Do you really need to aerate your lawn? Absolutely, positively, undeniably YES! Even with the best of soil circumstances in North Texas it’s necessary . . . but we don’t even have decent circumstances around here!
This whole area was once nothing but cotton fields. Cotton is a plant that requires a lot of nutrients – so much so that farmers have to employ crop rotation techniques; not using the same plot in consecutive growing seasons so they can treat and ready the ground. That was tough enough on the soil. Then we had the dust bowl.
Once we started cracking open the ground mechanically, much of the remaining soil was literally dust in the wind. What we are left with is rock and soil that can no longer support cotton and gets really compacted from season to season.
There is hope, though. Aeration is a process in which we remove 2.5 to 3.5 inch cores with a machine thoughout your lawn. Once the turf canopy opens up, the root system of the grass plant has a virtual fast lane to accept nutrients, oxygen and water. Kaboom! Growth happens at an accelerated rate. This process also loosens up the compacted soil and produces a much thicker, greener lawn. Understanding watering is critical to your lawn’s health.
There is another action in play here as well. You know the grass that has to be edged from your sidewalk and pulled from your flower beds? We call those stolens. That’s one way that your turf expands. That same action goes on underground in very much the same way. We call those rhizomes. When the turf opens up, rhizomes migrate in and up into the newly opened spaces in your lawn looking for beneficial nutrients. Daisy chain effect. . .engaged!
We recommend having your lawn aerated at least once a year, in the spring.