LAWN AERATION
AERATING IS GOOD FOR YARDS
Lawn aeration is crucial to enhance the overall wellness as well as the appearance of your grass. An excellent way to think of it is like a farmer ploughing his land every year and your yard may need to be aerated, generally in the spring and/or fall. Classy Grass Lawn Services has been performing vital care to yards and lawns for over 30 years in the Peoria area and we would love to help you take care of your yard.
Why aerate your grass?
Yard aerating aids in your yard, taking in air, water, and nutrients needed to stabilize oxygen and co2 in the root. Also, better availability with other essential elements and nutrients via loose soil.
- Improved roots and increased shoot thickness.
- Increased lawn fertilizing.
- Coping mechanisms for excessive heat (not drought) or stress.
Oxygenated grass displays higher resilience after undergoing aeration. Your yard will be more able to deal with other forms of soil stressors, such as extreme heat and an absence of water. Aerating your yard not only makes the grass thicker and healthier, but it also makes your job easier showing off your fabulous looking yard.
Types of Aeration:
Core aeration is also known as plug aeration, is when a powered aeration machine bores out holes and deposits the “cores” out on top of your lawn. Core aeration does a better job than simple, spike aeration, mostly because the hole has a significantly larger diameter. It tends to level out your topsoil and eliminate high and low points after a few years.
Spike Aeration pokes the ground with pitchfork like spikes and is less traumatic to the topsoil but offers the least amount of potential for a healthier yard.
How do I know if my lawn requires to be aerated?
An easy way to decide if your yard requires aeration is the screwdriver test. Examine to see if you can easily place a screwdriver or shovel in your lawn’s dirt. If you can, your soil is excellent, and you can likely put it off for another season or two. If you can barely get your shovel in the dirt, it will probably need to be aerated.
Often topsoil becomes compacted because of severe traffic. We will run into it this occurrence when homeowners feel the need to park their cars or other heavy machinery on their lawns.
When should you start aerating?
If you have warm-season grass, like Bermuda grass, Zoysia grass, or St.Augustine grass, you need to aerate towards completion of spring, before the yard’s peak growing season. A cool-season turf like Tall Fescue, Ryegrass or Kentucky bluegrass must be aerated in the early spring or the fall.
A couple of rains will fill in the holes made by the aerator in no time at all. Sometimes if the soil is especially compacted, you shouldn’t wait and get it done. Just be extra vigilant in protecting your yard from weeds that will cosy into those newly made holes from the aeration machine.
Prepping for Aeration:
When prepping for Core Aeration, it is nice to have the ground mildly wet. Make sure to water the yard a day and/or twice before the procedure. Be careful not to have any pools of water anywhere. We want the ground moist, not a swamp. In some cases, it’s optimal for many individuals to seed their yard at this time too.
After using an aerator on the grass, the thatch and dirt plugs might fall back right into the holes. To stop this, some people will attempt to load the holes with sand. Please don’t do this because these openings need to remain open to allow water, air, and nutrients into the roots zone. It’s ideal to leave the plugs alone in the yard to break down and offer added nutrients to the yard.
Timing is everything in lawn care as well as those that incorrectly time Core Aeration. Doing so may interfere with your lawn’s growth process. We recommend that you do not aerate any areas of your property throughout a drought. This will only further damage your yard by allowing the hardened topsoil to release what little water remains in the soil.
What to anticipate after yard aeration services?
After aerating your lawn, you’ll see the tiny openings in your lawn along with the plugs from those openings. Healthy, expanding roots will undoubtedly fill in the oxygenated holes, a sure indication that the grass core oxygenation is working.
You should see a lusher, thicker yard in the weeks and months after lawn oxygenation solutions via aeration. Check to see if your yard needs aerating at least once a year, depending upon the grass thatch and also compaction. Lawns that experience a higher degree of traffic and use may have denser dirt and need to be aerated more frequently. Make sure to check your thatch (dead grass on top of soil). If it is greater than a half of an inch, it should be thatched or aerated.
If you’re interested in finding out more about your yards health and other ways to maintain your title of“Best Yard On The Block”, Classy Grass Lawn Services offers a no cost-free quote for all of our yard services.