What is Core Aeration? And Why is it Important?

With the cool breeze of fall blowing in and summer fading away fast, it’s time to start preparing your lawn for the fall season. A great way to prepare your lawn for fall is with aeration. This process can relieve the stress that summer placed on your lawn due to high foot traffic from pets, guests, and children. It can also rejuvenate your lawn after the stress of the high heat and humidity of the summer.

How Does Aeration Work?

Aeration is a process where the soil of your lawn is perforated with small holes. This process helps to remove thatch and alleviate compact soil to allow air, water, and nutrients to reach your lawn’s root system more effectively. Common aeration tools include:

• Plug/Core Aerator. This tool has hollow tines that are used to remove plugs of soil and grass from the lawn.
• Spike Aerator. This tool is made of a solid tine or fork and is used to poke holes into the ground.

For our aeration process at Superior Lawn Care, we use a machine called a core aerator. This machine is equipped with hollow tines that we use to mechanically dig into the roots of the grass and remove plugs of earth, which are then deposited on the ground. These plugs of earth are usually 1” to 1 ½” deep and are spaced about 4” apart. The plugs left on the lawn will decompose, helping to increase the microbial soil activity which will help to reduce thatch.

We utilize core aeration to provide our clients with the best results when compared to a spike aerator method, which can cause additional compaction around holes.

Why You Should Aerate Your Lawn

If your lawn has never been aerated before, it can be difficult to determine whether or not it needs to be aerated. Your lawn may be a candidate for our aeration services if it meets any of the following criteria:

• Heavy Use. With constant traffic from pets and children walking on it or guests parking on it and walking on it, especially during the summer season, your lawn can become compacted.
• New Construction. If you’ve recently done new construction on your home, your lawn could have become compacted due to construction traffic.
• Spongy or Dry Feel. If your lawn is dry or spongy, it may be a sign that you have a thatch problem on your lawn. This issue can be alleviated by aeration.

How Your Lawn Can Benefit from Aeration

Aeration is a crucial part of Pittsburgh lawn care due to much of the soil being hard clay. The hard clay and compacted soil don’t leave enough room for water, air, or crucial nutrients to efficiently reach the roots of the grass.

Without these nutrients and essential elements, your lawn can suffer from a variety of issues, including:

• Loss of bright green color
• Uneven growth
• Higher risk of damage from to disease or cold winter weather

When you aerate your lawn, thatch and soil compaction will be alleviated, allowing your lawn to receive the air, water, and nutrients it needs to thrive and grow a strong root system. A strong root system helps your lawn resist disease and promotes a healthy lawn that can survive the harsh elements of a Pittsburgh winter.

Fall Core Aeration Services in Pittsburgh

Breathe new life into your lawn with our fall core aeration services! Don’t let your lawn lose its vibrant green color or become damaged by the harsh winter elements, call Superior Lawn Care today to learn more about our fall core aeration services and how we can help you prepare your lawn for the fall season! Superior Lawn Care provides services to customers throughout Southwestern PA, including Moon Township, Wexford, Pittsburgh, Upper St. Clair, and Indiana.