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Who should have aeration done on their home lawns?

You are probably wondering to yourself, “Do I need to have lawn aeration performed on my lawn?”. As a general rule, I recommend aeration to all of my customers whose lawns I manage.  Some lawns are in greater need of aeration than others, but it will be beneficial for all lawns. I feel it is part of a complete lawn management program and should be done on an annual basis for most lawns.

What is aeration?

For people that do not know what lawn aeration is, I always mention golf course greens. If you have ever played golf in the fall on most golf courses, you might see all the half-inch diameter holes in the green. These holes are from an aerator, where they have removed the plug of turf and soil from the green. On a golf course these cores need to be picked up because obviously putting would be impossible if the cores were left on the green. Here is an example of what the aerator and the cores look like.

Aeration is basically the process of removing plugs of soil and turf from the lawn. An aerator operates much like a walk behind mower. It travels across the surface of the lawn with 3-4” long hollow tines spaced a few inches apart that pull the soil core out of the ground. Those cores are left on the surface of the lawn to naturally break down. Unlike on a golf green, picking up the cores is not necessary in a home lawn and we actually want the cores to break down and fall back into the...