Lawn Aeration Basics - Top Tips
In a comic, you know how you can tell who the arch-villain's going to be? He's the exact opposite of the hero.
- Elijah Price, Unbreakable, 2000 Whilst not quite in the same league as Batman vs.
The Joker or Superman vs.
Lex Luther, our topic of the day is the timeless battle between soil compaction, our arch-villain, and lawn aeration, our green fingered hero! Armed with the information in this section and a few basic tools, you will reduce the amount of time, money and effort you need to spend to achieve a lush, green lawn letting you spend more time at the destination and less on the lawn care journey.
Let's open to the first page and take a first look at our protagonists...
The Villain: Soil Compaction Compacted soil occurs when pressure from general usage, rollers or vehicles squeezes the air and moisture out from between the grains of the soil.
Soil compaction leads to
The Villain's Sidekick: Lawn Thatch Lawn thatch is the build up of dead organic material at the surface of your turf.
Commonly this covers leaves, dead grass clippings, weeds and similar organic material.
In a healthy lawn, this is rapidly broken down by a combination of bacteria, fungi and earthworms where the nutrients are rapidly absorbed back into the soil but in a compacted soil the microbial action is reduced and the thatch can build up creating a spongy layer that absorbs moisture and feed and stops air from reaching the soil further starving the grass.
Dehydration and disease become a serious threat at this point to your lawns health.
The Hero: Lawn Aeration Lawn aeration refers to the manual or mechanical process of creating holes by either pushing spikes into the soil or removing small cores using hollow tines.
The primary goal of lawn aeration is to break up the hardened soil and to create pathways for the essential nutrients, moisture and air to reach deeper into the turf and promote healthy root structures and increased microbial action.
A loose soil also tends to gain a useful population of larger fauna such as earthworms which help to keep the soil aerated.
A secondary benefit of regular aeration is to punch holes through any layer of thatch that may exist on the surface of the turf.
This directly creates an airway through the thatch but also lifts soil containing microbes and fungi that help to break down the remaining surface biomaterial that insulates the soil from the moisture it needs.
Types Of Lawn Aerator There are two basic classes of lawn aerator.
The first is the spike which is a solid, usually conical, shape that is pushed a few inches into the soil.
The spikes can be attached to special lawn aeration shoes or a manual or powered roller containing a set of spikes at pre-determined distances.
Spikes are the simplest type and whilst effective, cause some sideways compaction of the soil that closes relatively quickly with rain and usage.
A bladed solid tine aerator is similar to the spike in concept but being much thinner does not cause the sideways compression.
The blades must be used often to maintain the pathways as they close very quickly but don't cause unevenness or holes in the turf and are suitable for flat games surfaces such as lawn bowls.
The second class of aerator is the core aerator or plug aerator.
These work by pulling thin plugs of soil several inches long out of the turf and depositing them on the surface of the grass.
The core creates a path into the turf that stays open for an extended period of time and is the most effective method of aeration.
Leaving the cores on the turf has the added benefit that microbes and fungi in the soil will help to break down any thatch layer that the grass may have.
Both types of aerator can be found in manual and powered forms including a hollow tine aerator, much like a fork with hollowed prongs, and in larger scale formats such as the tow behind aerator attachments that fit to the back of garden tractors.
Full guide to lawn aeration Through out this series of articles, we aim to give you a full guide to lawn aeration and will cover all aspects of aeration from the causes through to the benefits your lawn can get as well as when to aerate and how often.
We will also show you through the different types of aerator and match them to your lawn needs, size and budget as well as looking at how to incorporate aeration into a wider lawn care routine.
Aeration is the often forgotten tool in the lawn smith's armory so read on and learn how it can help you to save time, energy and money whilst helping you on the path to getting a beautiful, lush, green lawn.
- Elijah Price, Unbreakable, 2000 Whilst not quite in the same league as Batman vs.
The Joker or Superman vs.
Lex Luther, our topic of the day is the timeless battle between soil compaction, our arch-villain, and lawn aeration, our green fingered hero! Armed with the information in this section and a few basic tools, you will reduce the amount of time, money and effort you need to spend to achieve a lush, green lawn letting you spend more time at the destination and less on the lawn care journey.
Let's open to the first page and take a first look at our protagonists...
The Villain: Soil Compaction Compacted soil occurs when pressure from general usage, rollers or vehicles squeezes the air and moisture out from between the grains of the soil.
Soil compaction leads to
- stunted root systems
- dehydration of the turf
- increased susceptibility to disease
- reduction in essential microfauna
- reduction in worm populations
- increase in thatch
The Villain's Sidekick: Lawn Thatch Lawn thatch is the build up of dead organic material at the surface of your turf.
Commonly this covers leaves, dead grass clippings, weeds and similar organic material.
In a healthy lawn, this is rapidly broken down by a combination of bacteria, fungi and earthworms where the nutrients are rapidly absorbed back into the soil but in a compacted soil the microbial action is reduced and the thatch can build up creating a spongy layer that absorbs moisture and feed and stops air from reaching the soil further starving the grass.
Dehydration and disease become a serious threat at this point to your lawns health.
The Hero: Lawn Aeration Lawn aeration refers to the manual or mechanical process of creating holes by either pushing spikes into the soil or removing small cores using hollow tines.
The primary goal of lawn aeration is to break up the hardened soil and to create pathways for the essential nutrients, moisture and air to reach deeper into the turf and promote healthy root structures and increased microbial action.
A loose soil also tends to gain a useful population of larger fauna such as earthworms which help to keep the soil aerated.
A secondary benefit of regular aeration is to punch holes through any layer of thatch that may exist on the surface of the turf.
This directly creates an airway through the thatch but also lifts soil containing microbes and fungi that help to break down the remaining surface biomaterial that insulates the soil from the moisture it needs.
Types Of Lawn Aerator There are two basic classes of lawn aerator.
The first is the spike which is a solid, usually conical, shape that is pushed a few inches into the soil.
The spikes can be attached to special lawn aeration shoes or a manual or powered roller containing a set of spikes at pre-determined distances.
Spikes are the simplest type and whilst effective, cause some sideways compaction of the soil that closes relatively quickly with rain and usage.
A bladed solid tine aerator is similar to the spike in concept but being much thinner does not cause the sideways compression.
The blades must be used often to maintain the pathways as they close very quickly but don't cause unevenness or holes in the turf and are suitable for flat games surfaces such as lawn bowls.
The second class of aerator is the core aerator or plug aerator.
These work by pulling thin plugs of soil several inches long out of the turf and depositing them on the surface of the grass.
The core creates a path into the turf that stays open for an extended period of time and is the most effective method of aeration.
Leaving the cores on the turf has the added benefit that microbes and fungi in the soil will help to break down any thatch layer that the grass may have.
Both types of aerator can be found in manual and powered forms including a hollow tine aerator, much like a fork with hollowed prongs, and in larger scale formats such as the tow behind aerator attachments that fit to the back of garden tractors.
Full guide to lawn aeration Through out this series of articles, we aim to give you a full guide to lawn aeration and will cover all aspects of aeration from the causes through to the benefits your lawn can get as well as when to aerate and how often.
We will also show you through the different types of aerator and match them to your lawn needs, size and budget as well as looking at how to incorporate aeration into a wider lawn care routine.
Aeration is the often forgotten tool in the lawn smith's armory so read on and learn how it can help you to save time, energy and money whilst helping you on the path to getting a beautiful, lush, green lawn.
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