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When to Aerate Your Lawn If you have high-traffic areas or heavy clay soil, you will want to aerate every year. If you have sandy soil or your lawn is growing well, aerating the lawn can happen every 2-3 years.
Can you aerate your lawn too much?
Can You Aerate Your Lawn Too Much? Aeration is excellent for your grass, but you can certainly make the case of too much of a good thing here. Core aeration, in particular, can cause a lot of damage in the process. You need to give your grass time to recover from that damage and make repairs.
How do I know if my lawn needs to be aerated?
10 Signs It’s Time To Aerate & Seed Your Lawn It’s Fall or Spring. The fall is the perfect season to aerate and seed your lawn. Puddles. Puddles are an indication of compacted soil. Worn Areas. Patches in the yard? Inability to Moisten. Thinning Grass. Discolored Areas. Uniformly Thin and Dull. Yard Stopped Growing.
Should I aerate my lawn annually?
Usually, lawn aeration should occur annually. If your lawn is showing the signs listed above and you’ve already aerated once this year, your soil may be compacted and require another round. Plan to seed and fertilize after core aeration. Let the plugs disintegrate into the lawn.
What is the best month to aerate my lawn?
When should you aerate cool-season grasses and warm-season grasses? The trick is to aerate right before overseeding. The best time to have lawn care services aerate your lawn in Midwest locations is usually around August or September. In warmer states, aerate in late spring or early summer.
Do I Overseed After aerating?
Overseeding immediately after core aeration allows excellent soil contact for your new grass seed as it falls into the holes you made in your turf. This improves germination rate, and you simultaneously strengthen existing grass plants while thickening your lawn with healthy new seedlings.
How soon after aeration can you mow?
After you lay down your seedlings, they’ll need time and the right environmental protection to grow. They’ll need to acclimate and set roots before the first mow, so during the first two to four weeks post aerating and overseeding, don’t mow.
When should you not aerate your lawn?
Spring is not the ideal time to aerate the lawn, but circumstances may require it. If the soil is so compacted that existing grass can’t grow, it may be necessary to aerate in the spring. 1 Generally, though, spring aerating is discouraged because the aeration holes provide a perfect spot for weed seeds to germinate.
Should I cut my grass before aerating?
Before you aerate, mow your lawn low (Timberline lawn experts recommend setting your mower to about 1.5-2 inches above the ground to maximize the effectiveness of aerating, being sure to not scalp the crown of the grass.) This is because the soils must be moist when you aerate to help the machine penetrate the soil.
How long does it take to aerate a lawn?
Rolling Aerator: Rolling aerators should take about 30 minutes to 1 hour to aerate a lawn. Tow-Behind Aerator: Tow-behind aerators should take about 20 to 30 minutes to aerate a lawn. Stand-On Aerator: Electric aerators should take about 15 to 30 minutes to aerate a lawn.
Do I need to dethatch if I aerate?
It is best to dethatch first before aerating your lawn. Aerating is best done when there’s the problem of compaction. Both dethatching and aerating your lawn will improve air, nutrient, and water penetration into the root zone of your grass.
Should I aerate or dethatch first?
Excess thatch blocks out air, light and water from reaching root zones. Dethatching and aeration services go hand in hand. Dethatch first, then aerate.
What happens if you don’t aerate your lawn?
1 Aeration creates holes down into the soil to alleviate compaction so air, water and nutrients can reach grass roots. Deprived of their basic needs by compacted soil, lawn grasses struggle in stressful situations, such as heat and low rainfall, and lose their healthy, rich color.
Is aeration better in spring or fall?
If you’re looking to aerate in the spring, the best time would be between March and May. While we recommend aerating your lawn in the fall, spring core aeration may be beneficial if your turf is so compacted it refuses to grow.
Should I aerate and overseed every year?
Golf courses aerate a couple times a year and residential lawns should look at aerating at least every other year. This depends on soils, traffic and moisture but every other year is a good general rule. If we overseed immediately after aerating, the new seed gets direct seed-to-soil contact.
Can you plant grass seed after aerating?
Within 48 hours after you aerate you should over seed, fertilize, and water your lawn. The seed, fertilizer, and water will have the best chance to get down into the holes made by the aerator if applied soon after aeration. If the fertilizer contains weed control, your grass seed won’t germinate properly.
Do you rake up plugs after aeration?
The holes left in the ground reduce compaction in soil, which keeps water and nutrients from getting to grass roots and allows the roots to spread freely. Aerating also helps breaks up the thatch layer. You don’t have to rake the plugs left by aerating, but doing so gets nutrients back into the soil faster.
When should I dethatch my lawn?
Dethatch the Lawn For northern grass the best time to dethatch your entire lawn is in late summer to early fall when the grass is actively growing. For southern grasses, dethatch in late spring. In early spring, and for small areas, use a thatching rake, which is a sharp-tined rake that rips the thatch out of the lawn.
