October 23, 2020 Your lawn may in desperate need of aeration. Aeration is vital to keeping your yard healthy and growing and getting your soil the nutrients it needs. A process familiar to some and not others, it can greatly improve the condition of your lawn and should be a part of your lawn care routine. Why Aerate? Aerating is crucial to providing your grassroots with the nutrients, air and water is needs to have strong growth and remain healthy. Many times, soil becomes impacted, this causes a layer of soil that can range from ¼ of an inch to a half of an inch. Aeration is the process that creates holes down in the soil to break through this compacted soil and allow nutrients to get down to the roots. Aeration is needed even when you don’t think it is. Many times, your yard experiences pressure and weight from rolling, children playing, cars, and more. This pacts down the soil, making this upper layer that can suffocate your grass. This can especially happen due to soil type, use of the yard, and other factors. When to Aerate It’s important to know when Aeration is needed, especially in areas with heavy clay soil. This can mean that your yard needs more aeration. Consider dethatching your soil. This is the process of getting rid of the thatch, which is a layer of decomposing organic matter. Aeration helps reduce thatch buildup and can even be used to dethatch. Signs of your yard needing aeration include pooling of water in different areas due to the soil not being able to absorb. Also, if your soil has a spongy feel or dries out easily. If your soil and grass is fairly hard and tough, you can take a sharp object and stick it into your soil. If it slides in than your soil is probably getting the nutrients that it needs. Effects of Not Aerating If you do not aerate your grass it can have drastic effects on its health. Eventually, the grass begins to thin more and more, you’ll notice spots, and eventually, all of the grass dies from lack of nutrients. This means that the signs above are just the beginning of your yard dying from excessive thatch cover. Instead of having to redo your entire grassy area, be proactive and aerate today. How to Aerate There are different tools for aerating. Mostly there are two main aerator tools, one being a plug aerator and the other a spike aerator. Spike aerators poke holes in the soil while plug aerators remove a core plug of grass when pushed into the soil. This may be more effective since it is actually removing impacted soil, while only putting holes doesn’t actually get rid of the problem. Start with soil that is somewhat moist, dry soil can be difficult to aerate. It is important to go over affected areas a couple of times and save energy by avoiding unaffected areas. Allow the plugs to dry and then be broken up with a rake or lawnmower. Continue your regular lawn care and pay attention to your lawn health. We can help with your lawn, tree, and shrub needs at Front Range Arborists.
