Should i fork my grass

Almost any lawn can benefit from aeration when it's timed well and done properly. Why Aerating Helps Lawns Grass roots need air, water and nutrients to grow thick, deep and strong. Core aerators pull small plugs of soil to the surface. When Lawns Need Aeration It may not seem your lawn could get compacted, but it happens easier than you may think. When to Aerate Your Lawn As with most larger lawn projects, such as planting grass seed , it's best to aerate during or right before the time your grasses reach their peak time for natural growth.

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. While these can help on a small scale, spike machines can make compaction worse by pressing soil together around the holes.

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. What to Do After Aeration After you finish aerating your lawn, let soil plugs or extra soil dry where they fall.

Sources Harper, J. Grass Seed Resources. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Aerating with a garden fork: is it making the problem worse? Ask Question. Asked 6 years, 2 months ago. Active 6 years, 2 months ago. Viewed 23k times. Improve this question. Luke Allison. Luke Allison Luke Allison 1 1 gold badge 5 5 silver badges 13 13 bronze badges.

It can work in some conditions, but it wont change the over all soil density, it will make make some spots less dense holes and some denser area around holes back filling the holes with sand can help. Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Improve this answer. Autumn is the optimum time to do it or it can be done during early spring to rejuvenate your lawn after the winter.

A bit of love and attention in the form of aeration will help your lawn recover from dry summer conditions and general wear and tear. When these processes are done together the new lawn seed will be able to get good soil contact in the holes and is therefore more likely to germinate successfully.

Core aeration is the process of mechanically removing thousands of small deep cores of subsurface thatch and soil from your lawn to allow oxygen, nutrients and water to penetrate deep into the root zone. Spiking does a great job and will not be too disruptive; on the other hand core aeration has the added benefit of displacing sub-surface thatch. Specialist machines can carry out solid or hollow tine aeration depending on the type of soil you have. Lawn aeration can be carried out with hollow tines core aeration or solid tines spiked aeration.

There is much debate in the turf industry on which is most beneficial, but either process is better than doing nothing. The deeper you can aerate, the better it will be. You can carry out solid tine aeration in situations where hollowtine aeration might not be appropriate, for example on heavy clay soil where lots of cores left on the surface could be problematic or in situations where quick recovery is essential.

If you have a small lawn or lots of time you can easily carry out this process with a garden fork. The key thing is to do lots of holes and try to make sure they are as deep as possible — we recommend at least mm deep.

If you are going to aerate with a machine then ideally use the services of a company such as Lawntech who will provide the service at a cost effective price, using the best professional machinery. Your email address will not be published. These finest quality grass seed mixtures are designed to look perfect but still be versatile. For example, premium shade, which is a fine quality lawn mixture also grows well in the shade.

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