Throughout the year, your lawn will likely become compacted due to things like rain, foot traffic, and the weight of lawn mowers. To relieve that compacted soil, you should have your lawn aerated. The aeration process is used to loosen up the compacted soil in your lawn so nutrients and resources such as water and sunlight can easily access the roots of your grass. In Oregon, this process is best performed in the fall to help your lawn recover from the hot summer months, and prepare it for the upcoming winter. You should schedule an overseeding service directly after your lawn has been aerated to achieve a dense, lush lawn as well.

What is aeration and how does it benefit your lawn?

A lawn from above with aeration holes and dug-up cores in Gresham, OR.

If you find your lawn is struggling and not looking the way it should, there's a good chance that compacted soil is the cause of the problem. Aeration can solve this problem by loosening up compacted soil on your lawn to make it easier for nutrients and other resources to reach the roots of your grass. Core aeration is performed by using a machine called an aerator that travels across your lawn and pulls up "cores". The cores of soil that will be left on your lawn after it has been aerated will eventually decompose and return their nutrients back into the soil.

Aeration can fix runoff and puddling issues with your lawn.

Why should aeration be scheduled in the fall?

A pile of lawn aeration cores after a professional service near Beaverton, OR.

Here in Oregon, lawns are primarily composed of cool-season grass. As the name implies, cool-season grass is at its strongest in cooler weather, which is the type of weather we experience in the fall. Because aeration is an invasive process, you'll want your lawn to be at its strongest so it can endure it, which is why you should schedule an aeration service in the fall. When you aerate your lawn in the fall, you'll be helping it recover from the stressful summer season by making it easier for its roots to absorb nutrients and other resources that it needs. What's more, when you aerate your lawn in the fall, it will have enough time to recover before the winter season arrives, and your lawn will be better equipped to make it through the winter.

What is overseeding and why should you pair it with aeration?

Hand laying seeds on a lawn to overseed it after an aeration in and around Gresham, OR.

Overseeding is the process of spreading grass seeds across your lawn to fill in any bare or patchy areas and to increase the overall density of your lawn. For best results, you should always pair overseeding with aeration. That's because when you overseed your lawn directly after it has been aerated, the seeds will be able to fall into the holes that were created during the aeration process. This will give the seeds better seed-to-soil contact and they will have a better chance of germinating successfully. With a stronger, denser lawn, your lawn will not only look great, but it will be better equipped to make it through the winter season!

Give us a call today to schedule our core aeration service.

At J&C Lawn Care, we offer an aeration service in the fall to help loosen compacted soil on your lawn so that nutrients and other resources can reach the roots of your grass. We also offer an overseeding service that can be scheduled directly after your lawn has been aerated which will help fill in any bare spots on your lawn and give you an overall denser turf. We offer our core aeration service to properties in Gresham, Happy Valley, Troutdale, OR, and surrounding areas. Call (971) 284-2035 to schedule our core aeration service today!