September is a great month to aerate your lawn. Find out how and why you should aerate your lawn with helpful tips and advice from Essex turf grower and supplier, Paynes Turf.
What does it mean to aerate a lawn?
Aerating a lawn involves punching a series of holes into the turf, either using a garden fork (for small lawns), a spiking machine, or plug aerator. Aerating will allow water, air and nutrients to reach the roots of the grass and thereby encourage the grass (and roots) to grow strong and healthy.
Why you should aerate your lawn
If your lawn is waterlogged, or becomes waterlogged regularly, aerating the lawn will help the water to drain away from the surface much faster. Turf that has been laid on clay soil is especially prone to becoming waterlogged.
In addition, aerating a lawn allows air and nutrients to reach the roots of the grass; this encourages the development of strong roots, and helps to thicken up the lawn.
Very dry lawns will also benefit from aerating as water can easily reach the roots of the grass, thus promoting healthy, strong growth.
Aerating a lawn will also help to alleviate any problems with soil compaction.
How to aerate a lawn
If you opt to aerate your lawn manually then be prepared for hard work! Aerating a lawn using a garden fork can be quite demanding, so only attempt to carry this out if you are fit, and your garden is small. Use the fork to punch holes in the lawn, 15cm apart and to a depth of 15cm.
A spiking machine will get the job done much faster, and with much less effort. Hire one from a local plant machinery hire shop. The machine will automatically spike holes into the lawn. You could also consider hiring a plug aerator; this will remove small cores of soil and grass from the lawn, allowing air and water to reach the roots of the grass.
After aerating your lawn brush in a mixture of sharp sand and top dressing to allow nutrients (contained in the dressing) to reach the roots and to help water to drain away from the roots faster. Aerate your lawn every year, or every other year depending upon the soil conditions.