Five Tools for Aerating Your Lawn

Give your soil some air and keep your lawn healthy with these tools for aerating your outdoor spaces.

Filed under: Lawn Care

Best performed lightly in spring or in fall, lawn aeration is necessary to relieve soil compaction and to allow air to circulate around the grass roots and at the base of the leaf blades. There are various tools that can be used to achieve this, from the simple garden fork to mechanical aerators that are ideal for use over large areas.

Fork

Soil compaction can be relieved by pushing the solid tines of a fork into the lawn down to a depth of about 3 inches (8 cm) and wiggling the fork slightly to widen the holes before continuing this process every 4 inches (10 cm).

Hollow tiner

This special tool is used in the same way as the fork and using the same spacing, but it has hollow tines, meaning that cores of soil are removed, which should be filled in with good quality top-dressing.

Scarifier

This tool removes leaves and any thatch at the base of the grass blades, allowing air to circulate and helping water and fertilizer to penetrate the root zone.