<h3><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-3353" src="http://midwestpesticideaction.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/aeration_image.jpg" alt="aeration_image" width="246" height="205" />Things starting to get tight below the turf? Grass roots struggling? Time to aerate! Says MPAC's Metcalf intern Leah Garner.</h3>
Below the ground a worm struggles, trapped in the layers of tightly packed organic matter and soil of your lawn.  Each new footstep smashes in an opening where the worm can execute its day to day activities. Your turf’s roots suffer without the worm adding to soil structure, cycling nutrients, and breaking down organic matter.

<span style="font-weight: 400;">This fall, end the suffering and aerate! By perforating the soil with holes, aeration provides fresh air, water, and nutrients to grass roots and the entire soil ecosystem.</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> This freshness combats </span><a href="http://www.ext.colostate.edu/mg/gardennotes/215.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">compacted soil</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> conditions that restrict air access, growth ability, and water uptake capacity of most living organisms including your turf’s roots.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">With more area to work, your turf’s roots can increase its mass and uptake more nutrients and water. Stronger, thicker, and healthier root systems develop superior resistance to weeds, diseases, pests, and environmental stresses of droughts and long winters. </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Aeration holes, also, break up the layers of dead and living organic matter above the soil surface called thatch (see <a href="http://simplygreenlawncare.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/core.jpg" target="_blank">this graphic</a>). By accumulating </span><a href="http://news.aces.illinois.edu/content/benefits-fall-core-aeration-lawn" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">underground grass stems (rhizomes) and aboveground stems (stolons)</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, thatch may harbor pests, diseases, and unfavorable conditions for root uptake of air, water, and nutrients.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">You do not need the expertise of a soil scientist nor the life experience of a constricted worm to tell when to <a href="https://web.extension.illinois.edu/askextension/thisQuestion.cfm?ThreadID=21429&amp;catID=154&amp;AskSiteID=34" target="_blank">aerate your soil</a>. Find your toolbox, pick up a screwdriver and push it through your lawn’s soil. Having any difficulty pushing it down? Then you likely have compacted soil.  </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="http://learningstore.uwex.edu/Assets/pdfs/A3710.pdf" target="_blank">For thatch</a>, grab a pocketknife to cut a triangular section of turf three inches long and two inches deep.  You should find a thatch layer of brown roots and stem tissues in between the green turf leaves and the soil.  If that layer exceeds one inch in thickness, it could provide prime conditions for pests and diseases.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">When aerating, you want to address both the compacted soil and the thick thatch layer.  Spikers and slicers that poke narrow holes in the soil without removing cores often provide only a temporary solution to these problems and may further compact your soil.  </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">For most effective results, visit your local hardware store and search for a </span><a href="http://ipm.ucanr.edu/TOOLS/TURF/MAINTAIN/aeratehow.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">hollow core aerator</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> type, either a man-powered hand aerifier or a machine-driven piston-type aerifier. These aerators should remove soil cores 1/4 - 1/2 inches in diameter and reach 3 to 4 inches deep.  Aerate the soil at 4 - 6 inches apart and leave the cores on the lawn to dry for 1 - 2 days.</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> Once dry, recycle nutrients to the soil, like our earthworm friend, by mowing to break up the cores.   </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Aeration works best at two times over the year: In mid- to late- spring (May 1 to June 15) and right now (September 1 to 30)! Aerating today, helps your turf build strong and large root systems to outlast the winter and trigger stem growth at the start of spring.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Many more practices this fall will help your grass spruce up next spring. For additional fall lawn care tips, refer to our </span><a href="http://midwestpesticideaction.org/important-natural-lawn-care-activities-for-fall/" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Natural Lawn Care: Three Steps YOU Can Take This Fall</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> article. </span>