Why and When to Aerate Your Lawn in the Tri-Cities

When the soil is properly aerated, there’s more room for roots to expand and for helpful microorganisms to go about their business. Rain and irrigation water is able to soak farther into the ground, and there’s less danger of runoff from such potentially harmful substances as fertilizer, pesticide and gray water. Of course, the fact that aeration is good for your lawn doesn’t mean you need to do it every day.

Many people wonder when they should aerate their lawn. Spring and Fall are the best times.  If you choose to aerate your lawn before irrigation water is available then it is a good idea to water with a sprinkler from your tap water just before aerating.  If the ground is too hard the cores being pulled will be smaller and less effective.

Why aerate your lawn?

Over time, foot and vehicle traffic mash down the soil in your lawn, compacting all the particles. The more traffic your lawn gets, such as regular football games vs. an occasional cat or squirrel. Even regular mowing takes a toll, and poor drainage and wet conditions make matters ever worse. This situation poses a problem to lawns because compacted soil has far fewer air-filled pore spaces. Plan­ts depend on those pore spaces to supply roots with much-needed oxygen. Compacted soil prevents roots from expanding, interferes with water filtration and disrupts nutrient uptake.

Lawn aeration helps alleviate this situation by creating holes in the ground, which allow air back down into the soil and create room for compacted soil to collapse back into a looser particle arrangement.

Aeration should be a part of your landscaping maintenance in Richland, Pasco, Kennewick, and Walla Walla. Annual aeration is sufficient for most lawns.