When Should I Aerate My Lawn?

Any effort made to alleviate soil compaction and assist with nutrient delivery can be called aeration, and while there are an increasing number of mechanical aeration devices available for sale or hire to the home lawn owner, the process doesn’t need to be overthought.

For small areas, a simple pitch fork or hand corer can be used to aerate the soil, but regardless of the tool our aim with aeration is the same – to break up compaction, to prioritise nutrient delivery, to assist with drainage and to promote a healthier, more robust root system.

Carried out regularly, aeration can protect your lawn against common problems, such as soil compaction, poor drainage, bare patches, excessive thatching and weed outbreaks.

Aeration can assist with compaction in high traffic areas, so if you notice a well-travelled patch of your lawn that’s struggling to repair, aeration and a light top dress might be a great way to correct this.

Similarly, if you notice water pooling on your lawn after heavy rain or moss growing due to poor drainage, core aeration can assist with these issues.

When to Aerate Your Lawn

Most home lawn owners choose to aerate their lawn in Spring around the time of their annual lawn renovation, but the fact is that aerating is safe enough to do all year round.

You don’t need to aerate your lawn every single year unless you are constantly battling compaction or drainage issues, however if you haven’t aerated for several years or if you don’t know the last time you aerated your lawn, then the process is affective and will make a marked difference to overall lawn health and condition.

Prepare Your Soil for Aeration

If your lawn is suffering from chronic compaction issues then simply hiring an aerating machine or plunging into it with garden forks won’t get you too far. The best results from aerating your lawn will be achieved if you can soften the soil, allowing the best penetration for the aeration process.

If it hasn’t rained for quite some time, consider giving the lawn a good water the day before to soften the soil, and if you know that your soil has a heavy clay profile, then consider a product like gypsum to further soften the soil.

Ensure the lawn isn’t overgrown as you don’t want the aerating tines getting stuck in the plant canopy, so mow your lawn just before aeration so you can get a good visual gauge on how the process is working.

Choose the Right Equipment 

Aerating your lawn can be done using a variety of tools, from commercially available manual tools like a hand core aerator or a pitchfork, or through spiked sandals, though the efficacy of the sandals remains debatable.

You can also aerate mechanically using a range of machines available for hire through machinery hire outlets across the country. These machines are cheap and easy to use, and can be broken into two categories.

The first is a drum aerator. These machines are typically larger and heavier, and are centred around a large spiked drum that rotates and uses the sheer mass of the machine to plunge the spikes into the lawn. These machines are very hardy and can be quite physical to operate, though the only downside is that the rotation of the drum can tear the grass and leave oval shaped aeration holes – particularly noticeable for those with short cut lawns.

The second style is more compact and uses a crank or cam drive to plunge tines into the turf almost perfectly vertical. It’s a slightly cleaner process and less damaging to the soil profile, however these machines tend to be lighter and don’t achieve the depth of the drum aerators – depending on whether you’re aerating manually or mechanically, you should be looking to achieve anywhere from 40-75mm depth and pull cores approximately 10-15mm in diameter.

In Spring and Summer, you’re more likely to be looking to core aerate (a process that pulls small cylindrical samples of the earth to the surface), whereas in the off season it’s far more common to see people using solid tine aerators. This method is much more popular in sports turf curation as it can be done all round and is a cleaner process than core aeration.

If you’re hiring machinery, consider splitting the cost with your neighbours which can make the process extremely cost effective.

Aerate

Once you’re ready to aerate, it’s simply a matter of picking a starting point and working your way methodically through the lawn. Due to the fact that core aeration can destabilise the soil layer by removing material, start with only one pass so as not to remove too much material and if you know of any particularly troublesome spots, consider doing an isolated second pass.

So what should we do with the cores? Well, you have the option of leaving them to dry on the lawn and then using a lawn mower to mulch them back into the lawn, acting as a form of topsoil.  Alternatively, they can be raked up and mulched or recycled in your green waste bin.

Some people like to replace the material in the soil layer with fresh topsoil or even sand, especially if they are on clay profile soil which is more prone to drainage issues than sandy profile soils.

Care & Maintenance

Aerating your lawn is not an incredibly invasive process, so post care is relatively simple. You could do as little as simply giving it a thorough water afterwards, however many opt to give the lawn a light top dress with nutrient rich top soil or sand to assist with levelling, and put down a slow release fertiliser at the same time.

If you’re aerating in Spring, consider kickstarting your season with a dose of Oxafert granular fertiliser that’s formulated with a pre emergent herbicide and your Acelepryn for pest and bug protection, or throw down some Echelon Duo that’ll tackle all three in one convenient application.

Aerating your lawn is guaranteed to deliver a giant leap forward in overall lawn condition and plant vitality, and can help address serious issues associated with compaction in high traffic areas, or drainage issues that can welcome in fungal stress. Whether you’re hiring machinery as part of your Spring lawn renovation or addressing problem spots manually using hand tools, your hard work will be rewarded by a healthier, happier lawn.