Lawn Aeration & Seeding
The most beautiful lawns you see are ones that are most likely aerated . For many soil types, compaction is a problem that prevents oxygen, water, and nutrients from reaching your grasss roots. This causes shallow roots and makes grass more susceptible to drought, heat, and disease stress.
If youre meticulously caring for your lawn but are still not seeing the results you want, it may be that the nutrients simply cant reach the roots to do their job. Natures Select aeration service could be the answer. Call 786-9735 for information on our Select Lawn Care programs, or request a free estimate now.
When Is The Best Time To Aerate Your Lawn
The best time to aerate and overseed a lawn is dependent upon where you live. The best time to aerate lawns for cool season grass is in the early spring or fall. Warm season grass should be aerated in the late spring. This is because the grass will then be able to grow to fill in any open areas punctured in the soil.
How To Aerate Your Lawn
Aerating equipment comes in three main types, from small manual versions to larger tractor-like or pull-behind machinery:
- Spike aerators simply poke a hole down into the soil with a solid, spike-like tine. Some homeowners wear spiked aerator sandals” strapped to their shoes to aerate as they do yard work. While these can help on a small scale, spike machines can make compaction worse by pressing soil together around the holes.1
- Slicing aerators have rotating blades that cut or slice through grass and thatch and down into soil. Like spike aerators, slicing aerators leave soil in the ground, but they create pathways for air, water and nutrients without causing more compaction.
- Core or plug aerators, typically preferred by lawn professionals, use rows of hollow tines that remove plugs of soil from your lawn and deposit them on top, where they break down. The size of the plugs and the holes they create vary in width and depth, depending on the machine used.
You can hire a lawn service to aerate for you or do it yourself like a pro. Equipment rental companies and lawn and garden stores often rent aerator machines and provide basic operating instructions for the model you choose. Aerating is a lot like mowing as you work back and forth across your lawn. Concentrate on any known problem areas, like pet runs or backyard baseball diamonds. Make several passes in different directions to help ensure optimal coverage and benefits.
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How To Care For A Newly Seeded And Aerated Lawn In North Carolina
Aerating and overseeding your yard annually will do wonders for its health and fullness. However, if you do not properly care for your lawn after treating it, all the hard work and time spent on seeding and aerating will have been a waste and your lawn will not reach its full potential.
When Is The Best Time To Aerate A Lawn
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If you want to have a lush green lawn, its important to maintain it. For lawn maintenance, do mowing, fertilizing, and watering regularly. Besides these practices, aeration is also essential. It allows water and air to a fully-grown lawn. It can help you avoid thatch and give a new life to your lawn. You might think, what is aeration? How to do aeration? And what is the best time to aerate a lawn? Well, weve written this article to let you know the answers to all these questions. Lets start.
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What Month Should You Aerate Lawn
It is best to avoid aerating lawns when they are going into dormancy. So, late summer or early fall are too late for warm-season grasses it is best to aerate in late spring or early summer. For aerating cool-season grasses, stick to early spring and early fall…. continue reading
If you have cool season grass, such as Kentucky bluegrass or ryegrass, aerate in the early spring or fall. If you have warm season grass, like Bermuda or Buffalo, late spring is a better time to aerate…. view details
Complete Lawn Aeration Equipment Guide
Whether you live in the scorching heat or the freezing cold, your lawn can become spotty and brown without the proper maintenance it requires. One method to help your grass grow stronger and healthier is aeration. Like any other plant, grass roots need oxygen. Over time, thanks to foot traffic, rain and snow, and gravity, the soil around the roots of grass can become compacted, limiting the amount of air reaching the roots. The result? A less than healthy-looking lawn, to say the least.
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Reduce Foot Traffic & Keep The Lawn Clear
One of the best things you can do to care for areas of your lawn that require seeding is to stay off them! Reduce foot traffic and avoid disturbing the seed as much as possible while it establishes its roots. Keep the grass free from being smothered by debris, leaves, or sticks as much as possible. Accumulated matter can be detrimental to the health and growth of the new seed.
Fescue Lawn Maintenance For Piedmont Nc
Last week in February or 1st Week in March: If you failed to overseed your lawn in the fall, now is the second-best time to do so. The soil will be puffy from freezing and thawing and you can simply broadcast about 100 lb of Tall Fescue per acre. If you have a shady lawn add about 25 lb per acre of Fine Fescue as they do well in the shade. Raking in the seed will help as well as aerating it in, if the soil is not loose and puffy from winter. Covering the seed with Sides Black Wonder 5000 composted manure will make it super healthy and germinate the seeds. If you do or dont need seed put out about 65 lb of actual slow release nitrogen per acre mixed with pelletized lime to keep your soil from becoming too acidic. We use 27-4-7 slow release or similar mixed with pelletized lime. Put 1 bag of 27-4-7 and 1 bag of pelletized lime in your spreader and use 240 lb per acre of each. If you use another analysis, just make sure it is slow release and high in nitrogen and calculate to put out about 65 lb of actual Nitrogen per acre .
1st Week in May: Now is a good time to clean up your broadleaf weeds such as clover, dandelion, etc. Apply 2-4-D PER THE LABEL. You can use 2-4-D any time to kill broadleaf weeds . If its hot, use a 12 rate or you will risk burning your fescue. Note: No herbicides work well in extremely cold weather. Be careful of damage to turf in hot weather. Read the label.
3rd Week in November: Fertilize just like you did in February, March and September.
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What Is Lawn Aeration
Aeration is the process of creating holes throughout your lawn to redistribute your soil. This can be done through a specialized machine that extracts tiny plugs from your grass, through customized boots or liquid aeration. Doing so allows fertilizer, water, and air to flow back into the soil, loosening it up, and allowing for better water drainage at the same time. There are many advantages to having aeration performed. Listed below are just some of the most beneficial.
- Aeration helps to break down the thatch build-up that is blocking your roots from absorbing the essential water and nutrients
- It improves water and fertilizer intake
- It helps to promote stronger roots
- It reduces soil compaction
- Eliminates water runoff and puddling
- Improves your lawns resistance to drought
What Is Aeration And Overseeding
Foot traffic, regular mowing, and even rainfall are constantly compacting your soil. Our aeration service involves removing small plugs of grass and soil throughout the lawn, which opens up space for oxygen, nutrients, and water to more deeply penetrate the lawn and reach the roots. This service is most effective when grass is actively growing, usually spring and/or fall for cool- season lawns, and summer for warm-season lawns.
Overseeding is the process of seeding the bare spots of an already established lawn in order to fill it in or to add healthier varieties of grasses to the mix. The combination of aeration and overseeding gives a healthy boost to your lawn.
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Diy Aeration Pros & Cons
The biggest benefit of aerating your lawn yourself is the cost. If you have the tools and materials you need, you can save money with a DIY approach. Other potential benefits include:
A sense of pride and accomplishment in taking care of your own yard. A chance to spend time outdoors getting some fresh air and exercise. The ability to control how often your grass is maintained. Insight into other problems in your yard that might otherwise go unnoticed, such as damaged fencing or trees that need to be trimmed.
However, there are some cons to DIY lawn aeration. Among them are:
The investment in materials. You will need to rent or purchase an aerator and other supplies, which could cost as much or more than hiring a professional. Costly mistakes. It may seem like a simple task, but you have to know how to aerate your lawn. If you do it incorrectly, you could do more harm than good to your lawn. Unnecessary aeration. The problems with your lawn may not actually be caused by soil that is too compacted. Without a professional consultation to correctly diagnose issues, you could waste time and money on an unnecessary task. Spending your weekend on lawn care instead of relaxing or spending time with your family.
When Do I Aerate My Lawn
For cool season grasses, like tall fescue, core aerification is done in the fall of each year. This is when cool-season turf grass plants are coming out of the summer dormancy and can begin a period of growth. Warm season grasses are aerated in the late spring to early summer as this is when warm season grasses are actively growing.
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Aeration And Double Aeration
Aeration is one of the most important procedures for maintaining a beautiful and healthy lawn. Typical North Carolina soil is made up primarily of hard compacted clay. Compacted soils reduce drainage, increase runoff, and inhibit root growth. Soil compaction promotes weed growth as well. Aeration prevents soil from becoming overly compacted. Loose soil allows organic lawn treatments, nutrients, water, and air to penetrate the soil and access the root zone helping the roots to dig deeper into the soil. Deep digging roots tolerate stress and drought better than shallow roots.
Aeration also helps to prepare the soil for over seeding. Due to the high clay content in Piedmont soils aeration should be performed at least once per year. Warm season grasses should be aerated in late spring/early summer and cool season grasses in the fall or spring. Contact us to schedule an aeration service.
Tools For Lawn Aeration
The most common tool for aeration is a core aerator, a machine with hollow tines that penetrate the soil and pull out plugs of soil. Depending on the machine, the tines can be up to about three-quarters of an inch wide and four inches deep. Some homeowners have used spikes either via a device or spiked shoes to poke holes in the lawn, but this method is not as effective as it can compact the soil deeper. Professionals often have the proper tools and training to provide long term health along with aeration services.
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Reasons To Hire A Professional
Investing in professional lawn aeration presents a number of advantages, beyond freeing up your time for other activities.
Professional lawn care companies have the right equipment, allowing the job to be done quickly and correctly. Theres no need to buy or rent an aerator. Professionals have a better understanding of your lawns needs and will know the best time to aerate and overseed your lawn. Not only will they time the aeration correctly, but they will also apply the right balance of fertilizer and seed post-aeration to ensure the best grass possible. More peace of mind. Many lawn care companies will offer a guarantee of results and will keep working on your yard until you are satisfied. If you DIY, you may spend hundreds of dollars on supplies, only to be disappointed or frustrated by the results. Professionals will properly prep the lawn for aeration to ensure the best results.
As always, there are some pros and cons to hiring a professional. However, by the time you acquire the right equipment, you may spend about the same amount of cash either way.
If you dont have time to invest in aerating your lawn, contact TruGreen so you can have an envy-worthy lawn to make the neighbors turn their heads.
Tips For Prepping Your Raleigh Lawn For Spring
Raleigh and the surrounding area is unique in that the climate dictates that once March hits, its go time. Spring is the single most crucial point in your lawns annual lifespan, and your actions during this time will make the difference between the best yard on the block, or a frustrating, brown mess. Here are a few tips to make sure you are best prepared for a successful growing season.
1) Test your soils pH
Soil with low acidity is an incredibly common problem across lawns in North Carolina. Knowing where your lawn is in terms of acidity will give you a leg up on how to face future problems. Soil test kits are cheap and can be found at many of the large home improvement stores. Applying agricultural lime, made from pulverized limestone, is the only effective solution to a lawn with low acidity. It can be applied during any season throughout the year, and wont harm your lawn at all. Why is low acidity a problem?
2) Consider aeration
It is easy to test your lawn for compaction, all you need is a garden fork. If the tines cant penetrate further than two inches into the soil, then you should consider ways to combat compaction. Core aeration is the most common, and will allow nutrients to seep deeper into the soil. Like pre-emergent, it is best to aerate your lawn before temperatures hit 60 degrees, as that would leave your yard extremely vulnerable to germinating seeds.
3) DO NOT put down insect control
4) Go easy with the mower
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Lawn Aeration In Charlotte
Whether youre responsible for the upkeep of the greenery around a Charlotte-area home or a commercial property, successful lawn maintenance requires a few key actions. Lawn aeration is an extremely important, but often overlooked factor of facilitating consistent growth. Your lawns soil can become tightly packed over time or as a result of external damage, and this can spell disaster for your plants and root systems if action isnt taken. With the lawn aeration service we offer at Lawn Doctor of South Charlotte, we break up the upper layers of soil in lawns all over the Charlotte, Harrisburg, Matthews, Stallings and Fort Mill, NC areas to reintroduce the healthy circulation of the elements your lawn needs to grow and thrive.
Maintaining An Established Lawn
Consider your lawn established when you have mowed it three times. Lawn Care Maintenance Calendars for specific grass types are available online on the NC State TurfFiles website.
Irrigating
Improper irrigation of lawns results in wasted water, added cost, and unhealthy plants. Water should be applied only when a reasonable portion of the lawn shows signs of moisture stress. A dark bluish-gray color footprints that remain some time after walking and wilted, folded, or curled leaves are indications that it is time to water. A delay in watering at the first signs of wilt will generally not result in permanent damage unless the turf is being allowed to go dormant.
If irrigation is not available or desirable, then an alternative to irrigating is to allow the turf to go semi-dormant to dormant. Tall fescue, bermudagrass, and zoysiagrass are tolerant of drought if allowed to go dormant. A thorough explanation on turfgrass water requirements and irrigation controller setup can be found in Water Requirements of North Carolina Turfgrasses. General watering recommendations include the following:
Mowing
Use either a rotary or reel mower. The reel mower is preferred if grasses are cut to less than 1 inch.
Fertilizing
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How Often To Aerate Your Lawn
Aerating once a year works for most homeowners, but it also depends on your soil type and traffic. Unhealthy lawns require a higher frequency of care. For example, areas with heavy use and lots of clay may need aerating twice a year. In addition, activities like parking cars on the lawn and playing soccer put pressure on the ground. An abundance of thatch build-up also compresses the soil. So, in the end, you should aerate as often as needed.
Homeowners In North Carolina Have Different Types Of Turfgrasses
Aeration, also called core aeration, is the process of perforating or aerating the soil with an aerator, as well as any thatch layer that might exist, by removing a core or plugs of soil and depositing that core on the surface to break down. It is an extremely beneficial lawn care service that can help improve the root system of your lawn.
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