Aerating your lawn is a pretty important step that allows water and feed to reach the roots of the plants, but weeds are always a force that tries to “steal” the food away from those plants.
Therefore, when you’re discussing aerating, you may be wondering should I kill weeds before aerating, after it, or they’re not connected at all and you can aerate whenever you wish.
The answer isn’t simple, but in this Lawn Advisors guide, you’ll have all the information and guidance you need to make up your mind.
Since your goal is to keep your lawn healthy and weed-free, this guide will focus more on how aerating can help with that, and how is overseeding connected to the whole situation.
Should I Kill Weeds Before Aerating
Aerating aims at making the lawn healthier and more appealing, while keeping weeds away, and to achieve that, you’ll need to plan for your aerating, as it’ll automatically get rid of weeds, since you’re choosing the best timing to aerate, while weeds aren’t around or seeking homage near your lawn.
With that in mind, aerate in the spring or fall, as you’ll be able to reduce weed pressure that comes with aerating, since aerating with weeds around can spread the weed pores further inside your soil.
Aerating too soon or too late can suppress the growth of newly planted seeds, whereas aerating in the perfect aforementioned timings can suppress the presence of weeds in your lawn.
Everyone wants a weed-less lawn, and that should always happen throughout the whole year, by maintaining our lawns properly and attending to weeds upon spotting them before they get too far. Therefore, let the aerating become a strengthening step for your lawn by timing it perfectly, rather than making it a weed-countering step as that’ll be hard to carry out in the presence of weeds.
In some complicated scenarios, where weeds have already started growing near the aerating spots you’ve planned, you should be more worried about establishing the grass than getting rid of the weeds.
In other words, focus on feeding the grass properly (even if that means feeding the weeds), then after a while when the grass is fed well, you can start applying counter measures against the weeds. That should be easy since you’ve known everything regarding its growth from a to z.
Does Aerating Get Rid of Weeds
Aerating doesn’t directly get rid of weeds, but it empowers the overall health of your lawn, allowing vital nutrients, sunlight, oxygen, and water to reach deep down the root systems of your grass, providing it with the best feed possible.
This empowers the lawn, as it’ll grow to a lush green lawn that can easily defend against different types of unwanted weeds that try to invade the lawn.
Should You Rake Before Aerating
It’s a plus. Raking before aerating is a plus if you’re not worried about how tidy the lawn will look before aerating. However, since power raking will involve covering up the majority of the lawn in rake, then you should consider other options if the overall look of the lawn is important for you.
Additionally, raking should take much time before it’s done and the benefits are reaped, then consider doing it to prevent unhealthy build of thatch and dead grass before aerating.
Should I Kill Weeds Before Overseeding
One of the main questions our experts faced on a near regular basis is should I kill weeds before overseeding or after?
The simple answer would be to get rid of weeds first, as weeds would try to thrive over the overseeding instead of your grass.
However, not only weeds should be removed, by poor looking grass and potential weed homes should be attended to as well.
Read this guide for more information.
Summary
This concludes our guide on Should I Kill Weeds Before Aerating, as we showcased every scenario possible when you’re planning to aerate, and how to carry out the aerating properly among these scenarios.
Moreover, you have additional information that’ll help you decide when and how to rake or overseed before or after aerating, increasing the overall health of your lawn.
In case you have any questions regarding this topic, feel free to ask us on email, or leave a comment in the comments section below.
