How to Aerate a Small Lawn by Hand

An aerated lawn produces healthier grass.

You can aerate a small lawn without having to buy or rent expensive gardening tools. Lawn grass, made up of individual plants or blades, needs adequate amounts of water and oxygen. Aerating your lawn creates small, vertical "tunnels" that permit the nutrients necessary for healthy grass to descend deeper into the soil. The holes you make in the lawn with an aerator fill in after several days, and the vitality of the soil under the lawn remains improved.

Things You'll Need

• Work gloves
• Thatch rake
• Wheelbarrow
• Manual aerator

Instructions

1. Rake your lawn with a thatching rake. Begin raking from a point farthest away from the house. Make sweeping strokes with the rake toward the house, and work from either left to right or right to left. Rake the thatch into piles approximately 2 feet in diameter, so you can pick them up easily. Removing thatch separates the old, brown grass from the new, green grass, and allows for easy penetration of aerator blades.

2. Water your lawn thoroughly the night before you aerate. Be careful not to overwater; stop watering as soon as puddles begin to form on the surface of the soil. The core blades of the aerator penetrate the earth more easily in damp soil.

3. Aerate your lawn with a manual aerator. This tool, as long as a spading fork, has three hollow-cored tubes attached to the bottom of a "stirrup." Start aerating where you began raking thatch, and progress in the same manner. Place one foot in the stirrup of the aerator, and using your body weight with one hand on the handle of the tool, press the blades all the way into the earth. Manipulate the tool in a rocking motion a few times, front to back, and then pull it from the ground. Leave a space of 12 inches between each insertion of the aerator, and continue in the same way to aerate the entire lawn.

4. Resist the temptation to gather up the soil cores the aerator leaves on the lawn. The cores break down after a few days as a result of watering and surface traffic, and provide additional organic material for your lawn.

Tips & Warnings

• Sturdy work boots are vital for operating a manual aerator.

• The core blades of a manual aerator are sharp and may cause injury if used improperly.

References

• University of Minnesota Extension; Lawn Renovation; R.J. Mugaas, et al.; 2009
• UC IPM Online; The UC Guide to Healthy Lawns; 2009
• "Scotts Lawns: Your Guide to a Beautiful Yard"; Nick Edward Christians, et al.; 2002
• University of Nebraska Lincoln Extension; Aerating Your Lawn; Don Janssen; October 2006

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish
• Penn State; Aeration of Turfgrass Areas; John C. Harper