Aeration and Seeding

BY pure turf

December 30, 2022

Lawn Care

Every homeowner wants a lush, healthy yard.

But gorgeous lawns don’t happen overnight. At Pure Turf, we understand that better than anyone.

In this article, we want to introduce you to one of the secrets of a beautiful yard: aerating and overseeding.

Ready to find out what that is and how it could make your yard healthier?

We will start by learning about aerating, so stay tuned!

Aerating Your Yard

Aerating and overseeding your yard is one of the most effective ways to green it up. Without aeration and overseeding your yard never reaches its full potential.

So why wait around any longer? Let’s get you started learning about aerating your yard.

What Is Aeration?

To put it simply, aerating your yard is poking a lot of tiny little holes in it.

Poking holes in your yard helps loosen compacted soil, allows for better air, water, and nutrient flow, and allows new grass seeds to sprout easily.

aerating your yard helps loosen compacted soil

And how do you go about poking lots of little holes in your yard? Get down on your hands and knees with a railroad spike?

Luckily it’s not that difficult! There are two different aerator machines that help you get the job done:

Solid tine aerators poke holes in the ground with long metal spikes.
Core aerators have hollow tines that pull lots of little plugs of soil out of the ground.

Core aerators generally have a better overall effect than solid tine aerators. That is because they pull microbes and nutrients from below up to the surface. Also, solid tine aerators sometimes compact the soil more, rather than helping the problem.

5 Benefits Of Aerating Your Yard

As we said, aeration can revolutionize your lawn’s health!

Here are a few of the benefits aeration provides:

Loosens compacted soil – If you have soil with high clay content or other compaction problems, aeration helps break it up.

Brings helpful microbes to the surface -Using a core aerator brings healthy microbial life up to the surface from deeper in the ground.

Allows your soil to breathe – Aeration improves air, water, and nutrient circulation.

Provides seeds with ideal germination conditions – If you overseed after you aerate, the holes in the soil provide the perfect place for the seed to germinate.

Breaks down thatch – Thatch is a layer of dead, matted organic material between your soil and the top of your grass. A little is good, but not too much. Aeration helps break down thick, unhealthy layers of thatch.

The net result of all this is a thicker, greener, healthier lawn!

6 Best Practices For Lawn Aeration

Say you want to aerate your lawn. It’s going to take some time or money, so you want to be sure to get the best bang for your buck.

Here are a few of our tips for getting the best results out of the job.

To assess whether your lawn needs aeration, check for puddles of unabsorbed water on the surface, soil that is hard to the touch and difficult to penetrate with a stick or screwdriver, and unhealthy, stressed grass.
Use a core aerator for best results. Spike aerators are effective and can be the best choice in certain situations, but in general, core aerators are the way to go.

The best times of year to aerate are the Spring or Fall.
It’s best to aerate when your yard is moist but not too wet. Too-dry or too-wet lawns will not aerate well and may be hard on your equipment.
We recommend overseeding (which we will discuss next) directly after aerating.
If you decide to overseed, we recommend lightly watering 2-3 times per day for 2-3 weeks, or until the new seedlings are established.
To get the absolute best results, hire a professional lawn care service such as Pure Turf to aerate for you. A lawn care service will already have the right equipment and knowledge to get you the best bang for your buck.

Overseeding Your Yard

Aeration is step one. But to get the best results you want to overseed your yard directly after aerating it. Let’s find out what that is.

What is Overseeding?

Overseeding does not mean applying too much seed to your yard or completely replanting your grass. It just means adding some new seed overtop your existing grass to give your yard a boost.

Overseeding can help thicken, diversify, and green up your grass, giving you a lush, beautiful yard!

4 Benefits of Overseeding

As we said, overseeding helps your yard thrive. Here are some of the benefits of overseeding:

Overseeding thickens your grass and improves the grassroots system. That gives your yard a thick, lush appearance.
That improved grassroots system helps hold your soil together and reduce erosion. Reduced erosion means your soil can hold onto more nutrients for longer.
The improved lawn health you gain reduces your risk of pests and lawn diseases.
Aeration and overseeding is a natural, healthy way to improve your yard without using chemicals or pesticides.

When Should You Overseed?

It’s most effective to overseed directly after you aerate, because your soil is revitalized after the aeration, and all the little holes in it will provide the perfect place for the new grass seeds to sprout.

Like we said before, we recommend aerating and overseeding in the Fall or Spring for the best results.

Is Aerating and Overseeding Worth It?

Now you know what aerating and overseeding are and how they are done.

The question remains: Is it worth the time and money?

Well, if your goal is a green, healthy lawn, that question is easy to answer. It’s absolutely worth the trouble! It’s one of the most effective ways you can boost your lawn health and make it more lush and beautiful.

aeration is one of the most effective ways you can boost your lawn

It’s natural, effective, and a no-brainer if your goal is a gorgeous yard.

If you want the most effective aeration and overseeding treatment, you may want to invest in professional lawn services. You could do aeration and overseeding yourself. But the pros know how to do things right, and they already have the time, equipment, and knowledge they need. That saves you the bother of researching, renting equipment, and figuring out how to do things yourself.

At Pure Turf, we also offer other valuable lawn services to go along with aeration and overseeding.

We offer standard, premium, and elite lawn care plans including services like fertilization, weed and grub control, and lawn disease prevention. These are things you wouldn’t get if you DIYed everything.