How to Aerate a Lawn.
How often do I need to Aerate my lawn?
Most experts reccomend you should aerate lawns every 1-3 years. If you have hills, pets or active outdoor children you may even need it twice a year. The best time to fertilize and overseed is just after you aerate your lawn. For new lawns, turf aeration is very important. Most developers scrape off the topsoil when they build a new home and it can take years before that soil can be naturally healthy again. The best way to make it healthy quickly is with a lawn core aerator. Also, in many areas new lawns tend to be installed on top of hard clay. A core lawn aerator can speed up the process of soil integration by encouraging roots and grass growth. If you have bad soil, you should aerate at least once a year for the first five years you own a home. It is very effective to also fertilize and overseed right after aerating. After a lawn is established most experts still recommend that you aerate once every three years.
What a well arerated lawn should look like -->
Define Aeration: Lawn aeration is airifing your lawn in order to reduce compaction and increase moisture penetration. Core lawn aeration benefits my lawn by enabling air and water direct access to the root system. You want to aerate lawn to promote deeper root growth by allowing water to go deeper. Lawn Aeration holes hold water in them which can soften hard soil and give clay soils more room for expansion.
What are the benefits of aeration?
Their are many benefits of core aeration Core Aeration keeps your lawn greener, reducing the cost of watering by:
Improving drainage & reduce runoff Reducing soil compaction
Controlling thatch development Reducing drought damage
Allowing water, air, and nutrients direct access to the root system
How to aerate lawn using a walk behind aerator?
The best way to aerate is to use a power aerator machine. You can rent a grass aerator for a few hour for between $35 and $75. Often people rent it with a neighbour and split the cost. Or you can hire someone to do it for between $40 and $80. (I have aerated about 1,000 lawn a year for the last five years.) The best way is to do the perimeter first (avoid sprinklers) and then make straight lines back and forth until you have completed an area. Then do the same thing in the next area. The average lawn should only take 30-40 minute for a begginer or 15-20 minutes for an expert. Another good tip to learn how to aerate lawn is to read to owners manual.
How do I turn on and operate a lawn aerator?
1) Make sure the switch (if it has one) is turned on. Usually located on the engine.
2) Put the choke on
3) Pull starter cable
4) Take choke off
5) Adjust Aerator trottle lever to the desired speed.
Operating.
1) After aerator is turned on move it to thr desired starting location on grass.
2) Lower tines into the ground by lowering lever. Usually located just under the handle.
3) Pull the other lever (usually just above the handle) to go forward. (The operation works for Ryan aerators, Blubirds, and most other. Billeygoat aerators have the tines lever above and the engagement beneath.)
4) Stopping is easy, just let go of the lever
5) To turn. Stop, pull tines out of the ground, engage drive and turn the machine inplace. When you have it lined up, lower the tines and do the next strip.
6) We recommend you do the edges first on a slower speed and then do the middle area. This will allow you to have and easier time turning the machine.
7) Watch out for sprinklers! There is a very slim >1% chance you can break them. Besty Luck!
Lawn care tips:
When and how often do I need to fertilize my lawn?
Many fertilizer brands tell you how often to fetilize. (About 3-5 time per year). Most programs when followed tend to work very well. The very best time to fetilize is in the Spring and in the fall or when the grass is actively growing. The three main elements in fertilizer are Nitrogen (N), Potasium (K) and Phopherous, These are comparable to Carbon, Hydrogen, and Oxygen in humans. The three main elements are represented by the three numbers on the bag of fertilizer you buy in the store. Knowing this allows you to determine how strong the fertilizer is that you are using. Straight Urea has the numbers 46-0-0. This means it is very large in Nitrogen content, but lacks the 2 other essential nutrients. A good concentration for lawn fertilizer has 25-30 Nitrogen, 8-12 potasium and 6-10 phoperous. (Weed and feed may not have any phosperous because phospherous strengthens weeds.)
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