What is Lawn Aeration and Why Does It Matter?

“Growing up, I never heard my parents talking about aerating the lawn,” Georgia said. “And they had fantastic grass. But that’s back home in the country. Here in Quincy, I don’t know what the situation is, but the grass just doesn’t want to seem to grow for me. Our lawn care service recommends aeration – but I don’t know what that is or why I want it?”

One of the joys of home ownership is discovering that the soil in your yard may not be optimal for grass growth. This can take several forms, such as nutritional deficiencies – which can be addressed by fertilizer – or compacted soil.

Compacted soil is soil that is so tightly pressed together that the surface is too hard for rain water, oxygen, or fertilizer to make its way through. You may notice some areas in your yard where the rain puddles and runs off without permeating. This is a sign that the soil is compacted. Another good sign you have compacted soil is that the grass isn’t growing.

Soil can become compacted for a number of reasons. Traffic is a big one – especially if vehicles or heavy items have been over the area repeatedly. Kids and pets playing can do a good job compacting the soil. And sometimes the soil is just randomly compact in an area, due to the fact there’s a lot of clay in the soil.

Lawn aeration is a service to introduce many small holes into the surface of your lawn. Each hole is very petite, approximately the size of a pencil, but in combination, they open up your lawn enough to allow rain water, oxygen, and fertilizer to get deep into the soil and nourish the roots of any grass you have. Lawn aeration also helps freshly planted grass seed grow. Because specialized equipment is involved, in Quincy, lawn aeration is generally performed by the lawn service rather than being a do it yourself job.