Before we come into the busy summer period, it’s important to make sure your lawn is in the best possible condition. While most lawn maintenance regimes consist of fertilising, watering and mowing, aeration might be the missing ingredient. Aerating your lawn can help to reduce thatch, increase moisture retention and improve the overall quality of your lawn. As the lawn experts, we thought we would share why, when and how to aerate your lawn so that you can have the best lawn possible this season.
What is Aeration?
Aerating your lawn is important to support deep root growth, which produces a strong and more luscious lawn for you to enjoy. What is ‘aerating’ exactly? It’s the task of perforating the turf and soil with small holes, which allows air, water and nutrients to soak in. When your soil becomes too compact from heavy use or density, it can prevent water and nutrients from being properly absorbed and essentially starve your lawn.
When to Aerate Your Lawn
When aerating your lawn, you want to make sure it will have adequate time to heal and fill any holes left in the soil. For this, you will want some moisture, so the peak of summer isn’t ideal. Autumn and spring are the perfect time to aerate and prepare your lawn for a summer of use.
Aerating tools
There are plenty of tools you can use to aerate your lawn. Most popular options include a spike aerator or a plug aerator, however you can also buy motorised aerators, manual push aerators and even shoes with aerating spikes underneath. Aerators that remove a plug or ‘core’ of lawn are recommended as they create less pressure on the surrounding soil, however in our opinion, any aeration is better than none at all. If you don’t want to commit to the cost of aeration equipment, you can usually hire the tools from your local gardening or landscaping store.
How to Aerate Your Yard
Once you are ready to start aerating your lawn, here’s a few tips you can follow:
- Make sure your soil is moist enough, you don’t want to aerate bone-dry soil, trust us. One day after rain or watering is best as your lawn will be moist and effectively heal itself post coring.
- If you have some areas that need extra attention, go over them several times to ensure it is thoroughly aerated.
- Remember: you don’t need to aerate the entire lawn, you can just focus on the areas that need it to save your time and energy.
- If you pull plugs or cores out of the soil, wait for them to dry and make sure they are properly broken up before being distributed across the lawn (this can be done with the back of a rake or by the lawnmower).
After you have aerated your lawn, be sure to continue with your maintenance schedule of fertilising, watering, and mowing. Now that you understand the benefits of lawn aeration be sure to add this to your lawn care regime, and let your lawn breathe again. Need more information or want to discuss your turf needs? Call or enquire online with your turf specialist, Turfman. With more than 13 years’ experience in landscaping, and laying lawn turf; we provide services for homeowners, landlords, and commercial businesses in Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast and parts of the Gold Coast.