What is Aeration?
Think about what your lawn has to go through in the spring and summer: barbecues, family gatherings, kids playing, and regular mowing. It’s no wonder the soil beneath those sleek blades of grass can become heavily compacted after a season of wear and tear. Aeration is simply a fancy term for spiking a lawn – creating lots of small holes that allow air, water, and nutrients to penetrate down into the soil and reach a lawn’s roots. This simple job will make your lawn more resilient to weather extremes, allow turf to soak up more rainwater during a downpour, and create a healthy soil structure that will help roots survive periods of drought.
Why Should you Aerate?
Heavily trodden areas of lawn are most likely to need aerating. If your lawn becomes soggy during wet weather, it’s a tell-tale sign that the ground is rock solid below and struggling to absorb rainwater. Lawns on heavy soils that are prone to waterlogging, especially clay, should be regarded as top priority for aerating. Moss loves to set up shop on compacted soil too (especially where soil is acidic), so aerating to improve drainage can work wonders at alleviating a whole host of problems. Aerating can also improve drainage on lawns that contain a dense layer of thatch (dead grass and material), although we recommend thatch is removed by scarifying lawns in autumn.
Use our Stainless Steel Scarifying Rake to achieve the ideal base to start aerating. Whatever the issue, aerating will create better growing conditions for your lawn, stimulating root development and leading to a healthier sward.
When is the Best Time to Aerate a Lawn?
The best time to aerate is in spring or autumn, when the lawn is actively growing so existing grass can fill holes left after soil plugs are removed. Spring and autumn are prime seasons for nurturing a lawn back into good health, because temperatures are lower, the soil should be moist and grass is less likely to be suffering from stress caused by heat and drought.
What Tools you Need to Aerate?
If you only have a tiny lawn, it’s easy to aerate it by spiking with a garden fork. Push the fork deep into the soil and, once inserted, wriggle it slightly to make the holes a little bigger, spiking the ground every 10-15cm.
Alternatively, a spike aerator can be used to create holes into the ground. The use of a garden fork or spike aerator will aerate your lawn but will do little to relieve compaction, because soil plugs aren’t removed from the holes that are created.
For gardeners with medium to large lawns, or areas where the ground is rock solid, the Kent & Stowe Stainless Steel Lawn Aerator 4 Prong makes light work of the job. This ingenious tool is also sometimes known as a hollow tine fork. The four hollow tines remove cores from the soil, reducing compaction and helping air, water and nutrients to penetrate into the soil beneath your lawn. Simply push the tool into the ground using the footplate – the tines are conically shaped to easily sink into the soil – and your lawn will instantly drain more effectively.
For very large lawns, gardeners can hire or buy a powered lawn aerator to make the job easier.
Tips on Lawn Aerating
Choose a day when the soil is moist – if the ground is bone dry, soil will be difficult to penetrate, whether using a garden fork or lawn aerator. Aerating a day after rainfall, or 24 hours after watering your lawn, will make the process considerably easier, because the soil will be soft. Soil plugs plucked out by the tines can be removed and left to dry, or broken up with the back of a rake.
Aerating a lawn can take effort, so the good news is that it’s not a job that needs to be carried out every year, unless the ground is heavily compacted. Under normal conditions, aerating every two or three years will do the job.
Give Lawns a Little TLC After Aerating
Traditionally, gardeners have been taught to top-dress lawns after aerating – applying a specialist dressing that fills holes and conditions lawns to ensure a professional finish. Westland Lawn and Turf Dressing improves root structure, drainage and boosts the physical condition of your lawn, resulting in a stronger, healthier sward by working to maintain drainage and air flow to the root zone. Apply around two litres per square metre of Westland Lawn & Turf Dressing over the area that has been aerated, then use a brush to sweep the mixture into the holes and brush away any excess.
After aerating, lawns will benefit from a treatment of child and pet friendly Westland SafeLawn – a natural solution for a greener and healthier lawn. Not only will this fertiliser keep lawns in the best of health but once your lawn is stronger it will help outcompete the weeds and moss too.
