If you don’t start taking care of your lawn right after aerating it, it will not get the benefits from aeration. Also, your lawn will not revive as you thought because of no proper care and awareness about it. Therefore, in this blog, we are informing you about what is best to do after aerating a lawn. Let’s start knowing it all.
Table of contents
What is best to do after aerating a lawn?
Below are some steps that you should take after aerating every time regardless of the aeration method and tool you choose to aerate the lawn.
Quick review about aeration
Your lawn needs aeration when its soil becomes compacted to reach the water, nutrients air to penetrate in soil deeply. You can make holes in the soil with the spike method or take plugs out of it with the plug/core aeration method, for this purpose. For the spike aeration method, you can use a handheld aerator, shoe aerator, and push aerator. For plug aeration, you can use tow behind the aerator and gas-powered aerator. However, some handheld aerators with hollow tines are also used for plug aeration the lawn. You must aerate a lawn once a year. You can aerate a lawn several times during the year.
If you want to read more about aerating the lawn, we have published four articles on the subject.
Leave plugs on the soil to break down naturally
After core aerating a lawn, you will see plugs of soils scattered all across your lawn. Let those plugs on the soil break down naturally, which takes 2 to 3 weeks. Precipitation, mowing, and regular lawn use contribute to breaking them down.
But some people say that letting the plugs stay on the lawn cause grass browning or dieback underneath them. If this is the case with your lawn, we suggest you, instead of cleaning the plugs, let them dry and take these steps. Run over the lawn with your lawnmower to break them up. Pound the plugs of soil with the back of the rack.
Not removing the soil plugs helps fill up the holes, recover the lawn quickly, and give nutrients back to the soil
Overseed the lawn
If your lawn has sparse or thin grass, patchy areas with dead grass, then over-seeding after aerating your lawn is the best thing. At that time, holes are present in the soil to help the seeds properly germinate. Moreover, these 7-10 centimeters deep holes are the perfect shelter for seeds from birds and from scavengers. Furthermore, using a broadcast spreader is best to over-seed your lawn. After overseeding, wait for 3 to 4 weeks for the grass to sprout.
Fertilize the lawn
Like overseeding, deep holes also help fertilizer penetrate deeper and benefit the grassroots fully. To make this step significantly positive, use high nitrogen, organic fertilizer.
We use fertilize products from Indigrow, probably the best products you can get for your lawn.
Top dressing on muddy soils
If you have very muddy soil, it is better to collect the soil plugs from the hole pipe aeration and then take them away from the lawn. Then top dress the lawn after overseeding and level out ground with a levelawn.
Clear the lawn from weeds
If the grass is sparse, it is easy for the weeds to take over and suffocate the new grass after the overseed. Therefore, you should remove the weeds from the lawn as soon as they begin to grow.
Water deeply
After aerating a lawn, water deeply the lawn at least two times a week for 30 to 60 mins. It makes the new grass and existing grassroots better and healthier. Moreover, this prevents drought too. After a month, when the grass is 2 inches tall, you can do average watering once a day.
Stay off the grass
In the first month of aerating the lawn, stay off of the grass whenever possible. It makes the grass fully grow, and seeds properly germinate. There should be no playing, less foot traffic, and the vehicle should be off the grass. Moreover, heavy activity over the wet soil can compact and avoid water seeping into the soil.
Avoid cutting the grass
After 2 to 3 weeks, grass will start growing and wait until it becomes 8-10 centimeters taller. Because when reaching this height, it helps the grass establish its roots deeper, healthily, and quickly. It is not suitable to mow the lawn after the aeration when you overseed.
Mow properly
After aerating a lawn, when you mow the grass, make sure the soil core is dry. Also, make sure to remove the catcher of the mower. When the lawnmower breaks the soil core, at the same time, it brings core soil back to the lawn and makes it the top dress for the grass.
Moreover, change the mowing direction every week and consider cutting one-third of the grass height.
Questions and answers
Frequently asked questions and answers about the finishing work after aerating the lawn.
It depends on the condition of the lawn. If your lawn is healthy, dense, grows lush and the soil is porous, it is enough to just spike aerate the lawn.
You can spike or plug aerate your lawn. Do not confuse aeration with dethaching which are two different treatments.
There are various tools for aerating the lawn with. You can use a simple hand-held lawn aerator or machine for work.
More reading on aerating the lawn
Read our other articles if you want to know more about how to aerate a lawn and why it is good to do so.
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- Published
- April 10, 2022