The roots of our lawns don’t only need dirt and water to live, they also need oxygen in the soil as well. When and if our lawn soil or any other garden soil is deprived of too much oxygen then so too does the health of our lawns or our garden plants, and when this occurs we need to repair this problem as soon as we can and as most effectively as we can.
Lawns soils will lose their oxygen component in two main different ways. When lawn soils become compacted due to heavy usage over time, and when they may be regularly waterlogged, so too will the lawn soil be deprived of oxygen. Likewise we can also see that a heavy clay based soil may also be reduced in oxygen availability.
There are a few different ways to look at fixing this problem.
Lawn Coring
Lawn coring is far and away the very best solution to repairing a compacted soil. This process involves running a lawn coring machine over the lawn which then removes masses of cylindrical divots of soil and turf from the lawn. This process leaves the lawn covered with holes, with the removed material sitting on top of the lawn surface.
The lawn coring process can be done on its own, with nothing more than some fertiliser applied afterwards, with the holes left open. Very soon those holes will cover over as the existing turf spreads itself once again, though most of the benefits of the lawn coring remain, with many new roots now existing in light airy semi-filled holes.
Alternatively, if we wanted to add a more permanent repair option at this stage then we could top dress a naturally compacted soil or a clay based soil with a coarse sand type material or sandy loam, which would also fill in the holes in the lawn with a more free flowing substance, thus permanently improving the lawn. This is an excellent option for soils which naturally and often become waterlogged too.
Whether we just lawn core for compacted lawn soils, or if we include soil improvements for clay based or waterlogged soils, we may need to repeat the lawn coring practice every so often for as long as is required. Which for some lawns may mean every few years forever, and for other lawns maybe every year with a soil improvement for a few years only. Each lawn is different and will require a different approach.
The Old Garden Fork Trick
An old favourite to aerate lawn soils is the garden fork. With this method we dig the garden fork 10 to 20 centimetres into the lawn soil and then pull backwards on the fork to really disturb the soil underneath the lawn.
We do this all over the entire surface of the lawn.
The end result will not be a pretty sight and the lawn will look like a complete wreck, but that is indeed the whole point here. To really get into the soil and break it up, a lot. This will aerate the soil quite nicely thank you very much.
Providing the lawn is still in an active growing season and is getting enough water and nutrients, then the lawn will soon even itself out again over the next few lawn mowings to once again look neat and trim.
Obviously we could still top-dress the lawn with the garden fork method, though we couldn’t expect anything we top dress with to get into the actual soil itself, like what we could expect if lawn coring, so no real soil improvements would be done, though the soil itself would be wonderfully aerated.
Gizmos and Gadgets
There are various gizmos and gadgets to aerate lawns out there, though to be honest we need to ask ourselves if they can in any way compete to hiring a lawn coring machine, or to the great disturbance in aerating a lawn soil that can be achieved with the garden fork method.
Or whether such devices may only pay lip service to soil aeration with but a few pin pricks into the top part of the soil alone, and to what end would such minor pokes into the dirt so shallowly might actually result? We may durst ponder that we might receive near no benefit at all from such devices.
Lawn coring and the garden fork method both work a treat for aerating lawn soils properly, so personally I’ll be sticking to those.
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