Every lawn owner aims to achieve a greener and healthier grass. This can be simply done by maintaining all the year round. Even though it sounds easy, maintenance requires a lot of hard work and investment of time and money.
Soil aeration is one of the parts of lawn maintenance. The procedure is supposed to look after the issue of soil compaction that occurs by vehicle and foot traffic, poor drainage, mowing and wet soil conditions. Soil that has been compacted has fewer spaces for oxygen and nutrients circulation preventing the roots of plants to expand and causes water disruption to soak deeper into ground. Soil aeration is the perfect remedy hereby.
Earthworms naturally aerate the soil as they burrow through the ground. However, we now have access to manual aeration tool that can accelerate the process in a more effective manner. The tools come in various forms but can be put into two major categories: core aerators and spike aerators.
Core aerators
Cylinders of soil are removed off the ground and deposited on the surface through core aerators. The plugs can be left on the grass to dry out as they will break up next time lawn is mowed. It is relatively better than other methods in loosening the compacted soil.
Spike aerators
Aeration process is facilitated by spike aerators by creating holes on the ground where the spikes pierce the soil. Even though it makes the hole appear in the ground but the displaced soil is pushed down further which compacts the soil even more in that area. It is not recommended to use a spike aerator in an area where the soil is similar to clay as it works better on sandy soils.
considerations
There are several considerations to make before carrying out the process of aeration. Even though this entire procedure is to enhance lawn’s health in general, it can prove to be stressful on grass plants. In order to reduce stress, it must be carried out before active growth period of grass so that the recovery takes place quickly.
The type of soil and conditions are other important factors to take into account. Aeration must then be scheduled accordingly. Clay soils needs to be aerated twice a year since it gets compacted much easily. On the other hand, sandy soils need to be aerated only once a year. The ideal conditions for lawn aeration is when the soil is soft and moist. So if the soil is dry, then law must be watered a day before aeration to obtain moist conditions. Conversely, soil must not be too wet or muddy. If it is raining, the lawn must be dried before aeration is carried out. Safety precautions must also be taken when lawn maintenance procedure is carried out.
The bottom line
Here were the basics of lawn aeration that can help you to get a greener and healthier grass. However, it is important to remain consistent with the maintenance procedure to achieve best results.
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