Aerating your lawn is one of the beneficial factors that help promote healthier soil and grass. In your typical lawn care, aeration should be a part of your lawn’s regular health regimen to ensure good irrigation, improved soil, roots and grass health.

Lawn aeration allows the soil to breathe, thus allowing air, moisture and nutrients to flow into the roots. Punching holes in the ground can be done by using aeration tools that can be rented from garden supply centers. You can also hire someone who has the know-how or a company that does the job professionally.

Your lawn’s requirement for aeration will depend on how the soil has been treated over the years. The physical appearance of the lawn itself can help you determine when and how much aeration is needed for your lawn. If your lawn exhibits poor drainage, not-so green grass even after fertilization and bald spots, then it's time to aerate.

Lawn care, aeration and other beneficial treatments for your lawn seem to be high maintenance, but these treatments don't usually require daily or even monthly tending. Aeration will depend on how your lawn’s soil has been treated over the years, and aeration may be done once a year or every two years.

Lawns that are intensively treated and maintained usually require annual aeration to make sure the soil is healthy and ready for another helping of fertilizers and such.

If parts of your lawn have high traffic, it is important to aerate these parts more frequently. Soil on high traffic parts of your lawn becomes more compact which makes it harder for air, water and nutrients to penetrate.

For highly compact soil, it is advisable to water the lawn before aeration. Make sure you water your lawn up to the desired consistency for the soil to break up and allow air during aeration. Avoid flooding or just slightly damping your lawn, neither will be beneficial and it will be harder to aerate the soil in just one pass.

Should you pull the plugs? Plugs or soil plugs are the bits of soil that have been pulled out of the poked holes during the aeration process. You may leave these plugs to dry, and irrigation or rain will break up these plugs eventually.

After your lawn’s first round of aeration, you will see a huge difference in the quality and distribution of grass throughout your lawn. Lawn care, aeration and basic soil cultivation know-how are essential to keep your lawn greener and in tip-top shape.

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