Does My Lawn Really Need Aeration?
The simplest answer is yes, your lawn will always benefit from being aerated at least once a year in the fall. If you are serious about the health and appearance of your lawn then aeration and over-seeding are just a normal part of a regular lawn care regime.
In order to know for sure we need to view your property to determine the overall condition of your lawn.
- Does your lawn get used frequently by your children or pets?
- Do you let your grass clippings fall back onto the lawn?
- Was your lawn just recently installed?
- Does your lawn dry out very quickly in the summer?
These are all signs your lawn could benefit from aeration. The best time to aerate your lawn is during the fall when the roots can recover quickly and the existing grass can work to fill in all of the plugs of grass/soil that will be removed during the aeration process.
What Does Lawn Aeration Do For Your Lawn?
This process delivers oxygen, water, and nutrients directly to the roots which encourages the roots to grow deeper and works to improve their uptake of nutrients and resilience to produce a more vigorous lawn. Aerating has long been a lawn care secret that golf courses and sports fields groundskeepers have employed because it really makes a difference especially when used as part of a total lawn care program. We use a special machine called a “lawn aerator” to aerate our clients lawns.
This machine was specifically designed to perforate your soil with hundreds of small holes that allow oxygen, water and nutrients to penetrate directly into your lawns root system. The “plugs” of grass that are removed by the aerator usually contain an inch or two of soil and are about 1/2″ to 3/4″ in diameter. These resulting holes are what allows the air and nutrients down into the soil and close to the root systems where they really need to be.
What Does Overseeding Do For Your Lawn?
The aeration process creates the perfect environment for planting new grass seed which is why we also recommend overseeding at this time. Lawn overseeding is the process of sprinkling new grass seed over the patchy, brown, or scalped areas of your lawn. These could be areas where the mowing deck was set too low and the grass has been scalped, crowns or high spots in your lawn, bald spots, brown patches, or areas where the grass is just really thin. Overseeding helps your lawn grow thicker in these areas.
A lawn with thick, healthy, lush growth is also great at preventing weeds from growing in your lawn too.
If you’d like to see if lawn aeration and overseeding could help make your lawn more vibrant and healthy then please give us a call 815-200-9608 or fill out our online contact form and we’ll get back to you right away.
