Letting Your Lawn Breathe: A Guide to Lawn Aeration

Sometimes we forget that lawns are alive, that they are living and breathing just as we are. Aerating your lawn provides a variety of benefits for your lawn as a whole, but most of all, it lets your grass breathe. Thatch buildup and soil compaction both contribute to a gradual suffocation of the grass, and the lack of air circulation that results makes it difficult to grow and sustain healthy life.

Benefits of Lawn Aeration

• Controls Thatch

• Breaks up compacted soil

• Allows for better permeation of water and fertilizer

• Encourages deeper root growth

Lawn Aeration Guide and Tips

Fortunately, lawn aeration is one of the most simple lawn care tasks there is. For very superficial aeration, it can be sufficient simply to walk over the grass with special shoes that have deep spikes covering the soles. For more significant results, however, core aeration is necessary. This is done with a lawn aerator—a piece of equipment that should be easily found and rentable at your local home improvement store. Here are some tips for aerating your lawn

• Water your lawn the day before and not the day of the aeration. If it rained and the lawn is wet, do not aerate; wait instead for the next available dry day.

• It’s best to aerate early in the spring (for the warm season grasses we use here in Texas) soon after the soil has thawed.

• If you are using a lawn aerator, it will pull “plugs” of soil out of the ground. Make sure the plugs are going in about 2-3 inches deep, and a plug should be pulled out of the ground at about every 3 inches of lawn.

• If you have very severe thatch, consider renting and using a vertical mower.

• Raking deeply in the fall is the best way to prevent thatch build-up.

If you have any questions or are interested in fresh sod, contact The Grass Outlet today.