Does aeration make a difference?

Ask any lawn care professional if aerations are important and nine times or more out of ten, they are going to tell you how good it so for the lawn,

It helps loosen soil, it allows the soil to breathe, it enhances water penetration, increases nutrient absorption, etc, etc, blah, blah.

Yet in a relatively healthy lawn, it is often difficult to see any difference to the lawn after an aeration has been performed.

Well, today, I was on a lawn where you could see the difference.

I was evaluating the lawn for a potential customer. The lawn she said was aerated this spring and her husband had applied a fertilizer then as well.

Looking at the front lawn, she asked why are there little tufts of grass here and there that are growing higher than the rest of the lawn.

When I looked at the lawn closely, these little clusters of grass were indeed growing better than the surrounding lawn. The tufts were about 2 inched across. And they were spaced rather evenly in the lawn. Some in a straight line 9-10 inches apart,

My conclusion is that where the lawn had been aerated, the grass was doing better than the lawn in the areas between the aeration holes. But, because the lawn was so compacted and the soil was so poor that the effect of the aeration only manifested itself on a small area near the piece of grass that was aerated.

Unfortunately I didn't stop to take a photo at that time.

In this case another aeration should be done this fall to continue the good work that has started in albeit some small areas of the lawn


Gerry T Okimi
Turf King Hamilton Halton Haldimand
95 Hempstead Dr Unit 14, Hamilton ON L8W 2Y6
905.318.6677
Website: www.turf-king.ca
Email: hamilton@turf-king.ca
BLOG: www.turfkinghamilton.blogspot.com
http://twitter.com/turfkingofgreen
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/TurfKingHamilton
Signup for our newsletter http://on.fb.me/TK-signup