2 Major Benefits of Properly Aerating Your Lawn

7 February 2018
 Categories: , Blog

Share

If you're recently chosen a new home specifically because it had a spacious and attractive outdoor living area, you're undoubtedly looking forward to spending many happy hours enjoying your lawn and garden with family and friends as well as relaxing in solitude in your personal slice of heaven. You probably also know and understand the basics of lawn care, such as watering, weeding, and mowing. However, these tasks often aren't enough to achieve the thriving, velvety soft lawn of your dreams. Aerating your lawn on a regular basis is another essential component of cultivating a top quality lawn. 

How often you need to aerate your lawn depend on soil type, weather conditions, and the way that your property is being used. Most lawns should be aerated on an annual basis, but if you live in an arid part of the country, this may need to be done twice per year. The following are several of the many benefits of aerating your lawn. 

Aeration Helps Prevent Compacted Soils

Compacted soils are far more likely to occur when soils are made up of fine particles such as clay rather than sandy or loamy soils. Another factor in the formation of compacted soils is heavy foot traffic or frequent driving of vehicles on the lawn.

Soils that become overly compacted lose their ability to hold oxygen, and this can severely limit the ability of lawn grass and other vegetation to thrive. Signs that your lawn is suffering from lack of available oxygen include bare spots, thinning, yellow grass, and water puddling in the lawn rather than being absorbed by the soil. Compacted soils also make it difficult for topical fertilizers to access the roots of lawn grass and other vegetation planted in your yard. 

Aeration Helps Prevent Erosion

As mentioned above, one sign of compacted soils is that water is puddling on the surface of the lawn—and when water isn't absorbed by the soil, it becomes runoff that erodes the soil, which will eventually result in a lack of topsoil. Even though it's a relatively thin layer of the soil, topsoil nonetheless contains the majority of the soil's nutrients. If your topsoil disappears due to erosion, you'll be facing the considerable expense of completely starting over again by removing your lawn, having new topsoil trucked in, and replanting your lawn. 

Please contact your local lawn care services such as A Greener Season Landscaping for more information on cultivating and maintaining a beautiful lawn.