Aeration – DIY or Hire a Professional?

Spring is here and with it comes a chance to heal your lawn from the damages of winter. The heavy snowfalls from this last winter may have caused serious soil compaction. This leads to your grass struggling to get back in the growing mode. Its roots may not be able to grow and absorb nutrients and this can lead to pathetic looking grass for months. This is why now might be a good time to consider lawn aeration! And we are just the company to help you out.

Aeration can save you money in the long run by decreasing water needs and fertilizer applications to get beautiful grass but it’s not something that is necessarily easy to accomplish. DIY methods of aeration are, at best, difficult and time consuming. At worst, they are a complete waste of time and energy.

Doing it Yourself

Some common do it yourself methods include using a pitchfork or similar tool to “punch” holes into the ground. There are even shoes made for this with spikes on the soles. The problem herein is that nothing is actually being pulled out of the ground. When a professional aerates your lawn, it will be covered in little cylinders or plugs. This is lawn, roots, and soil that has been pulled out of the ground. Removing this plug is the point of aeration. It creates areas for the ground to loosen and spread and the roots of your lawn to begin to grow again. When you simply poke holes in the ground, it quickly closes back up. Time wasted.

Another method, which is slightly more effective, is to buy a small aeration tool that has a few hole punches along a metal bar. This does essentially the same thing that a professional aerator does but requires substantially more work and time and effort. These tools are only well suited to very small areas and even then, they take a long time.

The last DIY method is the most effective but often the biggest pain. Renting an aerator works wonderfully, if you can find a way to get it to your home, figure out how to operate it, hope you use it correctly, hope nothing breaks down, keep from injuring or fatiguing yourself, and figure out a way to return it before the due date.

Hiring a Professional

Hiring a lawn care service such as VIRIDIS Lawn Care insures it will be completed efficiently and professionally with absolutely no work required by you other than a phone call. Our professionals know when to aerate for different grass types to give it the biggest benefit. They know how frequently to aerate and when the weather conditions are ideal. They know how to avoid damage to your lawn and its roots – a real concern when doing it yourself.

While aerating your lawn is possible by yourself, we really recommend hiring VIRIDIS Lawn Care to save you the most time, effort, and guesswork. Call us today to schedule your consultation.