Aerating

The majority of experts suggest that a home owner aerates his lawn once every one to three years. For those who have kids who like to play outside frequently, pets who utilize the lawn, or hills on their property, this rate of aerating should be increased to two times per year.

The prime time to over-seed and fertilize a person’s lawn is immediately following the aeration procedure. If the lawn in question is a new lawn, then turf aeration is a critically necessary practice.

The majority of home builders inadvertently scrape away the topsoil of a property when they construct a new home. It can require literally years for the soil in question to become normal and healthy once more.

Utilizing a lawn core aerator is the most efficient means of swiftly improving the topsoil’s health. On top of this, in many regions of the country, newer lawns are typically put in on top of hard clay. Core lawn aerators are capable of increasing the speed of the soil integration via promoting grass and root growth.

For anyone who has poor soil, it is wise to aerate minimally one time per year for the first five years of home ownership. Even once a lawn has become well established, the majority of professionals still suggest that aerating a lawn one time every three years is a sensible and effective practice.

Best Time for Lawn Aerating

Generally, the most effective time to aerate any lawn is in the months of either April or late September. Those who choose to perform a spring lawn aeration will discover that the optimum window lies from March through the end of June. For a fall lawn aeration, the window lies in the months of from September to October.

If there is a perfect period to perform the lawn aeration, then it will vary from one location to another. When the ground proves to be overly soft, this is not the ideal time of the year. Should the ground prove to be too hard, one will have to first water it well for a good hour in advance of getting the most effective results from the lawn aerator.

Lawns that are aerated more frequently will generate better plugs. The lawn aerating procedure may be effectively performed utilizing either a hand aerator, a tow model aerator, a liquid aerator, or an coring aerator machine.

The Five Advantages In Aerating a Lawn

A variety of advantages are derived from practicing good core aeration on an annual basis. Core Aerating aids in maintaining a greener, healthier lawn. This literally reduces the expense of watering through the following five means:

1. Reducing the compaction of the soil underlying the lawn in question
2. Bettering the drainage factor along with decreasing the quantity of runoff present
3. Alleviating the damage caused by droughts
4. Limiting the development of thatch
5. Permitting air, water, and nutrients to directly reach the grass roots’ system.

Following The Lawn Aerating: Fertilizing, Adding Iron, and Over-seeding

The majority of fertilizing brands give directions on how frequently a lawn should be fertilized. This is typically practiced from three to five different points in the year. The great majority of such fertilizing programs work quite well, if and when they are strictly adhered to.

The optimal time for fertilizing lawns lies in either the fall or the spring, at the points when the grass is most aggressively growing. A healthy concentration of lawn fertilizer includes twenty-five to thirty elements of Nitrogen content, six to ten units of phosphorus, and eight to twelve parts of potassium.

The very best time to fertilize is, once again, directly following the aeration of the lawn.

Liming, or adding iron, is also effective immediately following a lawn aeration.

Over-seeding is a final maintenance practice for lawns which should be done right after the aerating process is complete. Over-seeding involves concentrating on those parts of the lawn which are thinner or bare, to re-seed the area with grass.

When administered in concert, these three simple procedures will greatly enhance the effect of the annual lawn aeration.