How many times have you aerated your lawn? This is a question that many will have to answer by saying rarely. Believe it or not, some will say never. The reason is a lot of people are not aware that this is what opens their soil up and allow air and nutrients to flow better to their lawns. I am going to share a couple of things that will show you how to help your lawn breathe.
Dethatch Your Lawn
Besides aerating, dethatching your lawn also helps your lawn breathe better. Over the winter months, some of your grass and other growing matter will die out. When this happens you accumulate a layer of thatch.
You can actually cut a slice out your lawn to see how thick your thatch has gotten.
Some thatch is acceptable but if it gets to be 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch thick you need to remove it. If it is a small amount it will actually break down and help the cause. But if it gets thicker it can actually smother your lawn.
So if it is 1/2 inches to 3/4 inches thick you want to dethatch it for sure. There are a couple of ways to dethatch your lawn. You can use a dethatching rake, rent a dethatcher machine or hire a lawn service.
Using a rake will be tedious but if you have the time it will save you money compared to an equipment rental. There will be cleanup involved as when you dethatch it pulls up all the dead matter.
This is one way of helping your lawn to breathe.
Aerating Your Lawn
Aerating is a sure way to get your lawn to breathing well. When you aerate it opens your soil up which is very good for soil that has become compacted. If it is compacted your root structure suffers and anything will have a hard time growing in it.
The nutrients you attempt to supply to your lawn will not be distributed well which will make your lawn not look as good as it could.
As with dethatching, there is a way to aerate without having to rent an aerator machine but it will be much harder to do so. Or you may again, choose to hire someone. You have probably seen the aerator tools for lawns.
They can be used but because you can only do so much in an area, it will take you some time to complete it. A really small yard may not be a problem this way.
Using equipment is much faster and easier. But if you have the time and a small area using a lawn tool is okay.
What aerating will do is pull out plugs of soil in your lawn and this will open up your soil extremely well. Now when you water, seed or fertilize your lawn, your soil will be able to receive it extremely well.
I wanted to add this video because it has dethatching & aerating in it. It also explains how it will give you a good looking lawn when you overseed after helping your lawn breathe.
Your lawn will show tremendous improvement when this is done. Resulting in a much healthier looking lawn.
Conclusion
These two processes can be done simultaneously dethatching coming first. Keep in mind that if your thatch build up isn’t 1/2 inch or 3/4 inch thick it won’t be a serious problem. If you are planning on planting seed these steps will help your efforts tremendously.
I hope this information was helpful to someone and if you have any questions or comments please leave them in the comments section below. I will respond as soon as I can to assist you the best I know how. Thank you for visiting.