Aerating

How frequently should I aerate my lawn for its proper growth?

Lawns need many things to be healthy. Some of what they need they receive through the air around their leaves (the blades of grass). Much of what they need, however, comes in through their roots.

This means that the soil around those roots is important.

What aerating does for this important soil is reduce compaction which allows water, air, and other nutrients to get into the soil around the roots.

So whenever your soil is overly compact, the nutrients can’t get down to the roots, and you need to aerate your lawn.

So aerating is very important.

How do you know when your soil is too compacted?

Check your soil type. Clay compacts more quickly than loam, which compacts faster then sandy soil.

Do you have a lot of foot traffic? If you have kids playing on the lawn regularly that greatly increases soil compaction.

Heavy rains, your lawn mower, and basically anything you can think of will help compact your lawn, but your soil type and the amount of foot traffic are the two greatest factors to consider.

If you have clay with kids, you can consider aeration twice a year.

If you have sand and a no trespassing sign, maybe once every two or three years.

You’re safe if you aerate once every year or two.

It’s best to aerate in the Fall. If you aerate in the spring you are bringing up dormant weed seeds to the surface. Aeration is only really required once per season for most lawns.

The best way to check if you even need it at all is to take a screwdriver and stick it in the ground. If it goes in easy then you don’t need it.

If you do aerate, then throw some seed down and keep it watered.