How to Aerate Your Lawn from the Experts

Aerating your lawn is vital for keeping your grass thick and healthy. Just like the other plants, grass needs air and water as well as nutrients too stay at its best. Thus, we must make sure that these elements reach deep down into the grass’ root system. Aerating your lawn helps it breathe and improves overall water drainage for your property. It also helps break up compaction, which can occur from heavy use or a thick layer of thatch. All of this will help keep your lawn looking healthy all season long. But how do you aerate your lawn?

In this article, the experts at TurfTime Equipment provide a “how to guide” for aerating your lawn in just a few simple steps. We’ll also give you some tips on choosing the best time of year to aerate, as well as the best type of aeration tools for your lawn.

A Step-by-Step Lawn Aeration Guide

Whether your lawn is suffering from heavy foot traffic, compacted soil, or drainage issues, aeration can help. Aerating a lawn involves making small holes in the ground to allow air, water, and nutrients to reach the roots of your grass. It’s an important step in maintaining a healthy lawn, and it’s relatively easy to do yourself with the right tools. Follow the steps below when aerating your lawn:

Lawn Inspection

To see the current state of your lawn, the best time to check is right after summer. You will be able to spot areas where grass has sparse or no growth because those patches probably haven’t been cared for properly through the years.

Check for compaction. Soil compaction is the reduction of soil volume due to external factors, this reduction lowers soil productivity and health of the grass. This can be found where puddles were formed during rainstorms preventing the water from being absorbed into soil. You can test this by pushing a screwdriver into these areas. If it is difficult making it past 2-3 inches of depth before finding easier passage, this is a sure sign that the area is compacted.

The Right Tools Make All the Difference

To make the most efficient use of your time, it’s important to equip yourself with tools that will help you aerate a lawn. For smaller yards (less than 100 square feet), using just one fork can be enough. However, for larger spaces and more difficult soil conditions such as clay or deep-rooted plants, there are other types of penetrating devices we recommend – like the Pro Series Aerator from TurfTime Equipment! The right tools will make all the difference when aerating your lawn.

Discover what makes our aerators the best on the market!

Lawn Spiking

Spiking is a method of aeration that uses a garden fork or larger equipment – like the Advantage Aerator – to make small holes in the lawn. To get the best results from your lawn, it is important that you aerate when the soil moisture level is high. This will help mix up all those great nutrients in there and provide better growth.

Important: Try not to spike the same area more than once as this could damage the grass.

Sand

Once you’ve made holes in your lawn, use a stiff brush to work sand into them. We recommend using masonry sand so there’s no debris and it will improve drainage for clay soil or if the grass often gets waterlogged.

Important: Make sure that whatever kind of top dressing is being used does not contain excessive amounts sugar because this can lead directly towards root rot!

Is Aeration Good for Your Lawn?

Of course! Aeration is one of the best things you can do for your lawn. It helps oxygen, water, and nutrients reach the roots of your grass, which in turn leads to a healthier, lusher lawn. Aeration also helps reduce thatch build-up, so it’s a great way to keep your lawn in top condition.

Aerate Your Lawn with the Help of TurfTime Equipment

Whether you’re a professional landscaper or a homeowner who likes to keep their lawn looking its best, TurfTime Equipment has the tools and expertise you need to aerate your lawn properly. We carry a wide range of commercial aerators perfect for small yards to models that can cover large areas quickly. We also carry a full line of top dressers, so you can find the perfect solution for every level of lawn maintenance you’re performing!