The photos below really capture the benefits of aerating. The main benefits most people know of is that it allows air, water, seed, and fertilizer to get better access to the soil to make caring for the lawn easier along with promoting thatch to decompose. But did you know it can help identify problems in your soil, or even help show which areas of your lawn need more work? The plugs in the photos were pulled from a super green and healthy looking lawn.
This first photo is of two plugs from the same yard about 8 feet apart. This shows that one area needs a lot of work to remove the thatch build up while the other area needs a little more thatch to grow.
The one on the right is almost a perfect plug. It needs a bit more thatch on the top of it, and the rest is your soil with signs of roots growing in it. This is what you want. The one on the left is almost all thatch. It was the same length as the right, but the soil portion fell off because nothing was binding it to the grass. This is from the thatch build up. Too much thatch causes grass to develop shallow root syndrome (SDS) because no nutrients can get into the soil. Thatch prevents water and nutrients from penetrating the surface making you need to water/fertilizer more than most people to give your lawn less. It also leaves your lawn more vunerable to things such as bug infestation, winter kill, and droughts.
This second photo shows how much moisture is being held in the ground due to too much clay and too little soil meaning not enough air penetrates the ground. I was able to pick up the cores and feel the moisture levels in them. My hands were damp after touching them. Now that air is getting deeper into the ground it will allow the ground to dry at a reasonable pace preventing the lawn from drowning. It also let me know to tell the customer what to add to their lawn to promote better air flow, and how much to adjust the watering schedule.
This is the real importance to aerating in my opinion. The first photo is of a customer who is new to their house, so it really let them see how the previous owner took care of the lawn and let us make a plan to make it healthier. The second one was someone who was struggling to get a healthier, more green lawn for quite a while (you can see the yellow and green of the lawn in the background).
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