Sometimes, a lawn just doesn’t want to cooperate. You mow it, trim it, fertilize it, and water it but it STILL doesn’t look right. In some areas, the grass just won’t get green. In other areas, water just stands but refuses to sink into the soil, and in other areas, the yard just looks flat as compared to other areas of the lawn. The fact is, the lawn might need to be aerated.

Lawns need to be aerated when soil becomes dense and compacted. This can happen for a variety of reasons but is often because of the type of soil in the ground and how much traffic the lawn gets. Let’s look at some quick tips on how to easily aerate a lawn and get it looking green and vibrant in not time:

1. Check for soil deficiencies- Start by testing the soil for lime, sulfur or fertilizer needs and apply as necessary. No reason to aerate first if the lawn will not be healthy anyways.

2. Set your mower a notch higher while additives take effect- Just try to keep the grass a little higher than usual and watch to see how your additives take effect.

3. Wait approximately one month, then aerate with a manual or mechanical aerator- A manual aerator is basically a t-bar handled piece of equipment that has a shaft with four pipes at the bottom. You plunge the pipes into the ground and it pulls up cores of soil. A mechanical one is basically a spike covered wheel that you walk behind, similar to a walk behind lawn mower. In both cases, you are simply turning the soil to allow oxygen to enter, the soil to be less compacted, and encourage nutrients to enrich the soil so that your lawn will grow healthily again. In some cases, you may need to replace the soil if the machine you use digs large cores. In this case, you may need to mix the soil with peat moss or compost to make sure the hole is properly filled in. Make sure to only aerate each area of your lawn only once to prevent serious damage from occurring.

4. Once aeration is complete, fertilize with a slow release turf formula and wait about 3 weeks before mowing again- The key at this stage is to just leave it alone aside from resuming a regular watering schedule. Let it grow, let the additives do their job, and just watch and see. In most cases, the lawn will come back and will be bright green again in no time. In stubborn cases, you may need to switch fertilizers or even aerate one more time.

Professional aeration is a service that many homeowners are looking for now. They want to hire a qualified professional who has experience in this area and who can bring their once vibrant lawn back to life. Make sure to properly test the soil and provide on the amounts of additives recommended. All the aeration in the world can’t help if the soil won’t support healthy growth. By following the steps above, you can pull of your next aeration job with ease and turn over yet another happy, satisfied client.

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