What is lawn aeration and how to do it?

You can rightfully be proud of the beauty, health and well-groomed nature of your lawn. Getting the perfect green carpet look requires a lot of care and maintenance. In addition to irrigation and mowing, the lawn needs regular aeration.

All living things, including flora, need oxygen. The lawn vegetation includes perennials with a well-developed root system. Due to the growth of roots, a dense sod is formed, which prevents the penetration of vital air into the soil. The consequences of this are the slow growth of the lawn grass, its tarnishing, the appearance of yellowness, a change in texture and the formation of bald spots.

Lawn aeration is an important procedure that involves piercing the turf to a specific depth in order to ventilate the soil and stimulate gas exchange between the soil and the environment. The implementation of this activity allows water, oxygen, nutrients to penetrate to the roots of vegetation. The result of aeration is the attractive appearance of the lawn.

If areas with caked and hardened soil appear on the green carpet, this means that the lawn needs aeration. As practice has shown, the procedure can be done not throughout the territory, but only in its problem areas. Loosening, piercing and airing the soil of the lawn entails the following positive aspects:

• stimulate the growth of green grass;
• improve the condition of the soil;
• activate the growth of beneficial bacteria;
• increase the level of plant resistance to negative factors.

Aerating the soil on the lawn is an event that is rapidly gaining popularity. You can carry out the procedure on your own or by contacting specialists for help. Currently, several options for airing the soil are known, so everyone has the opportunity to choose the most suitable one for themselves.

Slotting is the procedure for piercing the soil using specially designed teeth or tubes with a diameter of 20 mm, followed by the extraction of the soil. This method of aeration is one of the most effective due to the fact that after the substrate is pierced, its compaction does not occur, therefore, the loosening is especially high-quality. With all the advantages of slotting, it has a disadvantage, which is the need to use expensive equipment.

Conventional piercing involves the formation of punctures in the soil with special pins without subsequent removal of the substrate. As a result of the procedure, the walls of the holes can remain dense, therefore it is better to use instruments with a large number of teeth and a small diameter. During the execution of work, it is recommended to constantly change the directions and angles of the puncture.

Certain devices can be used to carry out aeration.

• Pitchfork. Hand-piercing with a pitchfork is an easy and cheap way to ventilate your lawn. However, it should be noted that such work will be lengthy and difficult.
• Sandals. Aeration with this device consists in piercing the soil with your feet.Special shoes can be made at home, without large financial costs and efforts. The base of a unique shoe should be a piece of plywood with a thickness of 3 to 5 cm. You can also use a metal plate or dense rubber. After an insole that is suitable for the gardener in size is cut out of the prepared material, you can start driving 10-centimeter nails into it or screwing in self-tapping screws. There should be holes in the side of the workpiece through which you should thread the straps to fasten the sandals to your feet. This soil cultivator is suitable for small lawns and people who are not afraid of monotonous physical activity.
• Spiked skating rink. The constant rotation of the spike base allows you to quickly and easily pierce the ground. To make such a roller yourself, you will need to prepare 1 meter of a tube with a diameter of 0.2 meters, 10 cm nails, stones or rubble for filling the roller, a holder, bearings and a shaft. The first stage of the work will be the installation of nails on the outer base of the pipe. In order to make the invention heavier, stones are poured into the future roller, after which the sides of the pipe are welded. For easy rotation of the structure, it is required to install a shaft and bearings on it. The device is fixed to the bracket and equipped with a holder handle. A self-made spike roller will help the lawn owner save time and money when caring for the lawn.
• Aerator. The design for ventilating the soil of the lawn bears some resemblance to a roller and a tractor, to which a pipe is welded.
• Hand rake. This type of substrate ventilation equipment has a lot in common with a garden rake. The difference between the equipment for soil ventilation is the presence of stamped steel teeth. The form of the latter is sickle-shaped, pointed downwards. This equipment has a galvanized coating. Thanks to the use of a rake, you can easily eliminate all dead plants on the territory.

Scarification of the soil on the lawn is usually carried out before aeration. This procedure involves cleansing the surface of the earth from dried grass, felt, moss, weeds. Also, scarification is used for combing out a green carpet, thinning thick turf, as well as making it easier to loosen the earth. After the work, cuts appear in the roots of cereal plants, their growth is activated, and the general condition is strengthened.

The optimal period for scarification is considered the beginning of spring and autumn. The procedure is carried out with a scarifier - this is a special device for combing and cleaning a green lawn. The scarifier is of several types.

• Mechanical. Manual type of equipment, which looks like a cart with wheels. When the equipment moves, a spoked shaft rotates, which makes small cuts in the ground. Such equipment is considered the best option for scarification of a small green area. It not only saves fuel and energy consumption, but is also inexpensive.
• The electric one has an external resemblance to a conventional lawn mower. It also has a hub-and-spoke shaft, but runs electrically.
• The gasoline scarifier is recognized as the best device in its category. It is characterized by performance and good power. The knives of the device penetrate deeply into the soil and thereby improve its condition.

The scarification procedure bears some resemblance to scarification. However, the first is distinguished by its thoroughness and deep penetration of the teeth of the pad into the ground. To ventilate the soil with this method, you will need a special device called a verticuterr. The principle of its operation is similar to the scarifier, but the teeth of the cutters are long.

Heavy dense soil, such as clayey chernozem, an old neglected lawn, needs scoring. A verticuller is a garden tool that is essential when caring for a lawn. The purpose of this device:

• pruning of old soil layers;
• elimination of layering from leaves, mosses, dead stems;
• selective pulling out of the roots, which allows the remaining root system to feel free in the substrate;
• loosening of the earth, contributing to the active supply of moisture, oxygen, nutrients.

Each lawn owner is interested in when and how often to aerate the area. According to experts, it is necessary to pierce the soil twice a season. The timing of the aeration of the substrate depends on many factors that must be taken into account. This is the type of vegetation that grows on the lawn and is also a constant strain on the grass.

Taking into account the above factors, it can be concluded that soil ventilation is necessary not only in spring and as a care after winter, but also in the following cases:

• sports type of turf, subject to high loads, aeration is required 2-3 times a year;
• if it rains often in the region and other negative climatic conditions are observed, then it is worth ventilating the soil more often;
• if moss or yellow grass is found on the lawn, aeration will need to be done immediately.

Sandy soil requires one-time aeration, and clayey - twice as often (per year). If fescue, bluegrass grow on the lawn, then you need to ventilate it only in the fall. Lawns with Bermuda and other thermophilic grass are pierced in late spring - early summer.

In order to properly aerate the soil on the lawn, it is worth knowing the plan for its phased implementation. The first step is to shorten the grass level in a green garden to 5 cm. After that, you need to deal with the merciless elimination of the weed, since aeration can provoke its rapid growth. A few days before piercing, the soil should be well watered - this way the site will become soft and pliable to processing. Experts recommend not to ventilate in hot weather, as this can harm the soil cover. To get a good effect from the piercing procedure, loosening is best done in cross rows with a distance of 3-4 cm. The piercing depth should be 0.1-0.15 m.

A few days after the aeration, the gardener should start breaking up earth lumps with a rake. When this event is completed, you can start irrigating the lawn and sowing grass seeds in bare areas. In this case, do not forget about feeding and filling the sand.

Currently, the most commonly used 2 options for airing the soil.

• Pricking. The work will be carried out using equipment with iron spikes. As a result of the procedure, depressions with a length of 4 cm are formed in the substrate. Puncturing is considered the best option for healing loose and well-drained soils.
• Piercing. The method involves making holes in the ground with a depth of 8 to 12 cm. Due to the piercing, the substrate is compacted, and air passes through the formed cracks to the roots of the grass. The depth of aeration is directly influenced by the state of the soil.

Today, rakes for aeration are in rather great demand, since they are not only efficient in operation and affordable.Many summer residents also prefer shoe attachments that they wear on their feet. By simply walking on a green lawn, the grower can ventilate the soil and stimulate its improvement. If the site is large, then it is better to give preference to aeration equipment that runs on gasoline or electricity. When choosing a piercing device, it is worth focusing not only on your financial capabilities, but also on the size of the territory, its general condition.

For information on how scarification of a lawn differs from aeration, see the next video.