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Lawn Aeration

The purpose of lawn aeration is to let water, oxygen, and nutrients better get to the roots of the grass. Aeration reduces soil compaction, helps control thatch accumulation, and provides room for helpful organisms such as earthworms to live.

How do you know if you need to aerate? Take a screwdriver and try to push it into the ground up to the handle. If you can do so without using much pressure, you probably don't need to aerate. Usually, you want to aerate about once every year or two, although heavy traffic areas may require more frequent aeration.

There are two types of aeration. “Plugging” or "core cultivation" uses a special device that removes clumps of soil, about the size of a finger, from the ground. You want these plugs to be 5 to 8 cm (2 to 3.125 in.) in depth and pulled out of the lawn approximately every 8 cm (3.125 in.). You do not have to rake up the cores unless you want to; they will decompose back into the soil.

The second type of aeration simply punches holes into the soil (also called spike aeration), and is not considered nearly as effective as core cultivation.

Lawn Aeration Tips

You can aerate a lawn at any time when the ground is not frozen, but avoid aerating when conditions are extremely hot and dry.

Mark all sprinkler heads, shallow irrigation lines, and utility lines before aerating to avoid damaging these lines.

The best aerator is one with hollow tines (spoons) that pull up plugs of earth as the machine travels along. Solid-tine spike aerators pulled by lawn tractors are of little benefit.

Before doing core cultivation, thoroughly water the lawn the day before aerating so that plugs can be pulled more deeply and easily.

Although you can buy a lawn aeration machine, renting one is more cost effective for most people.