Hey guys Callum here and welcome… today we’re going to take a look at how to aerate your lawn, when the best time is and to make it so easy it’s perfect for the home DIYer.
How To Core Aerate Your Lawn like A Pro
Knowing how to core aerate for your lawn.
Now like a lot of things in life if you just knew those tricks before you started the job can make a lot of things much easier.
In this how-to guide, I’m going to talk about how you can aerate your own lawn and save you some trouble with these few simple tips and tricks.
Some you may know and many of which you need to know before you even start.
So I’ll show you how to make the job that much easier.
Now before you even begin you’ve got to think about when you’re going to aerate your lawn.
Fall is always going to be the best time to aerate because the temperatures are cooler.
If you missed the boat in fall you can check out these tips for spring aerating and overseeding
The reason why fall is the grass is growing well, and if you’re going to add some seed fall as the right time of year to do it.
Now that you know when you want to aerate.
You’ve got to think about the equipment.
You will need without stating the obvious, a core or plug aerator, preferably an in-place turn one.
It will save you a ton of hard work and effort. See the short vids below, thanks to Silver Cymbal
You will also need a seed spreader, you can hire one of them at the same time too if you don’t already have one.
Now that you’ve chosen the right machine that can turn you’ve got to get it home.
These little sucks are heavy.
The good news is the place where you hire it should help you out by putting it on the truck or the car for you.
And that part’s easy.
Now the fun part once you get home, you’re on your own and you’ve got get it off.
So this is where my next tip really comes into play because these machines were built for this and they actually have the ability to get a little bit lighter.
Now doing this can make these things a lot easier to get on and off your truck.
And that’s because these machines have removable weights.
It’s not obvious at first, but when you look closer also ask when picking the machine up about the weight locations as each machine is different.
Most either got weights on the side or on the back that can be removed and doing this makes the machine a lot lighter.
So you always going to want to do this before you lift the machine and it’ll make the job a little bit easier with our machine in the ground.
Now once you’ve got it off the truck, reinstall the weights and their is just one more thing you need to do.
The front wheel on most good aerators acts as a wheel and also a water tank. This adds even more weight to the machine.
Don’t forget tho when your finished and going to reload this back on to your car or truck, drain the water out to take the weight off.
Don’t forget to fill this tank because doing this is going to make the machine penetrate the ground so much more.
Now your machine is almost ready to go and some basic tips about operating it.
These machines run just like a lawnmower.
It’s got a gas valve a choke and an on-off switch, but the differences are going to be about those extra levers and handles.
Now each aerator can vary a little bit but almost all of them are going to have the same functional controls.
That’s going to be one lever that’s going to engage those tines and the tines/cores are what spinning and goes into the ground and poke the holes to aerate the lawn.
The bottom lever is the one that’s going to allow you to lower the machine.
So when the bottom lever is dis-engaged the machine can be pushed around with ease when the tines are not in the ground.
By engaging the lever the tines penetrates the ground when you finally lower that lever.
If you’ve got an irrigation system y best to go around and mark, where those sprinkler heads are.
Just in case you hit one with a core.
You can chance it if like, its up to you.
If you’re going to hit one of them and you will destroy the head. So I recommend getting these inexpensive flags and marking them all.
Also make sure you’ve got good coverage over your piping in the ground to. If you have shallow irrigation you might turn it into a big soaker system.
I also recommend that you mow the lawn prior to aerating.
This is going to let it just get that much closer to the lawn and make sure those cores penetrate properly.
You’re going to want to use your mowers adjustment on the deck to reduce your height of cut.
I mow anywhere between about an inch and a half to two and a half inches when I aerate.
Don’t scalp it but cut it short enough so that your aerator can get close to the soil.
Aerating in a way is easier than mowing.
When you mow you’ve got to follow straight lines especially if your wanting to stripe your lawn as well.
When you’re aerating it doesn’t matter if you go in straight lines or zigzag around.
The important thing is you want to get as much coverage as possible… but don’t stress if you can’t hit a certain area or you go over an area twice, none of that matters.
Every hole is beneficial and your goal is to just do as much as you can without wearing yourself out.
Using any of these aerating machines is a lot of work to aerate your lawn and it does take some time.
Doing these things as made this much easier for me and I don’t get nearly as worn out as I used to.
And finally when you’re done aerating you’re going to have thousands a little cores all over your lawn.
Which is a good thing because that’s what it’s all about. Getting all those holes everywhere as they are going to allow water, fertilizer and nutrients to get to the root system.
Those little cores will actually break down and decompose and they kind of even top dress your lawn a bit because they are comprised of soil.
So you don’t want to collect or rake them up because there’s no benefit because you’d basically be throwing soil away.
With the job completed we’ve just got prep the machine to get it back to the store.
If your lucky to own your own, give it a clean down and grab a beer and the job is done.
If you’ve hired your, then you have a few more steps to go before grabbing that coldy out.
So your going to want to remove those weights again, and don’t forget to drain that tank on the front because you want this machine as light as possible when you put it back in your truck.
how to core aerate your lawn wrap-up
So getting the right aerator and knowing a few tricks can make doing this job so much easier.
I struggled for a lot of years and I finally got to this point where I could do it easily without all that stress and hard work.
So hope this article has helped you guys out and learn to aerate your lawn because it’s something you’re probably going to do at least every year.
So being efficient at it makes it easier and all the difference.
