Will Aerating My Lawn Help Drainage?

Get Better Yard Drainage

A soggy lawn can lead to a lot of problems. Not only is it unsightly, but it can also affect the health of your lawn and potentially lead to damage to your home’s foundation.

If you’re looking for ways to encourage lawn drainage, aerating your lawn is often a good lawn maintenance solution.

Defining Lawn Aeration

Simply put, lawn aeration means putting holes into the soil. The holes help increase the flow of water, air, and nutrients into your lawn’s root zone, which then encourages root growth and grass health.

Generally, there are two types of lawn aeration–spike aeration and core aeration. Spike aeration pokes tiny holes in your yard and does not require a lot of equipment. Many people can do this themselves. Core aeration is often more effective, however, in that it removes small plugs of soil and thatch from your lawn, making the flow more effective.

Why You Should Aerate Your Lawn

Over time, soil and grass can get compacted. Causes can include yard activities such as sports or children playing but can also involve issues with rainfall and poor irrigation.

Your grassroots can’t thrive when this happens, leading to an unhealthy lawn. From there, weeds start appearing and pushing out the grass resulting in unsightly thatches. It also makes grass die more quickly during times of drought.

Proper lawn aeration can:

• Improve drainage by giving the water a place to go. This keeps your lawn free of standing water and problems with runoff.
• Open up the soil around grass roots and let water and nutrients encourage root growth.
• Improve grass tolerance to heat and drought.

When To Aerate

For most people, the best time to aerate your lawn is in the spring or fall before fertilizing. This will allow the fertilizer to be more easily absorbed by the soil. In addition, grounds that see a lot of traffic, such as outdoor commercial and recreational spaces, may benefit more from monthly aeration.

Don’t aerate while your grass is dormant, as it may end up encouraging weak growth.

Other Ways To Handle Lawn Drainage

If your biggest concern is getting excess water off your lawn, here are some additional strategies to handle lawn drainage:

• Have a drain installed. This should be done by professionals who can ensure the water is adequately redirected without causing damage to your property.
• Alternately, you could dig a ditch at the lowest point of your yard to lead excess water away.
• Select patio surfaces and pathways that can soak water in instead of allowing rainwater to drain off into your lawn.
• Remove areas of moss that inhibit healthy grass growth and reseed. Having a healthy grass root system will improve absorption.
• If your soil is made up of compacted clay, you can add materials such as organic compost, pine bark, and gypsum to help eliminate drainage and compaction problems.

Call Vision Green Today

The team at Vision Green Landscape can look at your lawn drainage situation and find the best solution to channel the water where it needs to be. Every lawn and yard is different. Vision Green Landscape’s solutions are tailored to fit every individual needs.

Don’t let poor drainage ruin your yard, lawn, or landscaping. Call Vision Green Landscape today for expert lawn drainage services. 704-910-1941