We cannot all have lawns like bowling greens, but we can go a long way towards the goal by careful preparations beforehand and regular maintenance afterwards. After mowing, probably the next most important part of caring for a lawn, but one which gets neglected, is maintaining the aeration of the soil.
In a lawn it is inevitable that the soil gradually becomes more and more closely integrated because of constant mowing and general traffic, particular if there are children and animals using it. The pore spaces in the soil disappear, the particles of soil get closer and closer together and gradually the air is driven completely out of the soil.
If the soil is heavy, there is the added trouble that water is unable to drain away and becomes more and more sour and the grass roots start to rot. As a result the top growth of the grass plant ceases to grow, starts to die off, and eventually unevenly shaped and irregularly sized patches of brown grass begin to appear all over the lawn.
This type of brown lawn is frequently seen on old lawns where the only care the lawn has is mowing. Brown patches can occur on new lawns. This is because it takes the soil some years to settle down after being cultivated. In hot, dry weather on lawn where aeration has been neglected, grass will turn brown more quickly than on a well structured soil because not only are the roots short of air, but the top growth is transpiring water quicker than roots can obtain it. Aeration will help to turn it green as quickly as watering probably quicker.
Aeration can take several forms. The standard method of doing this is by pricking and spiking by making holes in the turf to a certain depth and at regular intervals all over the lawn. An ordinary garden fork can be used, pushing this straight into the lawn at about 6 inch intervals. It can also be done with spiked rollers where the device has a cylinder with spikes attached which rolls over the ground. These make dealing with dry and hard soil much easier than using a fork.
Spiking is best done in autumn, but it can also be carried out in the spring, especially if the winter has been very wet. Some heavy clay soils may require routine spiking several times a year, and if this treatment is followed by filtering coarse sand into the holes, it will be possible to fundamentally alter and improve the structure of the soil over the years.
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