7 Benefits of Lawn Aeration

Think of your lawn like your car. As the seasons pass and fall approaches, there are certain upkeep requirements that come along, like rotating tires or getting an oil change. For your lawn, one of those necessary upkeep items is fall lawn aeration. All those summer days spent running around and enjoying the yard with your kids, pets, and friend were fun, but heavy foot traffic can lead to soil compaction. 

The best solution to remove heavy thatch, remedy soil compaction, and keep an overall healthy lawn is to schedule a fall lawn aeration service with your TruGreen specialist. If you’re not convinced yet, check out the seven benefits below to see how lawn aeration can make your lawn keep up with all your fun in the sun.

7 benefits of fall lawn aeration

1. Improves turf health. One of the best benefits of lawn aeration is that it can improve the overall health of your grass. Core aeration works to provide the root zone with greater access to air, water, and fertilizer. This access to air, water, and nutrients improves the health of the turf, resulting in deeper and more extensive turfgrass roots.
2. Reduces thatch build-up. If thatch, the layer of dead grass that accumulates on your lawn, builds up to a thick layer, it can rob your grass of necessary rain and nutrients. Core aeration helps manage that build-up by introducing thatch-decomposing microorganisms from the soil to the top of the thatch layer.
3. Relieves soil compaction. Compacted soil can prevent air, water, and fertilizer from reaching your lawn’s root system, causing dead spots, patches and/or thinning. By removing cores in the aeration process, soil density is decreased, thus relieving compaction.
4. Benefits pH modification. Applying lime or sulphur after core aeration promotes the change of pH deeper into the soil profile. This will let nutrients penetrate deeper in the root zone to become available to the turf.
5. Benefits overseeding operations. It is helpful to core aerate before and after seeding into an existing lawn. Soil cultivation enhances seed-topsoil contact necessary for germination, and creates a moist, protected environment optimal for seedling growth and development.
6. Reduced water runoff and puddling. If you find your yard has runoff or puddling problems after a rain, aeration could be the fix you need.
7. Prepares grass for winter dormancy and a green spring. Before your cool-season grass goes dormant, make sure it’s in tip-top shape by pairing fall aeration with fall fertilization. Aerating prior to fertilizing will help the nutrients soak in more effectively. And planning for aeration and fertilization in the fall gives cool-season grasses enough of a buffer to protect the grass from summer drought stress and ideally enough time before the first winter frost arrives.

So, what is core aeration?

Now that you know the benefits, let’s take a look at what core aeration actually is. In the core aeration process, your TruGreen specialist will remove cores of soil (approximately 5/8 inch in diameter and 1-3 inches long) with an aeration machine. The displaced soil then disintegrates, topdressing your lawn. The cores can be broken down into your yard by irrigation, rainfall, or your lawn mower.