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Lush, bright green as far as the eye can see: This is what a healthy lawn looks like.
But such a picture does not come by itself, because lawn care requires a lot of dedication.
In addition to the classic care rituals such as mowing and fertilizing, you should ventilate the lawn or aerate the lawn, as the specialist says.
If it hasn't been one for a long time, make aerating the lawn an integral part of maintenance just like mowing the lawn.
Because it helps on two levels: on the surface, matting of moss and weeds, which deprive the lawn of light and air, is removed.
In the soil, on the other hand, the basis for an ideal supply of nutrients and oxygen is created so that the lawn can grow well.
Also not to be neglected in the optimal supply of the lawn with nutrients is of course fertilizing the lawn.
Aerating and aerating the lawn: what is it for?
When it comes to aerating the lawn, there are essentially two things to do: Firstly, matting on the sward, i.e. the plant cover on the ground, is removed.
These tangles are classically made up of mosses, dead grass and weeds.
The felt deprives the lawn of light and oxygen and prevents rainwater from properly seeping into the soil - these conditions in turn help mosses and fungi to grow.
But not the lawn.
On the other hand, compaction is loosened from the soil.
A loose soil allows rainwater to drain off and reach the roots.
In addition, waterlogging, which very few plants like, is counteracted.
Hence, small puddles on the lawn are a reliable sign that you should ventilate your lawn.
Ventilating the lawn is therefore also a prerequisite for optimal lawn watering.
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How often you need to aerate the lawn depends on the density of the soil.
Often treaded lawns are usually heavily compacted, as the soil and sward are regularly trodden flat.
A heavily used lawn should be aired every one to two months throughout the year.
Ornamental lawn, which is hardly ever stepped on, is satisfied with a ventilation cure per year.
At the start of the season in spring (April / May, sometimes also at the end of March), you should always ventilate every lawn.
This revitalizes the lawn and prepares it for the growth phase between March and October.
Aerating the lawn: these are the right tools
Getting air into the lawn and soil sounds difficult at first.
But with the right hand movements and the right equipment, you can help your lawn to breathe deeply again.
Whether hand scarifiers, lawn aerators, shoes or motorized devices - there are many products on the market for aerating lawns.
Find out which lawn aeration equipment is best for your lawn so that you can maintain your lawn in the best possible way.
Hand scarifier: the classic
The hand scarifier is inexpensive and simple.
The lawn aerator has a couple of wire brackets at the end of the handle that gently remove moss and weeds from the lawn surface.
However, it is only really helpful if the lawn is frequently scarified so that no strong grass thatch can form.
In stubborn cases, the hand scarifier turns out to be rather useless.
The handy device is ideal for small areas of up to 50 square meters.
With larger areas it can be exhausting.
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A robust and reliable helper for regular lawn ventilation is, for example, the scarifying roller from WOLF *.
A special extra are the rollers on the sides, which make ventilation child's play.
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Motorized lawn rake: electric or petrol
The motorized lawn rake is used where the hand scarifier reaches its limits.
It does the work of the classic on a large scale, but without any effort.
In this way, stronger matted lawns can also be removed over a large area.
The lawn raker is motorized in two versions - on the one hand, the lawn raker runs electrically, and on the other hand, the lawn raker * requires petrol for its motor.
It could prove to be disadvantageous that both variants generate noise.
You need to keep this in mind when it comes to the times of day when you want to ventilate the lawn.
If the lawn rake is electric, you should also consider that there must be a socket nearby.
With the gasoline-powered SC 40 P from Scheppach, you can ventilate larger areas of your lawn in a very short time.
A tank with a capacity of 45 liters and a roller width of 40 cm allow reliable lawn ventilation on large lawns.
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Lawn aerator shoes: make the soil loose
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Ventilating the lawn also includes loosening up dense soil.
For ideal floor ventilation, 200 holes with a depth of 10 cm are punched into the floor per square meter.
This can only be done manually with great effort.
A practical helper are lawn aerator shoes, which are also called nail shoes.
The name already reveals the principle: It is a kind of shoe with nails on the soles.
There are about ten nails on each sole.
They are strapped around normal shoes and you can trudge through the lawn with them.
That sounds easy, but with large areas every step becomes quite exhausting.
An alternative is the aeration fork, which uses its hollow prongs to punch correct channels for rainwater into the ground.
The earth is not displaced, but carried to the surface and the way for the rain is clear.
But here, too, the physical exertion increases with the size of the area.
That's why you should make it as easy as possible for yourself: for example with the nail shoes from Bosmere *.
Simply strap on your feet, adjust the straps individually to your size and off you go.
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Aerate the lawn with a fan roller
The more relaxed version of the aerating fork for aerating the lawn is a motorized aerator.
Here the hollow tines sit on a fan roller that simply has to be pushed across the ground.
Aerating the lawn with a fan roller is particularly efficient, as many holes are punched in the ground in a very short time.
The fan rollers are really useful for large areas where handheld devices have no chance.
For small areas, however, it is not worth purchasing.
If you already have a motorized lawn fan at home, purchasing a fan roller is no longer a challenge.
However, it is important that the roller also fits your scarifier.
A very good fan roller * is, for example, the one from Einhell, which fits the RG-SA 14333.
It can be used to penetrate up to 9mm into the lawn to get rid of stubborn thatch.
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Aerating the lawn: what to do afterwards
Whether you use lawn aerator shoes, aerate the lawn with a fan roller or aerate it with an aerating fork - in any case, the holes that are created must be sanded.
The sand helps prevent silting up and helps rainwater to seep completely into the ground.
In spring after airing the lawn, spread 5 liters of play sand per square meter on the lawn and level it with a street broom.
This not only helps the rainwater run off, it also makes the soil leaner overall.
Lean soil does not compact as quickly, it does not compact as much, and weeds do not offer much breeding ground.
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This article was first published on April 26, 2019.