Compacted areas of your lawn
Compaction:
Compaction is one of the most common, yet overlooked lawn problems. Compaction is caused by excess wear and tear on your lawn causing the soil underneath to go hard. Compaction reduces the amount of air, water and nutrients that your grass can get and limits the lawns ability to put roots deep into the soil. Compaction will generally cause bare patches in your grass, or your grass will thin out and lose its green colour.
Fortunately, compaction is pretty easy to overcome and there are a few easy, cheap and effective methods to alleviate a compacted lawn.
Aeration & Top Dressing:
Aeration is the most effective method of alleviating compaction. Aeration involves poking holes into the soil to allow air and water to penetrate. For small lawns, you can aerate with a standard garden fork or aeration sandals. For larger areas, it is best to hire a full size aerator or corer.
Aeration is something every lawn owner should look to do every spring whilst your lawn is actively growing. An application of a fertiliser should also follow an aeration during spring to give your lawn a kick start before the season.
Top Dressing involves evenly spreading sand soil over the top of the lawn and watering it in. As compaction mainly occurs on clay based soil, top dressing with a sand soil can assist with drainage and water penetration. Just be sure when top dressing to always use a sand based product, and to never cover the full leaf with soil so it can still receive sunlight. You should always irrigate your lawn deeply after applying top dressing to wash the soil down into the thatch layer of the lawn.
Further to the above, gypsum clay breaker is another method of alleviating compaction in clay based soils. Gypsum is ideally applied before installing a lawn by mixing it into the soil base, but can also be applied post-installation. To do this, simply spread the gypsum on top of the lawn in the form of a top dressing. The same rules as top dressing apply, never cover the full leaf and always irrigate after application.
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