Aeration: Getting your Utah lawn ready for spring

Aeration Salt Lake City, Utah

Utah it’s time to aerate your lawn! Summer is a great time to freshen up your lawn! It receives a lot of use which can lead to compaction. This in turn, can lead to unhealthy grass that requires more work and water to look decent. The solution? Aeration for your Salt Lake City Home.  Depending on your grass type, aeration can be done during warm months while the grass is not dormant.

In another article we talk about the benefits of aeration, including cutting down fertilizer and water costs and having healthier, happier grass. In this article we’ll talk about why you should hire a professional such as VIRIDIS Lawn Care of Salt Lake City for this service. While there are methods of aerating your lawn yourself, none are as effective, or easier than, hiring a professional.

First off, aeration can be hard work! The walk-along aerators you can rent are bulk and difficult to maneuver. Others are pulled behind a small tractor but this still requires you to be out in the heat, battling the bugs, hoping you’re doing it correctly.

Renting these also necessitates you have a way to get it to your house. Either type is large and heavy and won’t fit into a trunk or car. Either variety can cause you to be sore and tired after a day of use.

Another option includes small tools such as strap on spike shoes or two to four plug manual core aerators. While the shoes may seem appealing – you’re walking around out there anyway! – simply stabbing these spikes is not an equivalent to removing plugs of grass. It only moves the dirt rather than REmoving the dirt. This is a short-term, poor fix.

The other manual core aerator option would be much more effective but can you imagine! Ideally, these cores need to be removed about every 6 inches. If you have more than a few square feet of grass, this could take you hours upon hours of hot, drudging labor. For those of you with very small lawns, this would be an acceptable alternative but for anyone else, this could take weeks to complete the lawn.

But the physical labor isn’t the worst part. Perhaps the worst part about doing it yourself is running the risk of damaging your lawn. Professionals know the best timing for you grass variety and for the weather conditions to get you the biggest bang for your work.

Aeration exposes the roots of the grass and while this is beneficial under the right conditions, drought during aeration could dry them out significantly or a hard frost could damage or kill them.

Knowing how often to aerate is another variable. This depends on compaction, grass type, soil type, thatch buildup, etc. A VIRIDIS Lawn Care professional could recommend an appropriate aeration schedule to most help your grass grow to its fullest potential.

While aerating your lawn is possible by yourself, we recommend hiring a professional lawn care service such as VIRIDIS aeration of Salt Lake City.  This will save you the most time, effort, and guesswork. Call us today to schedule your consultation.