As you mow or walk on your lawn, the soil below the grass gets compacted. This makes it hard for significant nutrients, air and water to get to your lawn’s roots, which in turn weakens the grass and raises the chance of lawn diseases and weeds. A lawn aerator will help by creating air stations into the lawn soil to loosen the dirt, expose the grass roots, allowing oxygen, water and fertilizer to reach them. When deciding upon an aerator, you have a lot of choices with very important differences to take into account.

Aeration Methodology

Some lawn aerators use spikes that thrust down to the grass creating holes. Other aerators use hollow tubes, which pull plugs of grass and dirt out of the ground to produce the holes. Another aerators use liquid chemicals to dissolve grass, roots and other organic matter to improve soil aeration, yet this option almost never works effectively, according to Colorado State University Extension. Between spike-based and core-based aerator devices, core aerators that pull plugs of thing out of the lawn are best since spike-based aerators earn their holes by creating much more dirt compaction, thus being less effective in the long term, says Richard Jauron of Iowa State University Extension.

Labor and Time Requirements

For the best effects, lawns are aerated once in the spring and once in the fall. This can be quite a labor-intensive job, based on the magnitude of the lawn. For little grass areas, a handheld lawn aerator which you hold like a garden spade and thrust vertically into the ground at regular intervals across your yard can suffice. However, if you are faced with a large acreage, it’s often simpler to use machine-driven lawn aerators to save time and manual labor.

Cost

If budgetary requirements are a large element when comparing yard aerators, you may use a simple pitchfork and thrust it down into the soil to produce the holes necessary to enhance aeration. The 2nd cheapest alternative is a handheld device specifically designed for lawn aeration. The priciest alternatives are leasing a mechanical device in the garden center or hiring a professional lawn maintenance service.

Tine Spacing

Not all lawn aeration devices are created equally. The spacing of the spikes or the coring mechanics are important. The nearer they create the holes, the faster you are able to aerate your lawn. There should be a minimum of 20 holes created per square foot, but ideally around 40 holes per square foot. Consequently, an aerator with widely spaced tines requires numerous passes over precisely the exact same area to produce the amount of holes required.

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