Aerations & Overseeding

About Our Aeration Service

GreenStripe offers aeration services as part of our comprehensive lawn care program. Aeration is an essential part of fall preparation, which helps maintain a healthy lawn throughout the season and introduces many short- and long-term benefits to your yard. Aerating often involves mechanically removing small plugs of soil from the ground to open up new pores--allowing nutrients and water to penetrate and for better air exchange with the grass roots.

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Often following an aeration service, we'll introduce new seed to the lawn so it can fill in any bare or thin areas over time. If you plan to overseed, this is prime time to get it done. You've provided a place for seed to be held in place and make contact with freshly exposed soil.

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Problems Addressed

GreenStripe's aeration services help your lawn combat a number of common issues associated with dry, patchy, and generally difficult-to-maintain lawns. Poorly aerated lawns often experience shallow root growth and dry, unhealthy-looking grass due to one or more issues listed below:

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• Poor air exchange, often leading to suffocated roots
• Poor soil penetration, reducing the effectiveness of your watering habits
• Poor fertilizer uptake, causing inefficient use of fertilizers and wasted money
• Soil compaction, stopping the spread of grass roots and healthy growth

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The improvement of these conditions (and others) through regularly performed aeration services, should collectively improve the health of your lawn; making it more tolerant of environmental stressors as well. If you are interested in getting a quote on this service or just want to ask some questions--feel free to reach out using any of the methods offered on our site. Don't forget to ask about overseeding services too!

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What to expect

When you get aeration service, it's really a very simple process. We will notify you before we come out to give you time to mark anything that could be hit or cut by the aerator. This may be underground dog fences, sprinkler heads, landscape lighting or in-ground covers of any kind. Marking these items out with paint, flags, or other items will ensure that our team can effectively avoid them as we work.

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The work is really as simple as us coming out with our aerator, aerating the lawn fully, overseeding (if applicable) and leaving. We do ask that you leave gates unlocked and let us know in advance if you are not able to mark out hidden items in the lawn. Though aerations can be performed most of the season, and most commonly in spring/fall, we only perform aeration in the fall because it typically yields the best results.

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In spring, you run the risk of an early heat wave coming and killing your grass before it has time to mature. When you aerate and overseed in the fall, your new grass will have the remainder of fall, as well as the following spring, to mature before it's hit with summer stressors.

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If you are looking at getting an aeration or have already signed up, you can expect to have this done between August and the end of October for optimal results.

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Stretch Your Dollars

If you just purchased (or plan to purchase) aeration and overseeding services, there are a few things you can do at home to get the most out of your investment. Starting with the time of year--most experts agree that aerating should be done in early fall when the grass is actively growing and soil moisture is typically ideal. GreenStripe only offers this service in the fall, so you won't need to worry about timing.  

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Another thing to keep in mind is that aeration does cause stress to the lawn, regardless of the time of year.  Therefore it's important to avoid actions that might lead to further stress before the turf has had time to recover. Mowing off too much at a time is probably one of the two most common issues we see, with watering habits coming in a close second.

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To protect your lawn post-service, make sure you are cutting off no more than 1/3 of your grass blades in a single mowing. And water does wonders at relieving a stressed lawn. If you did not purchase an overseeding with your service, water your lawn normally--ensuring the turf gets around an inch of water per week. If you did order seed with your aeration, the best practice is to ensure the top layer of soil stays moist until your seed has germinated. At this point you can slow down a bit while the grass matures and thickens up.