From improving drainage to alleviating compaction, aeration has so many great benefits for your lawn’s health! So when should you aerate your lawn, and how should you do it? In this blog, we will look at all you need to know about aerating your lawn.
Firstly, what is aeration?
Aeration is the process of decompacting your soil by either punching holes into the soil profile with a garden fork, aerator sandals or extracting cores of soil by using a tyne aerator.
Why should I aerate my lawn?
Aeration has many benefits to the overall health of your lawn. Decompacting the soil base helps allow for air, water and nutrients to more freely travel down to the roots of your lawn. This will help the lawn grow its roots deeply to produce a stronger, more vigorous lawn.
A few common lawn issues that aeration can assist with include:
- Helping your lawn to grow thicker and stronger.
- Help alleviate soil compaction from high amounts of foot traffic and wear.
- Assisting where drainage is poor.
- Help your lawn spread back over bare sections of lawn.
- Better allow for nutrients to reach the roots of your lawn.
When should I aerate my lawn?
Aeration can be done at any time throughout the year, but the most common time to do this is in spring and summer when grass is actively growing. This is particularly the case when core aerating as there will be holes left in the profile where the soil has been removed. When doing this in spring and summer, this means that the grass will be able to grow back over at a faster rate.
Aeration can still be done throughout the cooler months, but you may not see the full benefit till the grass begins to actively grow.
How do I aerate my lawn?
There are a few different tools you can use to aerate your lawn:
Aerating with a garden fork is one of the most common ways to aerate your lawn. This method involves you driving a sturdy garden fork into the ground then giving it a good wiggle back and forwards to help break up the surrounding soil. Then continue this across the lawn, aiming for spacing around 8-10cm apart.
Aerating sandals are also another way to aerate the lawn. With aerating sandals, you attach the sandal to your shoe, then walk across your lawn. These sandals are a less labour intensive, however may not be quite as effective as other methods.
Core aeration is another method of aerating where the tines will remove plugs of soil from the ground. This particular method of aerating allows more space for your lawn to breathe and is ideal where there are high amounts of compaction present. Core aeration can be done using a manual core aerator fork, or if you have a larger area, you can hire out a mechanical core aerator.
How can I aerate if my soil is too hard?
If your soil has become too compacted and is difficult to get the tines to penetrate the soil, give the lawn a good water a few hours beforehand. This will help to help soften up the soil.
For more lawn care tips and advice, make sure you check out our other lawn care blogs here.