In order to achieve and maintain a beautiful lawn, you should employ basic lawn care practices such as proper mowing, fertilizing and watering. It is also important to ensure that nutrients can reach the soil beneath your grass. Aeration can be an extremely vital element to a healthy lawn because it allows air and water to penetrate built-up grass or lawn thatch and promote deeper root growth of the grass.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aeration involves perforating the soil with small holes to allow air, water and nutrients to penetrate the grass roots. This helps the roots grow deeply and produce a stronger, more vigorous lawn.

The main reason for aerating is to alleviate soil compaction. Compacted soils have too many solid particles in a certain volume or space, which prevents proper circulation of air, water and nutrients within the soil. Excess lawn thatch or heavy organic debris buried under the grass surface can also starve the roots from these essential elements.

 

Your lawn is probably a good candidate for aeration if it:

• Gets heavy use, such as serving as the neighborhood playground or racetrack. Children and pets running around the yard contribute to soil compaction.

• Was established as part of a newly constructed home. Often, the topsoil of newly constructed lawns is stripped or buried, and the grass established on subsoil has been compacted by construction traffic.

• Dries out easily and has a spongy feel. This might mean your lawn has an excessive thatch problem.

 

At D & H lawn Care, LLC, we recommend aerating in the late spring.  We use plugger or cam-driven aerators to actually "pull" the plugs from the soil.  We also recommend leaving these plugs lay on the grass and be allowed to naturally break down because this provides beneficial nutrients to be returned back into the soil.  If you have an underground sprinkler system, your sprinklers will have to be marked in order for the aerator to avoid and not damage them.