Advice and tips on using a lawn aerator

The one piece of gardening equipment you should consider to keep in your garden shed is a lawn aerator, by using a lawn aerator you will keep your lawn looking vibrant and healthy.

It is important for the health of your lawn that you aerate it once or twice a year, with the amount of traffic you can get walking on the grass over a period of time the soil underneath can compact.

This stops the air and water getting through to the root system which is vital to provide healthy looking grass, this is when you need a lawn aerator to relieve the compaction so that air and water will get to the root base.

There are two ways you can tell if your lawn is over compacted, the first one is if your lawn is looking a bit thread bare and generally unhealthy then this could be the cause of compaction in the soil.

The second way is to take a spade and cut a small slice of the end of your lawn about a spades depth, then check to see if the roots of the grass is the correct length they should be according to what type of grass you have used for your lawn.

If you find that the root length is very short and thin then this can be a sign of too much compaction, the only cure for this is to use a lawn aerator to relieve the compaction.

When using a lawn aerator you will remove small round cores from your lawn, this leaves holes in your lawn, which air and water will penetrate to provide the nutrients your grass needs to grow healthy.

One thing you should make sure you do after you have aerated your lawn is to remove all the cores from the grass, if you do not do this you could find that your lawn can become even more compacted than before.

For you to get the maximum benefit from lawn aeration you should make sure the lawn is slightly damp before starting, this allows the aerator to penetrate to the required depth and gives the best results for a healthy looking lawn.

You need to make sure you only do the aeration process once or twice a year, by doing this process more than this you can cause your grass to appear very thin and patchy and generally not look as healthy as it should do.

There are plenty of manufactures around producing the lawn aerator these days, this gives you a wide selection to choose from when

looking to buy. They can vary from the large engine powered ride on type which is used mainly by landscapers and golf course greens staff, or there is the small hand operated type suitable for small to medium sized lawns.

You could even consider lawn aerator shoes that are fitted with spikes in the sole to aerate your lawn, this involves wearing the shoes and walking up and down your lawn to get the desired affect of aeration.

Although this is a cheaper way of aeration for your lawn it can be very time consuming and not advised if you have a medium sized lawn, they can be very effective if you want to aerate small patches of grass.

But generally speaking to get the maximum benefit from lawn aeration you should look at purchasing a lawn aerator, whether it be a hand operated device or an engine driven machine.

So if you want your garden lawn looking vibrant and healthy for years to come, you should make sure you use a lawn aerator once or twice a year to help you achieve healthy grass roots and great looking grass.

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