A lush and beautiful lawn can dramatically enhance the aesthetic appeal of your home. However, growing and maintaining a healthy lawn is not that easy. You’ll need to counteract the adverse effects of harsh weather conditions and damaging pests to maintain a sound lawn. Besides keeping away lawn diseases and insects and watering regularly, you’ll have to keep the lawn aerated. Aerating the lawn at regular intervals can help to keep the grass disease-free and healthy. When it comes to lawn aeration, spring is a great time to get the job done!

What is Lawn Aeration?

Aeration is the process of offering air exposure to the soil by eliminating soil plugs from the turf. It is an integral part of spring lawn care and maintenance.

Aeration results in hollows in the soil that allow nutrients and water to move easily through the soil, which results in stronger roots and enhances the health and quality of grass over time. Healthier roots are able to withstand the droughts and hotter temperatures that the summer weather often brings.

Advantages of Lawn Aeration

Lawns that are subjected to a high degree of foot traffic can benefit from aeration particularly. The soil in a lawn becomes more compacted with more use of the lawn. More compactness considerably decreases the spaces in soil which would typically contain air.

Because of the decreased air flow within the soil, root growth can be negatively affected by compaction. To grow well and absorb nutrients and water, roots require oxygen from the air.

Aeration improves the health of your lawn by:

• Curbing the accumulation of thatch
• Preventing pesticide and fertilizer runoff
• Developing a layer of topsoil beneath the grass
• Facilitating better absorption of irrigation and rainfall
• Strengthening grass roots
• Increasing the movement of nutrients, water, and oxygen through the soil

Is Aeration Needed for my Lawn?

Aeration is not necessary for every lawn. If you are wondering whether your lawn needs aeration, cut out a six-inch-deep section from your lawn and remove it. If the roots of the grass extend to only one or two inches within the soil, your soil may be too compacted. In such a case, the soil can considerably benefit from aeration.

Some more signs your lawn needs aeration:

• Your lawn is subjected to heavy use regularly
• Your lawn has a dense, clay soil
• The thatch is more than one and a half inches in your lawn

In case your lawn is not susceptible to compaction of soil, then it’s likely to grow normally without aeration. Natural factors like winter freeze-thaw cycles and earthworm activity often loosen up the compacted soil. Avoid aerating your lawn in the first year it is newly sodded or seeded.

Prioritize Lawn Aeration in the Spring

One of the most beneficial measures you can take for lawn care in the spring is lawn aeration.

A lawn needs a lot of care and attention during the spring season. It’s a tough time for a lawn since the grass and soil try to recover during this time from a long and cold season of crushed roots and blades, and compacted dirt. Aeration is a highly beneficial lawn care step during this season.

One of the greatest benefits of aeration to the health of your lawn is that it relieves soil compaction. During the long winter, the soil in lawns is compacted through the build-up of ice and snow. Once the ice and snow melt and starts drying in the spring, you need to help your lawn decompress as well as accept nutrients properly. Aeration helps in relieving the pressure over the soil and assists the soil in absorbing what it needs from the water and nutrients it gets.

Aeration during the spring can also significantly change the way your lawn allows the permeation of water through it. The soil’s new punctures will allow the reach of water to the roots as well as permit water to reach deeper into the soil more easily than it would without aeration. Without spring aeration, water is most likely to sit over the turf in the form of puddles, creating a mess, weakening the grass, and damaging the lawn.

Summing Up

So, the key reasons you should prioritize aeration during spring are:

• Improved air circulation
• Breaking up the build-up of thatch
• Creating a more direct way to deeper roots
• Relieved soil compaction

It’s important to pay attention to how frequently your lawn needs aeration. If your lawn is subjected to more heavy foot-traffic, more aeration may be required with the progress of the season so that the lawn can decompress and breathe properly.

In the upcoming spring, hire expert lawn care professionals for your lawn aeration! All American Turf Beauty is a leading lawn care company in Des Moines specializing in aeration. We can help you have a lush, healthy, and beautiful lawn that stands out of the crowd!