While we look forward to cool autumn weather, consider how landscape maintenance services could combat the summer’s effects on your lawn. For instance, daily foot traffic, routine lawn mowing, and rainfall condense the ground beneath your yard. Between that and the growth of thatch, you could use lawn aeration to “open up” the soil and expel stale air. To do so, reach out to a reliable landscape maintenance provider.
Home and business owners in and around McLean, VA, can turn to Northern Virginia Landscaping for their lawn maintenance needs. We are a full-service landscaping company whose options range from lawn mowing and edging to hardscape installations and tree removal. Prior customers rave about our services, and we’re proud to have produced so many outstanding results. Reach out today to learn more about our services.
Below, we discuss the benefits of aerating your lawn during the fall:
Improves the Health of Grass
As mentioned above, lawn aeration “opens up” the ground beneath your grass and allows fresh air to enter it. To do so, a lawn aerator pulls up small “plugs” of soil. However, it does so without compressing the ground, as a rake or handspike would if used to make similar holes.
Once opened, the ground releases stale air and exchanges it for fresh water, nutrients, and oxygen. As when dead leaves are removed from it, the grass has greater access to the resources it needs. So, in the spring, your whole lawn grows back greener.
If you treat annual aeration as a vital component of lawn maintenance, you can maintain a consistently healthy lawn. Indeed, this landscaping practice increases your home’s value by boosting its curb appeal.
Breaks Up the Thatch Layer
Throughout the summer, dead grass from mowing builds up and, eventually, forms thatch. Similar to a layer of dead leaves, thatch robs your grass of water, nutrients, and fresh air. Yet cutting grass is necessary—so you must deal with the resulting thatch in some way.
Lawn aeration breaks up thatch so that water and air can permeate through it to your grass. Moreover, the soil plugs that aerators pull up contain microorganisms that consume thatch. Aeration is thus a natural solution to the thatch dilemma.
Reduces Soil Compaction
As mentioned above, summer activity in your yard leads to a fair amount of soil compaction. Compacted soil inhibits air, water, and nutrients from reaching underground and nourishing your grass. Moreover, it can create puddles as well as patches of dead and thinning grass.
However, lawn aeration combats the effects of soil compaction. It allows your grass to receive the nutrients and water it needs while also releasing the ground’s compaction. In this way, again, aeration facilitates your grass’s healthy return in the spring.
Supports Seeding
If you want new grass planted, it makes sense that an “open” ground allows the seeds to penetrate further. Indeed, seeding works best when combined with lawn aeration in the fall. Along with increased access to nutrients and water, the seeds have more space to grow and breathe in aerated soil.
The improved conditions allow new grass to take hold during the autumn window between summer droughts and the first frost. Once more, your lawn can return greener in the spring.
Curtails Runoff and Puddling
Compacted soil leads to puddling, so it makes sense that aerated soil relieves the same. The loosened soil can absorb more runoff and redistribute it underground. If you’ve noticed that your yard struggles to drain rainwater, consider contacting us for lawn aeration and other services.
Autumn Landscape Maintenance Available Throughout McLean, VA
A few landscape maintenance services could be the factor that turns your yard into a lush greenscape next spring. So, turn to the best provider in the McLean, VA, region: Northern Virginia Landscaping. We work with home and business owners on landscape and hardscape design and maintenance, yard grading, drainage, and more. Bring your outdoor space to life with a full-service landscaping company: call us today at (703) 982-0100 or fill out our online form.
