Lawn Aeration

Mechanical aeration creates small channels into the lawn’s root-zone. These channels dramatically improve the flow of air, water, and nutrients. This service is aimed at improving growing conditions, resulting in a healthier and more vibrant lawn.

Benefits of Aeration include:

  • Up to 30% reduction in water usage!

  • Increased Oxygen/Co2 exchange

  • Reduced surface compaction

  • Supports beneficial soil organisms

  • Aids to reduce and manage thatch

  • Improves surface drainage

For lawns growing in heavy-clay soil types, we recommend this service be performed 1-2x per year.

Does my lawn need aeration?

Not every lawn will require this service! We look for these three symptoms to determine if your lawn would benefit from aeration. These are all reliable indicators of soil compaction. If the answer to one or more of these questions is “yes”, it is likely your lawn will benefit from aeration.

  • Does your lawn have excessive thatch? (1/2 inch or more) Yes/No

  • Has water usage increased over time? Yes/No

  • Does your lawn suffer from localized dry spots? Yes/No

When is the right time to aerate my lawn?

April-May and September-October are the best times to have this service performed. Note that weather conditions play a factor and exact timing can vary slightly year to year. It is important the lawn is actively growing to allow for a quick recovery period following service. The early spring and fall windows correspond with optimal conditions for grass seed germination as well as proper soil conditions for machine operation. For optimal results, it is important the soil be damp but not overly saturated.

What is the difference between “Coring” vs “Spiking”?

Our service is performed using a “solid tine”, or a “coring tine.” We can help you determine which option is makes the most sense for your lawn. Generally speaking we recommend spike aeration in the spring and core aeration in the fall.

Core aeration will remove a “plug” of soil which is deposited on the surface. (late summer/fall) Coring has the added benefit of reducing surface compaction.

Solid tine aeration or “spiking” delivers nearly all the same benefits while causing less disturbance. This service can be highly effective during a greater range of conditions.

What sets our service apart?

We are passionate about our work…You will be hard-pressed to find someone who cares more about your lawn!

Disclaimer:***We are not familiar with your in-laws*** (NO refer! nada de ingles!)

Attention to detail…While a few other landscape contractors in the area will perform aeration, most are using a rolling “drum” type machine from the rental yard. We use what is known as a “reciprocating” type aerator. This design is most similar to those used on golf course greens. The operation of our machine allows for more consistent coring depth and twice as many cores per square foot. This allows us to meet the 3% industry standard in a single pass. Practically speaking this translates to nearly 10,000 “cores” from a 1k sqft lawn!

Professional experience…At Blake’s Lawn & Garden you can have confidence knowing that 100% of our work is performed by the owner.

  • Over 15k hours of professional maintenance experience.

  • 6 years exp. serving as the division foreman with Shonnards Landscape

  • Commercial licensed with Oregon Dept. of Agriculture

Can I do this myself?

Absolutely! Many of our customers initially rented a machine and performed this work themselves! The majority find that between the cost of rental, transport, and fatigue associated with running the machine, it is often worth the cost of hiring a professional.

What about the manual fork aerators I see online? We typically do not recommend this method. While these tools can work well given favorable conditions, it is worth considering the time and labor involved.