Why is Lawn Aeration Important?

Lawn Aeration Featured Image

A thicker, healthier lawn can be achieved via simple, regular maintenance. However, annual tasks can help tremendously in reinforcing monthly improvements. Lawn Aeration is a yearly ritual for many homeowners because it improves grass growth by reducing soil compaction.

A precisely scheduled and skillfully lawn aeration can improve the health of any lawn.

By aerating your lawn, you increase the likelihood that water, sunlight, and oxygen will reach the grassroots. Doing so will encourage a robust root system, providing you with a lush green lawn that is better able to fend off invasive weeds and grasses.

What is lawn aeration?

To aerate a lawn, you simply poke holes in the earth, which helps water and air reach the plant roots. This technique promotes the turfgrass’s root development, leading to a healthier, more vibrant lawn.

Getting your lawn and the soil underneath it some much-needed air is the primary goal of aerating it.

Why is lawn aeration needed?

Aerating your lawn is crucial because it reduces soil compaction. Soil compaction restricts the free flow of air, nutrients, and water by creating a dense population of soil particles. A layer of lawn thatch, a mixture of live and decaying turfgrass tissue, can also prevent the roots from getting the water and nutrients they need.

Roots can’t expand in size, depth, or strength without access to air, water, and nutrients. Small amounts of soil compaction can impede the flow of vital nutrients and water that promote lush, healthy grass. Adding a thin, compacted layer of soil to your grass (between 14 and 12 inches) can significantly impact its appearance and health. So apart from using fertilizers via spreaders, aeration methods also play a huge role.

First, aeration relieves compacted soil by poking holes, allowing air, water, and nutrients to reach grass roots.

Lawn grasses suffer under extreme temperatures and insufficient rainfall because they lack the nutrients they need from compacted soil.

Grass begins to wither and die from a lack of air, water, and nutrients despite its proximity to a source. A single aeration session may be all needed to clear the way for these necessities to do their job and get your grass back on the right track.

Cost of getting lawn aerated per sq ft

Aerating your lawn is a great way to give it a healthy dose of green. The holes it makes in the soil help grass grow, and it also improves drainage and attracts worms to lawns that have been compacted.

Aerating a lawn, however, does not come cheap. For this reason, we have searched for the finest lawn aeration services and lawn care treatments available, and we can confidently say that we have found them.

Aerating a lawn smaller than 1,000 square feet will cost between $0.10 and $0.35 per sq ft. Aerating your lawn may be included in the price of your lawn care service, or it may be an additional charge. You may expect to pay between $480 and $650 per acre for a more extensive lawn.

DIY lawn aeration

Aeration is most effective in the spring or summer when the grass is actively developing and can quickly recover from damage and fill up any holes left by the soil plugs. It is recommended to aerate the lawn in the early spring or late fall when cool-season grasses thrive.

1.   Cut the grass

Before starting, cut the yard short and kill any weeds. Flag irrigation heads and invisible fencing to avoid damage.

2.   Water the soil

Wet the dirt. Aerating dry soil is frustrating. Water your grass the day before aerating or wait a day after a rainstorm to pluck.

3.   Choose a Tool

Look for a tool that removes 2 to 3 inches deep and 0.5-to-0.75-inch dirt plugs. Lawn and garden shops and home improvement stores rent tools. Share renting costs with neighbours to save money.

4.   Aerate your lawn

Most aeration devices only cover tiny portions of soil at a time, so you may need to make numerous passes.

5.   Break apart soil plugs

Allow soil plugs to dry and break up for a uniform, clean-looking lawn. You can pulverize them with a lawnmower or rake.

6.   Keep lawn care

Continue fertilizing, mowing, and watering after aerating. Overseeding is an optional step preferably done by a pro. Overseeding fills barren sections of turf with grass seed. Aeration is important because summer is hard on lawns. Overseeding thickens your lawn and chokes out weeds by planting new grass seeds. Overseeding protects your lawn from disease and insects.

Tools Required

There are two main types of aerating tools:

  1. The spike aerator.
  2. The plug aerator.

When working with a spike aerator, you must use the tool’s solid tine, also known as a fork, to poke holes into the earth. Lawns can have their soil and a core of grass removed from them using a device called a plug aerator.

Lawn aeration machine

Find the perfect lawn aerator for your needs among our extensive selection. The 30″ hydrostatic aerator and PLUG cam-driven core aerators have modernized the market. A reliable AE401 Series drum aerators and AET48 towable aerators are worth your time learning more about. The commercial aeration machines sold by Billy Goat are of superior quality and output.

Regular traffic on the lawn causes the grass to compress and wear out faster. Soil aeration helps improve the soil’s ability to breathe and release air and water. It is possible to restore water and nutrient delivery to the grassroots by using an aerator, which creates tiny holes in the soil. The grass on your lawn will benefit by being greener, fuller, and more robust.

A wide variety of lawn aeration machines can be found on Amazon. Choose which one is ideal for your work environment.

How much saving? Doing it yourself or using an aeration service

Lawn aeration can be done by a professional lawn care service, or you can do it yourself with rental equipment.

  • DIY Aeration of Lawn.

DIY lawn aeration can cost as little as $63 for four hours of equipment rental and as much as $90 for a full day of use. This task may be beyond your capabilities, depending on the size of your lawn and the level of soil compaction in your area.

  • Using a Lawn Aeration Service.

Fundamental aerators cost more than spike aerators per thousand square feet. To sum up, a 5,000 square foot lawn would run you between $75-$85, while a 10,000 square foot lawn would set you back about $150-$170.

A professional lawn service can aerate your lawn in a couple of hours, whereas doing it yourself could take a whole weekend.

FAQ

Duration of aeration?

Depending on the size of your grass, the plugs break down in about two weeks. Never remove plugs early since this reduces aeration.

After aerating, can I mow the lawn?

Do not mow the lawn for at least a week after aerating it or until it has grown at least three inches tall.

Conclusion

Now that you understand what lawn aeration is and why you should do it, it’s safe to say that it’s an essential step in ensuring your grass thrives and thrives. In addition, gardeners, homeowners, and landscapers need to know the optimum times to aerate to achieve the best effects, the tools required to carry out the operation, and how to safely and properly execute.

Do not hesitate to comment on this post and share it with others if you find it informative and exciting. For some individuals the hasstle for maintaining lawn is a little too much, if you are such an individual we recommend you to explore artificial grass for uplifting your outdoor look.

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