Aeration is nothing but creating holes in the grass to allow oxygen, water, and nutrients to reach grass roots. In general, a lot of questions arises in mind. Why lawn aeration is so important and when is the best time to aerate my lawn? If you don’t know much just follow the link to get the whole idea.
When it comes to lawn aeration, you should definitely follow some steps that will help your aeration. You also have to decide what kind of aeration tool you are going to use.
7 definite steps when aerating lawns
1. Types of grass:
Lawn aeration differs depending on your types of grass. There are mainly two types of grass you might have. Different types of grass have a different growth rate in different seasons. So, the types of grass are one of the factors that impact the aeration process.
- Warm season grass is some kind of grass that has the highest growth rate in summer. So, the best time to aerate your lawn is in the late spring or early summer if you have a warm season grass.
- Cool season grass is some kind of grass that has the highest growth rate when the temperature drops. So, the best time to aerate is at the end of summer or beginning of fall if you have a cool season grass.
2. Quality of soil:
Quality of your soil is another important factor when aerating your lawn. There are mainly six kinds of soil. They are Chalky, Peaty, Sandy, Clay, Silty and Loamy.
In clay soils, the intake rate is very low and water retention is high. So, you need to aerate your lawn almost every year. Silty clay is almost the same as clay soils.
But in sandy soils, the intake rate is very high and water retention is very low. So, you can aerate your lawn in every two years and that will be ok.
On the other hand, loamy soil is in the middle type of grass that has moderately high and sometimes moderately low intake rate and water retention is moderately low or high. So, you can aerate your lawn in every two years but yearly aeration is better for loamy soil.
3. Examine lawn habits:
Lawn habits is an important factor that helps to understand how often you should aerate your lawn. How you use lawn really creates the lawn habits. The quality of grassroots helps to determine the quality of your lawn.
When the root of the grass is not more than two inches, you should definitely aerate your lawn. Aeration will help to grow grassroots by supplying the oxygen, water, and other important factors that it needs. The next thing you should do is to prepare your lawn for the aeration.
4. Types of aerator:
If your lawn is quite big, then you should definitely use a lawn aerator machine because this machine will minimize your time and will give you maximum satisfaction. The only problem is lawn aerator machine is a bit costly.
On the other hand, if your lawn is pretty medium or small and your budget is low, then you can use a manual lawn aerator or lawn aerator shoes. But that will be time-consuming and hard working as well.
5. Prepare your lawn before aeration:
Prepare your lawn before aeration is very important because that will help to aerate smoothly. Aeration works best when the soil is soft and moist. If you are unsure about the ground condition as an assault with high clay content, conduct a simple test by using a garden hand spade or a large screwdriver.
You should be able to push the tool into the ground about two or three inches easily with a little bit of effort. But you can’t, you should water the lawn day before aerating. And be sure of one thing that the soil is not muddy.
6. Make the proper use of lawn aerator:
Firstly, you should always start aeration from one corner of the lawn.
Then, you should use your lawn aerator machine only once to the whole lawn area. If your yard needs further aeration, do the aeration from the opposite direction.
Finally, when the aeration is complete give your lawn some time and that will help you in the long run.
7. Fertilize your lawn:
After aerating the lawn, your next step is to fertilize your lawn. There are several steps that should follow to make the proper fertilization.
Secondly, a consistent walking speed of 3.5 mph. If you walk that much fast that will help you thrown out the fertilizer constantly wide and flat. If you walk too slow the fertilizer will be thrown out like an umbrella pattern and that will not give you the total application.
Thirdly, Start with a trim pass around all the edges. Trim pass is basically exactly what it sounds like. You are gonna fertilize all the way around all the edges of the lawn.
And, finally, Walk the grid and throw material back to the wheel tracks of the previous pass. All you need to do is go back and forth all the way around and each time you want to throw your fertilizer back to the wheel marks of the previous pass.
Watch the awesome video below to get the full idea in detail.
If this article was helpful to you, let us know. Shoot a comment below with any questions or comments or even with any other lawn aeration related things in your mind.