Are you expanding your lawn care business? Consider adding lawn aerating to your service list. Fall is the best time to aerate cool season lawns.
Before adding lawn aerating and overseeding services, you need to understand the soils in your area and why lawn aerating is vital. If you live in an area with clay soil, realize that hot summers, foot traffic, and lawn mowers compact the ground.
Less oxygen, fertilizer, and water go deep into the soil when compacted. Lawn aerating in the fall breaks down the hard soil so water, air, and fertilizers can go deep underground.
Why Fall is the Perfect Time for Lawn Aerating Cool Season Turfgrass
If you provide lawn aerating services to homeowners living in the northern half of the U.S. or Canada, you’ll be providing these services in the early fall or sometimes in the early spring.
However, most turfgrass experts recommend early fall to aerate lawns because it relieves the soil compaction after a hot, dry summer.
Read more: Lawn Care Tips for Fall Lawn Clients
Kentucky bluegrass, perennial ryegrass, and fescues are cool season grasses that grow best in colder temperatures. September through mid-October is the perfect time to aerate and overseed customers’ yards because the temperatures are getting crisper, and there’s more rain.
The same applies in temperate climates with chillier temperatures and increased rainfall. Tall fescue, which is commonly used in shady areas in temperate climates, will need lawn aerating to develop deep roots in time for winter.
Here are the benefits of lawn aeration services for your fall clients:
- Breaks down excess thatch
- Prepares the soil for overseeding
- Releases carbon dioxide and allows for more oxygen to get into the soil
- Improves nutrient uptake deep in the soil
- Reduces soil compaction so turfgrass roots can grow deep into the ground
- Improves fertilization because the nutrients go deep into the ground
- Minimizes erosion and water run-off.
Types of Lawn Aerating Services
There are three types of aeration methods you can use on your fall clients’ lawns; these include:
- Mechanical aeration
You use a core aerator to pull up soil plugs from the earth. These plugs are ½” to ¾” in diameter and will dissolve back into the ground the next time it rains or you water your lawn.
Mechanical aeration will create 1” to 6” holes in your lawn, perfect for seeding and fertilizing the soil.
- Liquid Aeration
Liquid aeration’s main ingredient is ammonium lauryl sulfate, found in soap. It breaks down the topsoil, loosening it and opening up pores to allow more oxygen, water, and nutrients to percolate through the soil.
Since liquid aeration is mixed with water, the compacted soil absorbs it and goes quickly to work. Some liquid aeration also includes organic ingredients that help feed soil microbes, which breaks down thatch.
You can combine mechanical and liquid aeration with extreme soil compaction and heavy thatch.
- Spike and Slicing Aeration
While many lawn care companies use mechanical aerators or liquid aeration on their residential customers’ lawns, there are two other lawn aerating alternatives: the spike aerator and the slicing aerator.
The spike aerator won’t remove soil plugs but instead creates tiny holes with the machine’s tines. The splicing aerator slices the soil and creates openings for grass seeds.
How to Sell Lawn Aerating Services to Your Fall Clients
Aeration and overseeding services are typically bundled together because they go hand-in-hand. When you provide lawn aerating services, you’re opening up the soil to receive turfgrass seed, compost, and top-dressing.
Learn more: How to Sell Your Fall and Winter Services
Upsell these services toward the end of the summer when everyone’s cool season lawn is tan and dormant with the soil feeling rock hard. Also, ensure you have landing and web pages dedicated to your lawn aerating services.
You can bundle your core aeration and overseeding services as part of your turf management program or use them as add-on lawn services.
Use your blog to educate your customer base about lawn aerating and overseeding. Explain the process—including what type of aeration you do—and why these services are essential.
Break important points into bullets or numbered lists. Include customer reviews of your lawn aerating and overseeding services to build trust in people visiting your website for the first time.
Then, share the blog link and important points on your business’s Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok accounts. You want to excite people about these lawn services that bring value to their properties.
Don’t forget to add photos of customers’ lawns before and after lawn aerating. Ensure you get their permission first and add the images to your website, blogs, and social media. Remember to add a landing page and newsletter as other digital marketing tactics.
Consider using door hangers, brochures, and other print marketing pieces to reach folks in the neighborhoods that you serve. Your crews can drop off these print marketing pieces after they are finished working on other properties in the area.
Common Questions About Lawn Aerating Answered
While your customers may have specific questions regarding their properties, here are three FAQs that most lawn aerating companies come across:
- Why does my lawn look worse after aeration?
If you provide lawn aerating with a core aerator, your customers may question why their properties look torn up. Explain that the aerator pulls up the soil plugs, making their yards look messy.
However, residential customers can solve this problem by turning on their water sprinklers for the plugs to dissolve into the ground. Remind them of what’s happening in the soil with lawn aerating and the benefits they’ll reap in a few weeks when their grass starts growing denser.
- How often should I aerate my lawn?
Explain to your customers who have this question that ideally, it’s best to aerate their lawns once every two years. During the off-year, their yards should be dethatched if over ½” of thatch is in their turfgrass.
- Should I DIY or hire a professional?
While a homeowner can rent an aerator, remind them that mechanical aerating is hard work. The machine is large, heavy, and not easy to maneuver.
They can use spike aerators, but mechanical aerating and liquid aeration better relieve soil compaction. For heavy clay soils, these yards should be mechanically aerated.
Since you already have the training, experience, and professional equipment, investing in lawn aerating and overseeding services saves homeowners time, money, and straining their backs.
Spyker Spreaders Help You Put Down Grass Seed, Fertilizer, and Topdressing After Lawn Aerating
While we don’t have mechanical aerators yet, we do have a wide selection of other professional lawn equipment to get your fall jobs done, such as
You can find our Spyker lawn sprayers and other landscaping products at your local dealer, online, or at the Spyker store.
Spyker Customer Service: For warranty, service parts, or help at any time, reach out to our team by calling our toll-free number (800-972-6130) or by emailing customerservice@brinly.com. Replacement parts can also be ordered online at Spyker’s website.
