How and When to Aerate Your Lawn | Lawn Care

Written by Hillary Thompson | Jun 1, 2026 4:41:03 PM

In this article, we explain Super-Sod's best practices for aerating warm-season and cool-season lawns. We'll go over the timing, techniques, and tools involved, plus why it's important to aerate lawns.

Lawn Aeration Defined

Aerating lawns with a core aerator is an important annual routine for optimal lawn appearance and performance. Lawn aeration takes cores or plugs out of the soil, creating multiple, small air pockets - that's why it's called "aerating."

This video explains why you need to aerate your lawn and demonstrates how to do it. It wraps up by explaining why we recommend spreading Soil³ organic compost over your lawn and outlines two ways to do so.

3 Reasons to Aerate Lawns

As you know, healthy soil is the foundation of a healthy lawn. The process of aerating lawns relieves compaction and reinvigorates lawns because the little cored-out air pockets allow movement of three essential "ingredients" into the root zone:

Increase air flow of carbon dioxide and oxygen
Increase water flow
Aid nutrient delivery from compost or fertilizer

Lawn aeration is an essential technique to relieve compacted soils and keep soils healthy, aerobic, and alive.

Topdress Lawns with Compost after Aeration

After you aerate, Super-Sod recommends building soil by topdressing lawns with Soil³ organic compost to fill in the empty plugs or cores as illustrated in the picture above. Topdressing after aerating is the ideal time because the holes you create allow the compost to get into the root zone.

Soil³ compost topdressing offers many benefits to all lawns:

Topdressing with Soil³ compost contains plenty of nutrients so spreading it replaces one fertilizer application a year.
Soil³ compost is organic, so you're practicing organic lawn care in the process. It's even OMRI Listed for certified organic gardening.
Soil³ compost contains beneficial microorganisms to keep your soil thriving. An added benefit of those microorganisms in compost is that they suppress fungal diseases on lawns. Read more about organic lawn care with Soil³.

If you cannot access a core aerator, topdressing with Soil³ compost will still greatly benefit your lawn as it will slowly build your soil from above and you'll see a noticeable green up.

Rate: We recommend 1 cubic yard of Soil³ compost per 1,000 square feet of lawn.

How to Aerate a Lawn in 6 Simple Steps

Thankfully, aerating lawns is not complicated! Even more rewarding than the ease of aerating is the satisfaction of seeing your lawn improve within a few weeks.

Here are the brief steps in aerating:

If the soil is dry, especially clay soil, it will be hard for the core aerator tines to get into the dirt. To fix that, irrigate your lawn beforehand so the soil is moist, but not soggy. The softer soil will help the tines penetrate the soil.
Push the core aerator back and forth across your lawn, making several passes. Go north and south the first time, then crisscross it in and east to west pattern.
After aerating, spread compost 1/4" to 1/2" thick using a shovel or a compost spreader.
If using a shovel, then you'll need to rake the compost into the root zone.
If using a compost spreader, you won't need to do any raking.
The final step is watering your lawn to finish pulling the compost into the root zone.

Tools Needed to Aerate Lawns

Core aerator
Compost spreader or shovel
Rake
Hose/sprinkler
Wheelbarrow to transport the compost around the lawn

Supplies to Order or Rent to Aerate Lawns

Plan ahead and order Soil³ compost delivery ahead of time.
You will probably need to rent a core aerator from your local equipment rental store. Be sure to ask for a "core aerator" or "hollow tine aerator" because some aerators only puncture the soil and that's not good enough. The aerator needs to take out cores/plugs from the ground.

Additional Lawn Aerating Pointers:

Aerating and topdressing is great excercise, but enlist help if you need it. Teenagers are good at spreading compost!
For most lawns, it will probably only take half a day for the whole project.
The project can be split into two days with aerating one day and compost spreading the next.
Seasonal timing is very important, and it depends on your type of lawn:
- Aerate warm-season lawns such as Bermuda, Centipede, Zoysia, and St. Augustine lawns when they are green and actively growing in late spring or summer. August is the last month to safely aerate before the frosts of autumn.
- Aerate cool-season lawns such as Tall Fescue in the cool months of autumn, winter, or early spring.
🚫 Do not aerate newly laid sod; wait until your lawn has an established root system and all the seams are filled in.

Lawn Aeration FAQ

Question: What is the best type of aerator to use?

Answer: A "core aerator" or "hollow tine aerator" is the best type of aerator because it takes out cores/plugs that allow the best filtration of water, air, and compost into the root zone. Avoid aerators with tines because they only puncture the soil and that's not good enough to truly aerate the soil.

Question: What do I do with the plugs on my lawn?

Answer: Nothing! You can leave them there and they will disappear faster than you'd think. Under the pressure of mowing and irrigating, they will break down within weeks. Also, growing grass will hide them. If they really bother you, rake them up and use them to fill in a low spot or hole.

Plugs like these remain after core aeration.
They disappear within weeks or you can rake them up.

Thank you for reading our core aeration and compost topdressing instructions!