A common question that lingers in the minds of many lawn owners is: will aerating lawn help drainage?
Indeed, drainage problems can be problematic not only to the health of your lawn but also to your home. That is why you have to keep in mind ways of ensuring that you have a quality drainage system for your lawn.
Imagine you move into a new house and the lawn you admired when visited on a nice summer day never normally looks quite so appealing because of how soggy it constantly is?
Instead of creating an attractive environment and an amazing view around your home, a water-logged lawn makes it look messy. I know homeowners who have been continually frustrated by unhealthy lawns that cost them a lot of money to maintain.
Just like any other thing or asset that you value immensely, you have to take good care of your lawn for it to remain healthy and looking strikingly beautiful for a long time.
You don’t want to feel ashamed when friends visit your home during the holidays, right? Then you have to make it a priority to ensure that your lawn is properly maintained on a regular basis, not just once per year.
Without a doubt, aerating your lawn will help solve drainage issues to a large extent. Through experience, I have witnessed that once a lawn is aerated regularly and in the right way, it greatly improves drainage problems and promotes a healthy lawn.
Check out my lawn care for dummies guide.
What Is Aerating?
This is a very important question when it comes to the good health of your lawn.
Putting it simply, aerating is allowing the soil to have small holes in order to let nutrients, water, and air get down to the grassroots. It’s important to note that aerating is not only for the soil but also for the thatch layer that covers the soil.
What happens here is that you are breaking up the soil to let in air, which, in turn, makes the grassroots grow deeper, healthier, and stronger. The more you aerate your lawn, the more you keep drainage problems out of your hopefully beautiful lawn.
Benefits of Aerating your Lawn
There are various significant benefits that will happen to your lawn if you aerate it as part of your lawn maintenance routine.
I will begin by highlighting the important fact that aerating creates an effective way of draining excess water out of your lawn. Normally, when the soil is compacted, it makes it difficult for water to pass through to the roots.
The result of this is the accumulation of excess water on the surface of your lawn, making it hard to drain.
When you get in the habit of aerating your lawn, you will win the fight against water-logging.
Another benefit that I have witnessed as a result of aerating is the growth of strong and healthy grassroots. Once you have these, you will definitely see a big difference in your lawn- it will improve its overall health significantly.
If you have been wondering why your lawn doesn’t look as attractive as you would like it to be, maybe it’s time to aerate it. Aerating your lawn will improve its overall look and should be a method that improves the overall health of your lawn.
As a result of proper drainage and the development of vigorous and strong roots, you will notice a remarkable difference in what your treasured backyard looks like.
Check out my full article on how often you should aerate your lawn.
Are There Signals Indicating That I Should Aerate My Lawn?
This is a very good question that will help you to take action before things get worse.
Generally, there are things that increase the likelihood of drainage problems for your lawn. Thus, if you can handle them as early as possible, it will save you a lot of headaches and frustrations in the future.
These are some of the signals to alert you to consider aerating your lawn:
- If there is heavy traffic on your lawn. For example, if it serves as a playground or people often pass through it, you should consider aerating it because of the likelihood of soil compaction.
- If you notice that your lawn takes time to absorb water into the ground, you have to aerate it before it begins to develop major drainage problems.
- If your lawn was developed as part of a recently built home, you might need to aerate it. In most cases, the topsoil of such a lawn is compacted due to construction traffic, thus making it difficult for air, nutrients, and water to penetrate through.
- I highly recommend that you aerate your lawn if your home is newly built to avoid drainage problems.
Is There A Bad Time To Aerate Your Lawn?
Yes, there is a good time and a bad time to aerate your lawn.
Just like most of the activities you do in your yard, you should know when and when not to aerate your lawn. Typically, if you are looking for quality results, then you have to know what the best time for aerating your lawn is.
Spring is generally not a good season for you to aerate your lawn.
The reason as to why aerating in spring is a bad idea is because you might facilitate the growth of weeds in your lawn. I am sure you understand what weeds are and the negative effects they will more than likely have on your lawn.
Basically, if you choose to aerate in spring, the aeration holes create the right environment for weeds to grow. Weed seeds germinate very fast in spring, and so aerating your lawn gives them what they need to grow.
Therefore, you should avoid aerating your lawn in spring because it will negatively affect the health, quality, and aesthetic value of your home if weeds take over your lawn.
Check out my full article on how to aerate your lawn with a fork.
Can You Aerate Too Much?
The question of whether you can aerate too much is a pertinent one. Ideally, the frequency of aeration depends on the condition of your lawn. A lawn can either be healthy or have compacted soil.
Either way, it’s recommended that you aerate your lawn to get the benefits that come with it. For a healthy lawn, you should aerate it once per year. On the other hand, for lawns that have compacted soil, it’s advisable that they are aerated at least twice per year.
If your lawn is healthy, you don’t need to aerate too much because the soil has adequate holes allowing nutrients, air, and water to go through the ground. For this reason, once per year will be enough to avoid drainage problems in your lawn.
However, if your lawn has compacted soil, the best thing to do is to aerate several times in a year to allow water and nutrients to pass through to the grassroots with ease.
If there is frequent thatch buildup in your lawn, constant aeration is necessary. So, in this case, you don’t have to worry about too much aeration but you should make it a priority to take care of the thatch and soil compaction issue.
How to Drain a Waterlogged Lawn
Having a waterlogged lawn can be such a frustrating experience. I have had such a situation on my lawn and I know how bad it can be for your garden. The good news is that this does not spell doom at all, there is a way out.
This is how you can drain a waterlogged lawn:
- The first step is to ensure that people don’t walk over it. If someone walks over it, there is a possibility of stirring the grass up and, thus, complicating the issue.
- Secondly, allow most of the water to evaporate. For the water that won’t go through this method, you can push it in the direction of your lawn’s borders.
- The next thing is to pierce the lawn with a garden fork to create holes. After the first spiking and draining of the water, use a core aerator to help you take out tiny little cores of soil. Most of the remaining water will flow during this step.
- After this, add a top dressing of sand to help in the absorption of extra moisture. This will help you to create a way for the development of a healthy lawn with good drainage.
Check out my full article on the best time of year to aerate your lawn.
Should You Sand After Aerating?
Yes, there is a need for adding sand as a top dresser after aeration.
For soils that have drainage problems, sand helps in solving this problem especially if your lawn has a heavy soil type. If you decide to use sand after aeration, it fills the holes and alters the soil structure.
This helps to improve the quality of drainage and encourage the growth of a healthy lawn.
Check out my full article on what to do after you aerate for maximum results.
Does Sand Help Soggy Grass?
Yes, sand helps soggy grass to a large extent. A waterlogged lawn is not a good sight to see and it can be maddening if you dream of having the best looking lawn in your neighborhood. However, there are solutions you can try out to correct the problem.
One of the solutions to soggy grass is the use of sand. The problem with soggy grass is that it makes it difficult for water to drain. So, when you add sand, you will make the grass less muddy and provide a better environment for good drainage.
It’s evident that if you want a solution to the problem of poor drainage in your lawn, you should consider aerating it.
Poor drainage is a major problem facing many lawn enthusiasts across the country. Fortunately, there are solutions to that, and aeration happens to be one of them. Depending on the condition of your lawn, practice proper aeration and you will see quality results.
If you have read this far I hope you have discovered some new and useful knowledge on whether aerating your lawn will help with drainage. Please have a browse of some more helpful articles.
