When and How Do You Aerate Your Lawn?

Lawn aeration helps your lawn (and the soil under it) breathe. Aerating a lawn is certainly worth the time and effort, as it helps keep your lawn healthy. It avoids the negative effects of soil that is too compact, which helps the soil receive nutrients and water.

Lawn aeration can be done professionally or at home using a manual aerator or renting an aeration tool. Lawn aeration costs will vary based on the size of your lawn. However, the range of professional lawn aeration is between $75 and $204, with the average cost being $139.

Read on to learn more about lawn aeration including its benefits, the best time to perform the task, and more.

What Is Lawn Aeration?

Lawn aeration is a process of puncturing the soil’s surface with small holes or slices to help air, water, and nutrients better penetrate the soil for healthy grass. The process of lawn aeration can be done by hand (or by foot with shoe spikes), with a pitchfork or spading fork ("spiking"), or with more elaborate tools or liquid solutions.

Why Lawns Need Aeration

Lawn aeration reverses the effects of soil compaction, which causes the soil to become almost impenetrable—meaning air, water, and nutrients can't reach the ground and vigorous plant growth can't be supported.

Aerification helps compacted soil recover through moisture and air penetration. Plus, it helps create a deeper, healthier root system and stimulates microbes to decompose thatch.

Thatch Buildup

Thatch is the loose, organic layer of dead and living material in the lawn: shoots, stems, and roots that develop between the zone of green vegetation and the soil surface. Lawn thatch buildup happens when turf produces organic debris faster than it can be broken down.

If the thatch becomes more than an inch deep, it can hold excess water, reducing oxygen reaching turf roots. Pest issues can also occur. To mitigate these potential problems, remove as much thatch as possible through deep raking in the fall.

However, not all thatch is bad. A thin layer of thatch in lawns provides insulation against extreme temperatures and fluctuations in soil moisture.

Compacted Soil

Lawn aeration breaks up compacted soil, allowing water, air, and nutrients to permeate into the root zone. Grassy areas submitted to constant foot traffic require lawn aeration more frequently than out-of-the-way areas.

When to Aerate Your Lawn

Overall, the best time to aerate would be during the fall because this is when temperatures have cooled down, pressure from weeds is minimal, and your grass will be actively growing. However, certain types of grass may have different peak growing periods that will impact when you should aerate. Some examples include:

• Aeration for warm-season grasses, such as Bermuda grass, is best done in the late spring or early summer.
• For lawns planted with cool-season grasses (such as Kentucky bluegrass), February into the first week of March or fall is the best time for core aeration.

Typically, if you don't see any issues with your lawn, you can aerate it every two to three years. However, annual aerating may be necessary for high-traffic areas or if your lawn grows in heavy clay soil.

Benefits of Lawn Aeration

Lawn aeration helps keep your lawn healthy and thriving. It also lessens maintenance. Here's how:

• More air exposure
• Improved soil water uptake
• Enhanced fertilizer usage and uptake
• Less water run-off
• Stronger turfgrass roots
• Reduced soil compaction
• Better tolerance to heat and drought
• Increased hatch breakdown

Types of Lawn Aerators

There are many ways to aerate a lawn, from using a rake and elbow grease to renting machines that help you do so. Here are just a few of the most common methods of aeration.

Plug or Core Aerator

Core aeration uses a manual or motorized lawn aerator machine. It has hollow tines that mechanically remove plugs or cores of soil and thatch from a lawn, leaving the cylindrical, pulled cores lying on the turf. This instantly reduces compaction in the soil. Open holes allow air, fertilizers, and water to reach the roots.

Spike Aerator

A spike aerator creates holes in the ground by pushing the soil sideways as wedge-shaped spikes penetrate the soil. But since no soil is removed from the ground, watering can cause compacted soil to close up the temporary holes. Spike aeration is better for sandy or loamy soils.

Slice Aerator

A slice aerator is much like a spike aerator; however, it uses a blade to slice diagonally into the soil. Like a spike aerator, it doesn't leave cores behind on the lawn, so the yard doesn't look disturbed or unsightly.

Liquid Aerator

Liquid aeration involves spraying an enzymatic solution on your lawn that breaks down the thatch. This process may need many applications and can take months or years before overcoming the thatch problem. It's not the preferred method since it's not an immediate fix for soil compaction; however, its most significant benefit is that it is the easiest to apply.

How to Aerate Your Lawn With a Core Aerator

1. Rent an aerator: You can rent a lawn core aerator from a home improvement store or rental center. Since you should not need to aerate your lawn frequently, renting rather than purchasing the aerator may make better financial sense.
2. Water to prepare the soil: The plug removal process is facilitated by watering the lawn the day before, but don't water to the point of muddying the soil.
3. Aerate the lawn: This lawn aeration equipment will pull plugs (or cores) of soil from the ground, letting air in. These plugs should be two to three inches in depth. The plug should be pulled out of the lawn about every three inches. Leave the plugs on the grass: They'll break down and add nutrients to the soil.

What to Do After Lawn Aeration

Once you're done aerating your lawn, there are several things you can do to make the most of your hard work:

• Water the grass every two to three days post-aeration; this is also the ideal time to perform overseeding.
• Use a high-quality, slow-release fertilizer to nourish your lawn and help it receive its vital nutrients.
• Mow your lawn two to four weeks after watering and overseeding; mow at a height of two to three inches.
• Avoid heavy traffic on the lawn for around two weeks after aeration to prevent damaging the grass.