Wake Landscapes Blog

Aerating and Seeding: Frequently Asked Questions

What are benefits of aerating a lawn?

Aerating a lawn involves perforating the soil with small holes to allow water, air and nutrients to reach the roots. 

When is it best to aerate?

In NC, we recommend aerating our fescue lawns each fall, around mid-September through mid-October. Fescue is a cool season grass, so we do not aerate in August because the 90-100 degree heat will diminish germination rates. It is also important not to wait too late in the season to allow the lawn to start growing before our first frost, which usually occurs early November. We always want to keep our newly seeded lawn free of leaves, sticks and other debris to help the seed grow.

What kind of aerators are there?

There is a variety of commercial equipment we use to aerate our lawn. The most popular style of aerators is a walk-behind style aerator, which consists of a drum style self-propelled walk-behind unit. These...

Aerating and overseeding your yard annually will do wonders for its health and fullness. However, if you do not properly care for your lawn after treating it, all the hard work and time spent on seeding and aerating will have been a waste and your lawn will not reach its full potential.

Watering Schedule After Aeration & Seeding

Caring for your new grass seeds means keeping them 100% hydrated, 100% of the time! If the soil dries out, the seeds can then dry out and cause them to die. Keeping the seeds damp with a consistent water schedule is important for germination and healthy growth.

Your lawn needs to reach a height of at least 2" before you can slow down on watering. This means watering your newly seeded areas for a minimum of 15-20 minutes per spot about 2-3 times per day. Most seed will germinate within one to three weeks.

Dampness creates the perfect atmosphere for grass seed germination. However, the temperature of the soil and air are a major...

While mowing your lawn weekly and fertilizing at the right time of year seems as though it will be the best for your lawn, you may be missing one crucial annual task. Aerating your lawn is a key to growing a thicker and healthier property in the Cary, Apex, Morrisville, and neighboring communities.

What is aerating? Aerating uses specialized machinery to create holes, or cores, in your lawn to allow nutrients, water, and oxygen to reach into your grass' root system. By pushing these vital elements to the roots of your grass, it encourages the grass to grow deeper roots, which in turn leads to thicker, greener, and healthier grass.

Some benefits of aerating your lawn include:

• Oxygen, fertilizer, and nutrients are able to more easily reach the roots of the turf and create a deeper root system.
• Thatch is disrupted and compacted soil is loosened.
• Thick turf is able to withstand pest attacks and also crowd out weeds.
• Gaining a thicker lawn.