Aeration in Manassas

Getting that beautiful lawn that quickly becomes the envy of the neighborhood isn’t easy. Unfortunately, it involves more than just mowing the grass. Yet you don’t need to be told this. After all, you’ve purchased the high-priced lawn care equipment, spoken with the “experts” at your local lawn and garden center, and even spent hours watching YouTube tutorials. All of that has led you to drop fertilizer along with pre- and post-emergent on your lawn when suggested, and to follow a strict watering a mowing schedule. What have you got to show for all of that effort? A lawn that’s still teeming with weeds and marred by uneven grass coloring.

Why aren’t your lawn care efforts working? If you’re like many of the Manassas clients that we here at Scapes, Inc. work with, you’ve likely just skipped a step. You see, the only way for those lawn care elements to truly benefit your grass is to provide them with a pathway to get down to the roots. This is where aeration comes in.

The Aeration Process We Use for Our Manassas Clients

If you’ve ever walked up on a lawn in Manassas that looks like it’s full of tiny brown pellets, know first that they’re not what you think they are. Their presence means that the lawn was recently aerated using a plug aerator. Here’s how we at Scapes, Inc. do it:

• Typically, we wait until your soil is somewhat moist, usually a day or two after it has rained. Dry ground is just more difficult to penetrate. If it hasn’t rained recently, we may ask you to water the lawn the day before we arrive.
• Using a plug aerator, we’ll make several passes across the lawn, similar to how you would with your lawn mower. With each pass, tiny soil plugs about 0.5 inches in diameter and 2-3 inches deep are pulled from lawn. These should be allowed to stay on the grass so that they can break down and continue to enrich the soil.
• Once the aeration is done, we’ll follow it up with a fertilizer and possibly an herbicide treatment. The new holes allow these additives to reach the roots of the grass, where they are absorbed and finally put in the best position to their jobs.
• You then keep up with your mowing and watering. Your mower blade will break the tiny plug pellets up and return them to the soil, while the holes also allow more water to percolate to your grasses root system, encouraging enhanced and uniform growth and color.

We here at Scapes, Inc. recommend aerating your lawn twice a year, usually in the early spring and early fall. The spring aeration serves to help wake up the lawn after a long, dormant growth phase during winter, while the fall one helps put it to bed once the season is over.

Top Notch Aeration Service

The blood, sweat, and tears that you’ve put into making your lawn look great needn’t be in vain. You can still create that lush layer of turf you’ve always dreamed; you simply need the right kind of support. We here at Scapes, Inc. are happy to provide it. Just call us in as soon as spring arrives and right when fall starts approaching, and we’ll be there to aerate your lawn to prep it for its feeding. We can be reached at (703) 397-6600 or by you filling out our convenient online contact form.