Lawn Aeration Treatment
West Midlands
At Lawn3 we believe this is the most important , but widely misunderstood process, we highly recommend Aeration as part of your garden maintenance.
Aeration is a very important process having many benefits; roots and soil need air as much as leaves do. Here are just a couple of benefits that aeration brings to soil. The main aim of aeration is to get air or more precisely oxygen down into the root zone of the lawn. Oxygen is normally present in air spaces within soil; stimulating microbial action, (aerobic soil bacteria and fungi amongst others), making for a biologically active soil.
These microbes are the main transporters of nutrients from soil to plant, they break down dead plant material, reducing thatch and unlocking the nutrients. They also suppress the activity of disease causing organisms. The aeration holes themselves provide root runs for nearby grass plants, allowing the roots to easily grow three inches over three nights. There are two ways of aerating a lawn – Solid Tine, (spiking) and Hollow Tine (plugging). Unlike other lawn care companies, we offer solid tine aeration as a first choice as under some circumstances, hollow tines can do more damage than good.
Solid Tine Aeration
Number of Treatments: Typically 2 per year, but can be more.
Timing of Treatments: Available spring and or autumn, but can be any time of the year.
Treatment Type: An additional lawn care treatment.
Solid tine aerating is the same as of going all over your lawn with a garden fork, pushed into a depth of two to four inches. It can be done as often as you like, being particularly beneficial in spring and autumn. (We don't use a garden folk but a professional aeration machine).
The benefits are:
- It enables oxygen to enter the root zone and encourages roots to grow down the tine holes. A deep healthy root mass is vital for healthy grass plants.
- Feed is more readily taken into the soil.
- Water percolates easily around the soil.
- Noxious gasses produced by anaerobic bacteria (black layer) are dissipated and the oxygen is itself toxic to the anaerobic bacteria killing them.
- Aeration assists natural drainage, reducing waterlogged helping to combat moss colonisation.
- Solid tine aeration is good for all soil types except very heavy clay where hollow tine aerating is preferable.
The disadvantages are:
- Tine holes usually only last for three days before closing up.
Hollow Tine Aeration
Number of Treatments: Typically, once a year every 2 to 3 years, if appropriate.
Timing of Treatments: Available spring or autumn.
Treatment Type: An additional lawn care treatment.
Hollow tine aerating is the equivalent to pushing hollow metal tubes into the lawn to a depth of about three inches. When the tube is removed a plug of soil and turf is caught in it and then expelled onto the surface. Many thousands of these plugs are produced which must be removed from the lawn. If left they form soil deposits that are ideal for growing weeds on and moss. Sometimes the punched holes can be "back filled" with a sand/soil dressing to help restore a tired lawn (an immensely time consuming job).
The benefits are:
- As with solid tines.
- If a lawn is very heavily compacted, a walk-way for example, hollow tine aerating will greatly reduce this compaction.
- Can be used to change the soil by filling the holes with a dressing.
The disadvantages are:
- Hollow tines must not be used if dry weather is likely, because of the increased surface area from which water can evaporate from, quickening drying out of the lawn.
- Care must be taken to not over aerate with hollow tines as the very structure of the lawn can be severally damaged.
