When is the best time to aerate your lawn?
Last updated: 8/15/2023
Estimated read time: 4.5 minutes
When we ask homeowners the last time they had their lawn aerated, we find that many of them don’t know what core aeration is, or why aeration and seeding are beneficial. To help you better understand why this service is essential to the health of your turf, here is our guide to aeration and seeding.
What is Aeration?
Over time, your soil naturally becomes compacted. Hot sun, hard rain, and months of mowing can lead to a layer of thatch—organic matter made up of dead grass and roots that collect at the base of the living grass on your lawn, making it difficult for oxygen, water, and other nutrients to get to the roots of your grass. Aeration is the process of breaking up thatch and creating pores to loosen up your soil—improving the health of your grass and allowing roots to grow deeper and stronger.
Core Aeration vs Liquid Aeration
There are two common types of aeration:
- Core Aeration: When you aerate your lawn traditionally with core aeration, you’re creating small holes in your turf using an aeration machine to alleviate compaction.
- Liquid Aeration: This type of aeration uses a specialized solution to break down the dense soil particles, creating small pores in your lawn to help loosen the soil. Click here to learn more about liquid aeration.
Both of these types of aeration are extremely effective, though many homeowners prefer liquid aeration, as it does not damage the turf as much and does not leave unsightly plugs all over the yard.
The Benefits of Aeration
Both core and liquid aeration create pores in the soil that allow more air, water, and nutrients to reach deeper, which promotes healthy root growth. Additionally, aeration can help your grass thrive by:
- Helping to prevent the buildup of harmful elements and toxins in the soil and root system.
- Protecting plants from diseases and pathogens that are caused by poor aeration.
- Increasing the activity of beneficial microorganisms in the soil that promote plant health.
- Preventing fertilizer and pesticides from running off due to soil compaction.
- Making seeding more effective, allowing for better seed-to-soil contact and better germination & growth.
How Often Should I Aerate My Lawn?
The best time to aerate your lawn is in late summer or early fall, as this will allow your grass to recover completely before going dormant in the winter. While Fall is recommended, you can also aerate and overseed your lawn in the spring between March and May.
Looking to hire an aeration and overseeding provider? Be sure to ask these questions.
Spring Aeration and Overseeding
If you’re looking to aerate your landscape in the spring, the best time would be between March and May. While we recommend aerating your lawn in the fall, spring core aeration may be beneficial if your turf is so compacted it refuses to grow. If this is the case, our professionals will use our advanced technology to remove the thatch buildup, and then overseed your lawn to promote growth. If you aerate your yard in the spring, be warned that this may also promote weed growth and other moisture-related problems (such as fungus and disease) as the seed and spring showers create an environment for all types of growth.
Fall Aeration and Overseeding
We recommend aeration in late summer and overseeding in the fall before the turf becomes dormant in the winter months. This is because here in Maryland and Northern Virginia, the soil stays warm into November, meaning the roots will continue to grow. Aerating your grass in the fall revitalizes it before dormancy, making new seedlings better equipped to handle chilly winters and setting your lawn up to thrive when next spring arrives!
Overseeding
Grass can survive for a few years, but fresh growth is still important to the overall look and feel of your lawn. Without fresh growth, large sections of your grass can die off all at once, leaving bare patches. Seeding encourages fresh growth of healthy grass, keeping your lawn thicker and healthier from year to year.
Benefits of overseeding your lawn include the following:
- Helps fight insects and disease by growing stronger roots to stand against them.
- Thickens the density of lawns to give them a softer feel.
- Fills in areas of grass damaged by insects, disease, stress, and winter damage.
- Improves the overall appearance of the lawn.
When Should I Overseed My Lawn?
Due to advancements in our products and technology, Blades of Green is now available to seed and provide weed control at the same time in the spring, no matter what time of year you aerate your turf. If there are bare spots on the lawn, we certainly understand not wanting to wait until the fall to get it covered.
There’s a 40-50% chance that the grass will die off during the summer stress, especially if follow-up practices like mowing and watering aren’t adhered to. We still recommend fall aeration and overseeding even with spring seeding.
Are You in Maryland or Northern Virginia and need Aeration & Seeding?
If you are interested in improving the appearance and health of your lawn, Blades of Green can help with our aeration and overseeding services. Our highly trained professionals are prepared to ensure that your yard gets the maximum amount of coverage for optimum benefit. If you still have questions about aeration and overseeding or how to choose a provider, the technicians at Blades of Green can point you in the right direction.
Clients Love Us - No, Seriously… they do! But don’t take our word for it.
Joe Deluca and his crew were outstanding and very professional. Thank you Joe and Crew! - Tyrone H.
I wanted to let you know what a professional and polite job Emile did servicing our property. I would also like to highlight how perfectly Emile handled a tricky situation during the service. While pulling hoses through our yard, Emile found a broken landscape light fixture next to the hose. He immediately brought the piece to my attention because he thought he had broken the fixture. He was very apologetic and wanted to make sure it was fixed. I was very impressed with his honesty and the manner he handled the problem. Actually, he did not break the fixture, as it had been broken several months earlier by a lawnmower. Emile should be acknowledged for being a very professional representative of your company.- Greg H.
This company is excellent. They are polite and efficient and their technicians especially Nicholas Mosley, are excellent at completing the treatments. Our summer season has been much more pleasant as a result. - Carol D.
