What You Should Know About Lawn Aeration and a More Beautiful Lawn

Many homeowners don’t think about lawn aeration when they’re planning out their lawn care regimen. But, the fact is, using a lawn aerator can result in a more beautiful yard. Following is information relating to aerating your lawn to help you determine whether aerating is right for your lawn, from the tire experts at Treadworld. We know tires like the backs of our hands, and we know a thing or two about equipment our tires fit.  

Aerating your lawn creates tiny holes, or removes small soil plugs, alleviating soil compaction and allowing water, oxygen and nutrients to more easily reach the grass roots below the surface, helping them to dig deeper into the soil, and grow stronger and more resilient. Aerating, in conjunction with proper use of fertilizer and effective watering, can give you a thick, lush, plush lawn that will be the envy of the neighborhood.

In a nutshell, using a yard aerator makes the rest of your lawn care efforts more effective, and eliminates soil compaction which can cause water waste, and lawn damage like thinning grass and dead patches. Compaction occurs—especially in lawns with heavy clay content and lawns that are subject to a lot of foot traffic, perhaps from children and even pets…or machinery…or outdoor entertaining—when soil pockets deflate and air, water, and nutrients can no longer circulate around the grass roots. Aerating is usually unneeded in soil that is on the more sandy side. Some will tell you that lawn aeration is a solution for a thatch problem—a tight, intermingled layer of living and dead stems, leaves, and roots which accumulates between the actively growing grass and the soil underneath—but the truth is that while aeration can help prevent thatch from becoming a problem, once thatch is an issue, you will likely need a thatching solution – which can be fairly violent to your yard.

Should I Get a Lawn Core Aerator or a Lawn Spike Aerator?          

Also called a lawn plug aerator, a core aerator penetrates your lawn with hollow tines that remove plugs of soil to facilitate water retention and to ease compacted soil. You can pick up or rake the plugs, but many people leave them to break down into the lawn in rain or the next time you mow, adding beneficial soil and organic matter to your lawn.

Rather than removing soil plugs from the yard, a spike aerator punctures the soil with long spikes to allow air and water to reach the grass roots. This type of aerator increase root exposure to fertilizer and is most effective when the soil is looser and less dense.

When Should I Use a Soil Aerator?

The best time to use a plug aerator or a spike aerator is during, or right before, the peak growing season in your area of the country, so that you minimize stress on the yard, and your grass will recover quickly and fills the holes in your lawn. Never aerate dormant lawns because the process results in many feeder roots becoming severed leading to the plants being weakened. If your grass has large segments that are completely brown, it is not the time to aerate. Further, it’s best to avoid aerating during dry periods, periods of high heat, and cold snaps to avoid further stressing your lawn. Typically, spring aerating is not your best idea for the simple reason that aeration holes can promote the germination of weed seeds. Rather, later in the spring around Memorial Day in many climates, when weeds have established but before they flower and go to seed, is a good time.

Lawn Aeration Can Enhance Other Lawn Care

Aeration can be an early step to putting your lawn on the fast track for quick seed establishment and thicker, lusher growth by getting your lawn ready for overseeding or fertilizing, or preparing it for simple lawn repairs. After aeration, seeds and nutrients have direct contact with soil through the aeration openings, and roots have fresh pathways for the air, water and nutrients they need.

When you Need Top Replacement Aerator Tires, We Can Help. We’re Treadworld, Home of the Best Lawn and Garden Tires Anywhere!

You can count on us here at Treadworld to provide you with the dependable, high performance RubberMaster Lawn Care Tires you want. Even the best lawn aerator can’t do its job if it isn’t fitted with reliable tires. We also provide many other lawn care tire styles to fit your needs, including lug tires, turf tires, smooth tires and rib tires. All our tires offer the finest in top quality, long-lasting, never-let-you-down reliability, manufactured with strict tolerances from top rubber compounds, triple-tested for quality before being X-rayed to be sure they’re perfect, then covered by our Ultimate Advantage Lifetime Warranty. Don’t hesitate to contact our tire experts via live chat or email with any questions or for help finding the perfect lawn and garden tires—or ATV tires, or UTV tires, or trailer tires, or any other specialty tires you need—from our large selection.