How to Loosen up Clay Soil

Successfully planting in clay soil is not an easy thing to do. Clay coil has to be modified in order to allow most plants to grow. This can be made even more difficult if you already have a lawn in place and wish to loosen the soil without destroying the lawn in the process. It can be done though through a process known as core cultivation, with a minimum of damage done to the sod by following a few short steps.

Things You'll Need

• Yard flags
• Core aerator
• Wheelbarrow
• Compost
• Length of chain link fencing

Instructions

1. Check the lawn for sprinkler heads, shallow power lines, or anything else that may be damaged by shallow digging. Mark these items off with small yard flags so that you do not aerate these areas.

2. Completely soak the lawn two days prior to aerating so that the aerator will penetrate completely into the soil. Do not flood the soil, as too much wetness will cause the aerator to press soil into the bottom of the holes made, further compacting the clay soil.

3. Use a core aerator to remove solid cores of soil from the clay. You can rent an aerator from an equipment rental shop or a home improvement store. Run the aerator across the entire surface of the clay soil. The machine should pull a plug of soil about four inches in depth and one-half inch in diameter every two inches.

4. Remove the plugs from the lawn and crumble the cores taken from the soil in a wheelbarrow. Add compost to the cores to make a mix consisting of two parts clay soil, one part compost. Spread this mixture onto the soil in a one-half inch layer.

5. Fill the core holes by dragging a length of chain link fence over the surface of the clay soil to move the core and compost mix into the holes created with the aerator. The mixture will help the soil by moving between the clay soil particles, loosening them for greater water, air and nutrient flow.

6. Repeat the aeration process regularly, waiting for grass to grow in the last placed holes before coring again. By repeating the process you eventually replace all of the compacted clay with the new looser soil.

Tips & Warnings

• After aerating the lawn, reseed any lightly covered areas.

References

• Colorado State University Extension: Core Cultivation: (Aerating Lawns)
• Kansas State University Extension: Aerating Your Lawn
• Lawn Aeration: Healthy Grass Care Through Core Aeration

Resources

• Lawn Aeration and Thatching: All about Lawn Aerators and Aeration!