When spring arrives and your lawn is starting to repair itself for the upcoming summer, two things you can do to help your grass grow healthier are core aeration and dethatching. These are two things that when done right, can lead to a greener and lusher lawn with fewer weeds.
What does each process involve and why should you do it? It’s important to note that you can do both processes in conjunction with one another but that the order and timing of each is critical so it’s worth taking a closer look.
Lawn aeration refers to mechanically pulling small plugs of grass out of the ground to loosen compacted soil and make it easier for oxygen, water and nutrients to be absorbed by the lawn. Dethatching refers to removing dead grass and debris from the top of the lawn also to promote lawn health.
Let’s take a look at the process behind each option and how you can do them on your own or hire a lawn service to perform them professionally.
How core aeration helps to grow a greener healthier lawn
Lawn aeration typically involves using a gas-powered machine called a lawn aerator like the one shown at the top of this article to pull plugs of grass and soil from the ground that are 1/2″ – 3/4″ in diameter and 1″ – 6″ deep depending on how you set the machine and the quality of the aerator you use.
You may hear the process referred to as core aeration since it involves removing small lumps of compacted soil that resembles an apple core.
Over time, a lawn’s soil can get compacted. This means the surface of the lawn gets very hard which makes it difficult for air, water and nutrients to penetrate the surface and reach the roots of the grass.
If you have a poor lawn that doesn’t grow well and additionally notice your grass is hard to walk on, it’s likely you have soil compaction. If you have harsh winters with heavy snow and ice, compaction can be made worse as a result.
Aerating your lawn once per season can help to loosen the compacted soil by creating small holes in the lawn that oxygen, water and nutrients can enter to feed the roots of the grass, promoting healthier and greener grass, just like in the lawn diagram shown above.
You can simply leave the plugs of soil and grass that are pulled out by the aerator on your lawn to be reabsorbed into the grass as they dissolve or to get redistributed when you mow the lawn.
How dethatching helps to grow a greener healthier lawn
Dethatching involves mechanically removing dead grass and other debris from the top of your lawn either with a machine or with a special rake. Dethatching is also referred to as scarifying your lawn.
It’s generally recommended to dethatch or scarify your lawn yearly depending on how much thatch you have. Cool season grasses should be dethatched in the late summer or early in the fall whereas warm season grasses should be done late in the spring before the main summer growing season. Check to see what type of grass you have before dethatching.
As with core aeration, dethatching your lawn helps the look of your lawn but making it easier to absorb air, water and nutrients and also gets rid of dead unnecessary grass to improve drainage.
The best time to dethatch your lawn is when it’s slightly wet and shows clear signs that it’s growing. Mowing your lawn before dethatching is also recommended.
You should not dethatch a lawn that is not growing (i.e. is dormant) or one that is yellow, dying or otherwise stressed.
Not every lawn will need to be dethatched but dethatching once per year or when the thatch reaches a thickness of about 0.5″ is a good rule of thumb to follow.
The cost to aerate and dethatch a lawn
Lawn aeration costs
Most people would be loathe to buy a lawn aerator machine that they only end up using once per year given the cost and size. A professional machine costs $3,000 and up whereas smaller machines for home use can be purchased for $150 – $200 that aren’t nearly as hardy, as heavy or as useful.
Expect to pay $50 – $300 for full lawn aeration services from a lawn care company depending on the size of your lawn and what other services you might include.
Still, a home aerator that you can use yourself once or twice per year might suit the average homeowner just fine. They take up about as much space as a lawnmower.
You may also find people going door to door with a pro style machine offering lawn aeration services for cash. You can often bargain with them to get a decent price for well under $100 depending on your lawn size. I’ve paid $40 – $50 for my front lawn to be aerated.
You can also contact local service companies to not only aerate your lawn but also offer other lawn care services such as fertilizing and over seeding.
You can also rent lawn aerators from local hardware stores typically for around $50 – $100 for a day or even for several hours if you have the means to transport the machine home yourself.
Lawn dethatching costs
You can purchase an entry level home lawn dethatching machine for $120 – $200 and higher end models in the $250 – $700 range. You can also purchase a manual dethatching rake for $70 – $110 with sharp, hard metal teeth. You can also choose a towable dethatcher designed to be attached to a tractor or riding lawn mower for $140 and up if you have large lawns that are too big to do manually.
A dethatching rake has long, sharp straight steel teeth for dethatching lawns. Quality rakes may also have another set of teeth on the opposite side of the rake that are curved for regular cultivating of soil as you’d expect from a standard rake. This side of the rake tends to have blunt teeth as a regular rake has.
You use the rake just like a regular one but the special sharp teeth will better and more deeply penetrate through thick thatch to remove it.
A regular garden rake won’t properly remove thatch from your lawn the way a scarifier will.
If you decide to have lawn dethatching work done by a lawn service company expect to pay $100 – $250 depending on lawn size or around $175/hour. Other services such as overseeding of your lawn may be added at an extra cost.
Overseeding refers to adding grass seed to your existing lawn to fill out bare or thin spots and to thicken up the rest of the lawn. To overseed, you mow your lawn, add a thin layer of soil and then spread the grass seed on the lawn either manually or with a seed spreader.
Overseeding can also help to crowd out weeds and is typically done in the autumn when temperatures are still warm. Spring is the second best time to overseed. You might do this yourself and save a bit of money after dethatching to promote new grass growth.
Overseeding is also quicker and cheaper than ripping up your lawn and resodding.
Should you use a machine or manually aerate and dethatch your lawn?
The benefit of a home dethatching machine or rake is that if you’re up to the job, it’s something you can do when you choose, several times per year if desired.
Paying a service on the other hand means you are paying for the professionalism but need to pay each time you use it and can add other desired lawn services such as overseeding if needed.
Depending on your motivation and skill, you might find that doing the work yourself suffices but if you don’t have the desire to buy the tools and do the work or you simply have a large lawn, a paid service once per year might suit you better.
Dethatching, Aeration and Overseeding in order
If you’re looking to improve the look of your lawn, dethatching and core aeration along with overseeding are three things that can help the look and health of your lawn. Not all lawns require dethatching but lawns will generally benefit from core aeration and overseeding.
If you’re planning on doing all three, the recommended order of operations is:
- Dethatching first
- Core aeration second
- Overseeding last
Dethatching gets rid of dead grass that is no longer needed and is simply in the way of better lawn growth.
Core aeration then breaks up compacted soil to loosen the ground and make it easier for grass to grow and take root.
Overseeding done last promotes new grass growth among thin areas and where dethatching has just been performed.
Final thoughts on core aeration and dethatching
Many lawns won’t require dethatching but done once yearly, it will help to promote better lawn growth over time and make for a healthier looking lawn.
Core aeration breaks up hard compacted soil that is often made worse by dry conditions and harsh cold winters.
Overseeding is an optional choice to fill in thin areas of the lawn to also promote a thicker, healthier grass over time.
While you can do all three options yourself, the one that is most difficult tends to be lawn aeration if you’re planning on using a machine since it either involves buying or renting one or enlisting the paid services of a professional.
Dethatching can be done manually with a special rake which does involve work on your part and overseeding can also be done manually yourself with relative ease since the materials you need are cheaper and smaller than a quality core aeration machine.