Are you wanting a thicker, healthier lawn? A core lawn aeration is the #1 thing you can do for your lawn’s overall health.
The fall is the best time for lawn aeration because the turf’s root system is growing at the fastest rate during the fall.
Let’s find out why!
If you live in Spokane, Spokane Valley, Liberty Lake, or nearby, we’d love to provide you with a free estimate for lawn aeration this fall. Ask us about overseeding when you contact us!
Core Aeration vs Spike Aeration
It is important to note that you want a ‘core’ aeration! Core aeration is the type of lawn aeration that pulls cores from your lawn’s soil. The other type of lawn aeration is a ‘spike aeration.’ Instead of pulling plugs or cores from the soil, spike aeration creates holes by poking holes into the soil with solid spikes.
Core aeration is far more beneficial than spike aeration for lawns because spike aeration actually compacts the soil. When the spikes jam into the soil, they create holes by compacting the surrounding soil. This is exactly the opposite of what you want to accomplish!
Core aeration actually de-compacts the soil because it removes core samples from the soil, and then the existing soil spread out to fill in the holes.
Fall Lawn Aeration
The reason core lawn aeration is so beneficial is the fact that it de-compacts the soil. This makes it easier for the turf’s root system to expand side to side and deeper into the soil. The way your lawn looks on top is a direct reflection of how healthy and robust your lawn’s root system is!
In Spokane County, Washington turf root systems grow at their fastest rate during the fall. With the rapid growth rate of the root system at this time, you will receive the most benefit from core aeration if it is performed in the fall.
It is worth noting that core aeration will be beneficial no matter when the service is performed as long as the soil is ‘soft enough’ for 3″ or so cores to be pulled from the soil.
Hire us for your lawn care needs in Spokane! Free estimates are provided upon request!
Lawn Seeding in the Fall
You may have heard the term ‘aeration and overseeding.’ Overseeding simply refers to spreading additional grass seed over an existing lawn. Seeding would be when you are sowing grass seed in bare soil like when a lawn is seeded after the lawn is graded assuming sod is not being installed.
Another reason Fall is the best time to aerate your lawn is that it is also the best time to sow grass seed in the Spokane and Spokane Valley area.
Grass seed needs three things to get established:
- A mild climate
- Sufficient contact with the soil
- Water
The Fall is ideal for overseeding lawns because the climate is traditionally mild and there is a decent amount of rainfall. Manually watering your lawn on days without rain is required for the best results! The 3rd key factor to success when overseeding is seed-to-soil contact. The process of core aerating creates all kinds of opportunities for the seed spread over the lawn to contact the soil on 2-3 sides of the seed. For these reasons, if you plan to aerate and overseed, definitely do it in the fall if possible. If you must do it in the spring, that is also an acceptable time of the year to have this service performed.
To Aerate or Aerate and Overseed?
Core lawn aeration is very beneficial by itself. We already covered how it de-compacts the soil making it easier for the root system of your lawn to grow. It also allows water and nutrients to more easily reach the root zone of your lawn. The lawn care professionals at Spokane’s Finest Lawns recommend you aerate your lawn every fall if your goal is to have a beautiful lawn.
So, aerating will greatly improve the overall health of your existing turf. But what if you have thin or bare spots in your lawn? Aerating by itself will probably not be enough to fill in thin and bare spots. Since it does improve the health of the turf, it certainly can add thickness to the lawn, but it will not grow new grass plants!
That’s where aerating and overseeding come into play. Adding additional grass seed to your lawn after a core lawn aeration will result in new grass plants that will fill in the thin or bare spots! We recommend you overseed your lawn along with the aeration service as needed every fall until you have achieved a thick lawn and then to do it again every 4-5 years simply to introduce young, fresh grass plants into your lawn.
Hire Spokane’s Finest Lawns for Lawn Aeration in Spokane County, WA
Most homeowners hire a professional lawn care service like us when they want their lawn aerated or aerated and overseeded. The reason being is renting an aerating machine is kind of expensive and you need a way to get it to and from the tool rental store. Grass seed is also expensive and you need a spreader to get even coverage across your lawn.
We own core aeration machines and commercial-grade spreaders. We also get better pricing on grass seed than residential consumers. If you do the math, you may just find that hiring a service will be about the same cost as doing it yourself but you don’t have to do any of the work!
Hire Spokane’s Finest Lawns for Lawn Aeration in Spokane County, WA.
We also dethatch lawns, which is another very beneficial lawn care service for the overall health of a lawn. Dethatching is also referred to as power raking. If you are interested in learning what the difference between aerating and dethatching is, read our blog post on aerating vs dethatching a lawn.
We also offer a ton of other popular lawn services! Hire us to perform 1 service for your lawn or landscape or hire us to do it all! View all of our lawn services.