When you think of your routine lawn care, what comes to mind first? Maybe you think of weekly mowing, or maybe even occasionally spreading fertilizer. While those are great ways to encourage healthy a healthy lawn, one of the often-overlooked aspects of your lawn's health is soil compaction.
Soil compaction can suffocate your lawn, causing it to miss out on vital nutrients, and the best way to alleviate your soil is through core aeration! This time of year is best for aerating your warm season lawns, so here's everything you'll want to review to get started!
Do I Have a Warm Season Lawn?
Most of the grass types found in Georgia are warm season lawns and have been successful due to their ability to thrive in the heat and hold up to heavy foot traffic. Zoysia, Bermudagrass, and Centipede Grass are all common warm season grasses found here in Georgia, and the best time to aerate them is in the spring to early summer months.
Why You Should Aerate
Aerating your lawn at the right time of the year is one of the biggest factors in growing a strong, lush lawn in the summer. When you take the time to aerate your warm season lawn, it allows your grass to grow deeper roots and receive more nutrients.Since the aeration process removes plugs of compacted soil, this opens up more room for things such as water and air flow, both of which are vital to deep and strong root growth.
Best Time for Top Dressing?
Since your lawn is breathing more clearly with a recent aeration, you may want to directly follow it with a layer of top dressing. As your grass blades begin to grow through the layer of top dressing, your lawn's health will start to see improvement due to the added nutrients.Typically, top dressing is done with soil or sand, followed by overseeding. This not only gives your lawn some added organic nutrients, but it allows your blade and root growth stabilize, only making them stronger.
Proper top dressing can vary depending on your soil type and lawn health, contact AgroPro today to learn more about how we can help your lawn.
What About Spike Aeration?
You may have seen some people suggest or perform lawn aeration using spike shoes, which in some soil types works perfectly fine. But in North Georgia and Metro Atlanta, soil is not typically sandy, so poking holes with spikes could either be a waste of time and not add any benefit, or it could potentially further compact your soil. Core aeration literally removes cores of soil, leaving your lawn with tiny holes that will allow for better transport of water and nutrients.
How AgroPro Can Help
Whether you're interested in mitigating the effects of soil compaction or just looking to schedule a routine core aeration visit, give AgroPro a call! We're here to answer your lawn care questions and work with you to achieve the healthiest lawn possible.