Aerating soil

hi. Does anyone know a Lawn service company that I could hire just to aerate my lawn?  I don't know howI would Get A rental machine to my property. Thanks


I have a set of those. I use them, too. Stomping around the yard in them is harder work than you'd think. Not sure how well they work but I make the effort anyway.

rhw said:

how about these?



Looks like a new type of exercise.  

Going back to landscapers that aerated, that doesn't seem as common around here as you would expect.  I know my yard could use this and it is one of the few services I would pay for.  Anyone had this done recently?


I have someone who I used last year for core aeration/overseeding.  Found his ad on MOL and was very happy with him.  I care for my own lawn/yard/garden but needed this, in particular.  He didn't try to sell me on a "service", etc.  Super nice guy, worked for a larger lawn maintenance company in Summit but was going out on his own.  PM me for contact info.


You could rent an aerator (& pick up truck if your vehicle can't accommodate it) from Home Depot in Vauxhaul - however, their aerators are heavy enough where you'd likely need 2 people to load and unload from your vehicle.  My neighbor and I shared one last fall and it fit into the back of my SUV easily.  Versus the spike shoes, an aerator will remove cylindrical soil plugs from your lawn in order to allow water and nutrients penetrate the soil and grass roots.


I used to work for Lawn Doctor, and we provided the service. It was pretty rare for us to do it, and frankly I dreaded it. The machine was insanely cumbersome, and I was used to dealing with cumbersome machines and was very fit at the time. If you've never used the machine before, you're asking for trouble doing it yourself. See if Lawn Doctor does it. Other than them, just keep calling lawn services, I'm sure some of them do it. Most of the lawncare services people pay for, I regard as a waste of money, but aerating your lawn is one of the best things you can do for your soil (and those spikey shoes won't do the trick).


hey thanks a lot everyone!


Our lawncare service - Dial Environmental (973-228-2500) does it, along with overseeding.  I think they usually do it in the fall on our lawncare plan, but perhaps they would do a one-off.  


When we had Lawn Girl (is that her name) do our lawn one year, she said that aerating in the spring didn't make sense and was a waste of money.  I never really investigated that claim though.



Edited because I just looked it up:


A Simple Aeration Test

An easy way to assess soil compaction is to push a screwdriver or pencil into it. In compacted soil, this task proves very difficult. To confirm compaction, use a shovel to excavate a square foot of turf with soil. If you can easily sink the shovel to a depth of half the blade, your soil isn’t compacted. But if you find yourself struggling to push the shovel into soil, maybe even jumping on it, you need to aerate.

When you dig up the grass and soil, look for thatch and grass roots. Thatch lies between the living grass blades and soil. If that layer is more than one-half inch thick, you need to aerate. Look at grass roots extending into soil. If they reach 4-6 inches deep, your lawn doesn’t have a compaction problem. If, however, roots extend only 1-2 inches, you should consider aerating.

Timing on your dig test matters. Cool-season grass roots are longest in late spring; warm-season turf roots peak in fall.

Aeration Checklist

Signs that you need to aerate include:

  • water puddling on lawn after rain
  • vehicles driving or parking on lawn
  • thatch layer thicker than one-half inch
  • difficulty sticking a screwdriver or a pencil into soil
  • heavy clay soil
  • thin, patchy or bare grass

I did it myself a few years ago, wasn't actually that bad.  Home Depot has machines you can rent, and they fold up pretty good.  Fit it into my forester pretty easily, but I did need my brother there to help load and unload it.  Maybe took me an hour to aerate the soil then returned it.  It is a bit of a workout to move the machine around but it's not too bad.  I did it mid spring and boy did I get some serious grass that year.  Came so thick it almost choked my lawnmower if I didn't keep up with it!



awesome. Thanks all for all of the advice!


The tiny holes, about the size of a quarter, that seem to pop up all over the lawn in the fall are likely to be a sure sign of squirrel activity. Squirrels bury or cache their winter food supply and rely later on an incredible sense of smell to be able to relocate their buried treasure.  Any "damage" they create in these activities is likely to be so slight that tolerance and time are all you need. The lawn will heal itself by spring. Just consider it free aeration for your lawn!



rhw said:

The tiny holes, about the size of a quarter, that seem to pop up all over the lawn in the fall are likely to be a sure sign of squirrel activity. Squirrels bury or cache their winter food supply and rely later on an incredible sense of smell to be able to relocate their buried treasure.  Any "damage" they create in these activities is likely to be so slight that tolerance and time are all you need. The lawn will heal itself by spring. Just consider it free aeration for your lawn!

We have a section of lawn (formerly the site of our now grown kids' swingset) that was leveled and soil-enriched and reseeded last fall.  It is spongy and soft, since we had mixed compost in with the soil, and that is the place that the squirrels have "aerated" for us.  Of course, that was the one section that didn't need it.


Yup. My guy said the same thing. Wait until fall.

sac said:

Our lawncare service - Dial Environmental (973-228-2500) does it, along with overseeding.  I think they usually do it in the fall on our lawncare plan, but perhaps they would do a one-off.  



I've read that Fall is the best time to aerate.  However, if your yard is in really sad shape, it may be worthwhile to do this in spring and then again in the fall.  In any case, as mentioned earlier, if anyone needs a reco, I'm happy to provide contact info for the person who did core aeration/overseeding for me last year.  PM me.  BTW - I care for my own lawn/garden and used someone just for this who didn't try to "sell me" on other services.



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