What do you aerate, what’s does it mean to aerate and why is it necessary to aerate with a garden fork, and what’s a garden fork? All these questions will be answered in this article, especially how to aerate with a garden fork.
What do you aerate? You aerate a lawn. What’s a lawn? A lawn is a grass-covered ground that is kept mowed (such as around a house, in a garden, or a park). Now, what does it mean to aerate?
Aeration is the process of making microscopic holes in the soil to allow air, water, and nutrients to reach the grassroots. This encourages the roots to grow deeper, resulting in a healthier, more vibrant lawn. The primary goal of aeration is to reduce soil compaction.
Benefits of Aeration
The following are a few benefits of aerating your lawn.
The removal of weeds is the first benefit of the little holes formed by aeration. Having weeds in your yard has several drawbacks. To begin with, weeds can grow large and unpleasant in your well-kept garden.
These massive weeds may absorb all of the moisture, nourishment, heat, and food that your flora requires to thrive and grow big, strong, and healthy.
The microscopic holes formed by aeration helps in loosening the dirt. Air and water can permeate your grass by loosening the soil. It will be easier for the roots to drain when air and water penetrate the surface of your lawn. As a result, your lawn will be stronger, healthier, and grow faster.
However, if you don’t have and use the appropriate tool, this lawn care procedure can be difficult. The process of lawn aeration would be easier and faster if you have and use the proper tool. That’s why I’ll explain what a garden fork is how to aerate with a garden fork.
Read also: Learn about the Best Aerators For Clay Soil
What’s A Garden Fork?
A garden fork shouldn’t be confused with a salad fork. Every lawn care lover should be familiar with it. It is one of the good tool to aerate a lawn. Forks are an excellent gardening implement for a variety of reasons. They are useful in a variety of situations, which is one of the reasons they are so popular.
Forks for gardening operations often have a short and compact handle made of wood or rubber. There is a lengthy pole after this handle. Then there’s a set of tines at the end of this lengthy rod.
Each of the tines is significant. The tines on a fork range from three to six in number. The sharp metal point of the fork is known as a tine. It should be razor-sharp and perfectly straight.
Tip: for details about garden fork, check our guide about the best garden forks for aeration here
How To Aerate With A Garden Fork
The following are various steps taken to aerate with a garden fork.
Note: before you start aerating your lawn with the garden fork, make you wet the lawn with water.
- To use it, carefully go over your lawn with the fork.
- To expand the holes, push the tines down approximately four inches and wiggle the fork a little.
- Stabbing and wriggling your way over the lawn, repeat this technique every four inches or so.
- Do this several times until you aerate the compacted area of your lawn
- Know that doing this manually can consume your time and energy especially if you aerating a large area of lawn or garden
- Alternatively, you can also use a liquid soil aeration loosener
- Before winter cold or Summer’s hot fury, leave about a month for the lawn to finish healing
- if you aimed to overseed, make sure you also leave about a month before you plant
- After you finish aerating, mix in quality soil and apply well aged compost on the top
- Then, plant seeds that are well adopted to your area
Tip: learn about the best soil liquid aeration loosener here
Conclusion
I hope you find this article helpful. I would like to hear from you. So, let me know if you have any questions about how to aerate with a garden fork.
References
- “Getting Your Lawn Ready for Summer – Aeration” retrieved from here
- “Bioremediation of soils saturated with spilled crude oil” retrieved from here
