Aerification Explained

Now that autumn is beginning to make an appearance, we will concentrate on preparing your landscape for the winter ahead. Many people know the usual routine of raking leaves, planting bulbs for spring, mulching to protect the roots from freezing nights, and cutting back perennials. However, the lawn is frequently overlooked in these preparation processes. "Hey," the lawn interjects, "I'm part of the landscape too!" So listen to your lawn, and learn how you can help it better survive the coming winter. A good place to start is with lawn aerification.

The process of lawn aerification is a straightforward one: it simply involves making a series of holes in your turf which allows water, air, and nutrients to reach the plants. These holes can be either punched into the soil with spikes, or cored out of the soil with hollow spikes, which pulls out a small cylinder of grass, thatch, roots, and soil. Aerification via coring out bits of your lawn in this manner is referred to as core aerification. Either way, aerification of your turf alleviates soil compaction and allows the turf to breathe.

There are many different ways to aerify your lawn, ranging from the very simple to the extremely complicated. For the small scale, there exist attachments for your shoes to wear while mowing the lawn that resemble a kind of vicious soccer cleat. Before you get any big ideas, I wouldn't try playing soccer with these things on. On the other side of the scale, there are huge aerification machines around 80" wide that are meant to aerify golf course areas. No matter the size of your lawn, there is a feasible way to aerify it.

Now that you know the what, why, and how of lawn aerification, when would you want to do such a thing to your lawn? This depends on the type grass you have, the time of year it is, and how compacted or sparse your turf area looks. Aerification, especially core aerification, can be stressful on your grass, so it is best to do it at a time when the turf is actively growing, so it can repair itself faster. For cool-season grasses, this time is in early to mid fall, when the turf is beginning to enter it's growing season. Warm-season grasses, however, should be aerified in springtime, when the turf is just beginning to flourish. Also, turf areas that have runoff or puddling problems could be suffering from soil compaction, and therefore are more likely to be in need of aerification than more healthy areas of lawn. Aerifying these areas helps water percolate through the soil and allows air to open up the area a bit. For a regular maintenance schedule, you would want to aerify your lawn once a year, followed by topdressing and overseeding, if desired. This in turn will lead to healthier grass and a better-looking lawn.

Once you've established that your lawn will benefit from aerification, you now have to decide who will actually aerify your lawn. You can do it yourself by renting an aerification machine from an equipment rental place, or you can have a professional do it for you. The answer to this question depends person to person, dependent on their situation. It's absolutely up to you: there is the pride of knowing you aerified your lawn by yourself, but there also is the comfort of knowing that knowledgeable professionals aerified your lawn thoroughly and quickly. Contact us if you would like a professional to prepare your lawn for the coming winter months.

A huge part of maintaining a healthy and vibrant lawn is preparing your lawn for later seasons, and aerification of your lawn is a good place to start. So as you are gearing up to put your landscape in order for the winter, listen to your lawn, and include it as a part of the process. Happy to feel healthier and more like a part of the landscape, your lawn will say, "Thanks! I needed that."