Aeration: Your Guide To Proper Lawn Care

Aeration: Your Guide To Proper Lawn Care

Lawn aeration can be an incredibly beneficial service for your lawn when done with the proper lawn aeration equipment at the right time of the year. This process, known as Core Aeration, opens the soil allowing nutrients, water, and air easier access to grass roots. This helps to thicken and restore the vitality of your lawn.

What is the Process of Aeration?

Turf aeration can be performed with a “spiker” pulled behind a tractor (usually a lawn tractor) or with a self-propelled, gas-powered machine ( R&D Landscape way) that punches holes into the lawn and extracts plugs of turf grass, thatch, and soil. Ideally, these plugs (cores) should be half to three quarters of an inch in diameter, 2 to 3 inches in length, and pulled every 6 inches on average. Rented units are often bulky, older models that require a significant amount of labor for the operator. If the labor doesn’t bother you, the results may! The rented units often don’t have the hydraulic functions that give the smooth, more accurate results that an R&D Landscape aerated lawn will!

What are the benefits of lawn aeration?

These are 5 beneficial things that Core Aeration will provide:

  1. Better Air Exchange– Aeration opens and gives your lawn roots more room to breathe. This helps strengthen your lawn by increasing the size and quality of the lawn roots.
  2. Improved Fertilizer Absorption– Since aeration opens the soil, more food reaches your turf roots which enables the grass to grow more roots!
  3. More Efficiency of Water Usage– Core Aeration allows water to flow directly to the grass roots which means rain and/or irrigation will be far more efficient.
  4. Improved Resistance– Healthier root systems are established within your turf which could prove to be beneficial when combating disease or pests.
  5. Enhanced Thatch Breakdown– Millions of beneficial microbes live in your soil and eat thatch removed by the aeration process. By eating thatch, these microbes release nutrients into you soil which  your turf absorbs

When To Aerate Your Lawn?

The best time to aerate and achieve its maximum benefits is when the grass is actively growing. In our habitat we have cool season grass, so the spring or the fall is the optimal time. Here at R&D Landscape we like to aerate in the fall due to the spring pre-emergent herbicide application. We do not want to risk disrupting that weed barrier.

What Can You Do To Help Prepare For Your R&D Landscape Core Aeration Visit?

For the best results, there are a few things that you can do to help us. The first thing would be to make sure there is no debris, lawn furniture, or toys in the lawn. The second is to mark your sprinkler heads and underground dog fence lines.

How R&D Landscape Can Help.

R&D Landscape can advise you on a full range of lawn care services that can be tailored to meet your lawn’s unique needs. At R&D Landscape we use modern, efficient lawn aeration equipment in our approach to help restore your lawn to health and beauty.

For more information, contact us today!

Paul D Park: Fertilization and Aeration Division Leader

Phone: 517-202-5543 ext. 110

Email: paul@rdlandscape.com

 

R&D Landscape: ” Your 1 Stop Shop for All Things Outdoors!”

April Showers Bring May Dandelions

April Showers Bring May Dandelions, Look Out and Take Action Now.

Once upon a time as a child I loved those yellow flowers in our lawn. Since then I have learned a lot, especially over the past 15 years while being in our industry. As a father of two children who are very active outside I realized just what those do to my lawn. Dandelions zap the energy from the sun and the nutrients from the soil, keeping a lush green lawn down the road at the neighbors.

Dandelions grow taller with a broader leaf than typical Kentucky Bluegrass or Fescue. The taller, broader leaf of the dandelion shades out the preferred turf grass. The lack of sunlight stunts the growth of the turf grass and it begins to thin out. Just as the leaves of the dandelion get bigger the roots do as well. Bigger deeper roots means the nutrients and moisture are taken up by the dandelion, thus making it even stronger. This cycle continues year after year until your lawn is painted yellow with little to no turf grass for the kids to play on. What happens next?

Dandelions are sneaky. They show their true colors in the spring, turn yellow, and spread their seeds. Once they spread their seeds dandelions basically disappear for a month or two. It’s at that point that your lawn turns bare, allowing more varieties of weeds to move in. In late August they are back for one last hurrah; and the cycle continues.

The good news: dandelions can be controlled with a proper treatment program. It is necessary to treat the broad leaves of the weed as well as give nutrients to the turf so it has the energy to grow lush and fight off possible other invasive species of weeds. Using the proper treatment discourages the growth of the plant as a whole. Trying to dig up a dandelion generally is not effective. The root of a dandelion typically goes down 6-12 inches in the ground and will likely grow back if not removed completely.

R&D Landscape would love to help you out. They currently treat 80 acres at Bonnie View Golf Course, 200 residential and commercial lawns, and the athletic fields at Eaton Rapids Public Schools.

For more information contact us as soon as possible.

Phone: 517-202-5543
Email: info@rdlandscape.com
or See our Facebook Page

Russell Thorn,
President of R&D Landscape