Aeration For My Lawn
 

The Massey guy was here doing his thing and he made a recommendation for having the lawn aerated. A service they, of course, provide. $190, for our corner lot, which doesn't seem outrageous to me for the service, but I'm pretty clueless when it comes to lawn care.
It's a St. Augustine lawn.
I'm curious to hear some opinions from more knowledgable folks. Is this a service that one would expect to need to be done from time to time?

Just my opinion with sand being the base for most lawns I don't think aeration is needed. And if properly maintained dethatching is not needed either. I mulch my clippings and haven't dethatched or aerated in the 3 years I've been here and have one of the best looking lawns around, I live on a corner lot also.

What explanation did he give is your lawn in distress? I have heard at his for St Augustine “ When St. Augustine grass is growing vigorously, it produces new growth on top of older growth. Over time, a spongy layer of dead leaves and stems, called thatch, accumulates. Verticutting basically chops through the grass runners, allowing the dead material to be removed.”

Have not heard of aeration being needed here but hopefully some more knowledgable folks will chime in.

a youtube video guy that talks about lawn care said aeration shouldn't be done in Spring when the lawn is starting up again. HowtowithDoc youtube.

Give Adam from black Cow a call. He is honest, and will tell you if you need a service done. Have used Adam since 2010. Office staff is great, along with his outside staff

Like most things there is no shortage of different OPINIONS. Like everything else that is true of lawn care as well. Most if not all of the lawn service companies are in the business of SELLING YOU something. We have the cooperative extension and the advice, the OPINIONS are free. They are not all as qualified but often if, they don't know they know who to ask.

The Villages is huge and the soil is not the same throughout the villages. I would suggest a soil test, cost is around 6-$20 to know what your parcel of land is.

Typical lawn aeration, they run a machine over your lawn and remove plugs of grass and soil. They if, you look at what they remove, They go down 1 or 2 inches and give you a bill. The roots of your lawn should be down 6-8 inches.

We all of us expect, demand instant results. Lawn, a garden does not work that way. It is a long term adventure. Most of the villages is sandy, clay with a lot of limestone in it.
Adding organic matter to the SOIL improves the drainage, the ability to hold water and reduce the fact that most of our lawns are built on sandy. clay with a too high PH-alkaline soil. Organic matter it takes quite a bit and it needs to be incorporated into the soil. Laying it on top does nothing.

Lawn Aeration
 

$190 is Outrageous for a designer lot! I have a large corner lot in a premier neighborhood and pay Adam's Earth a little over $100 for aeration. Massey also uses a machine with very small prongs. Adam's Earth prongs are twice as big. Does a much better job, if aeration is needed.

call a company named Adams Earth. They did my dethatching and aeration . Definitely worth the 5 minute phone call. Professional company specializing in these procedures, unlike Massey.

Most of the lots south of 466 have a sandy soil, for which aeration really isn't needed, unless you have a tremendous thatch build up. Cutting your grass very low initially in the spring can help remove excess thatch.

then you must be south of 44, the rest is zoysia. So for St augustine here's the history of having this done - don't bother. we did it for 3 years, we also fired Massey afterwards for that and many other reasons. That aside, what benefits St Augustine turf is air, but not plugs or as we call them 'dirt turds' . It does nothing to help and actually can hurt. If your yard is going south, there are several things that work very well that we did to get a deep green tall lawn -

1) grow it 3 - 3.5" thick
2) dethatch lawn every 3-5 years with a tine (not blade) dethatcher (allows turf to breathe )
3) water 30 minutes 3 times per week and 50 in the summer
4) double the cinch bug feeding every spring early. we criss cross until we get rid of 2 large bags also why you want it taller, less for them to damage

That worked for 12 years, had the best lawn on the block also I should mention as you might not recognize that so many lawns have the root stack showing by the curb etc.... I never did once I did this.

Massey
 

We also fired Massey as they nearly destroyed our total lawn by ignoring a sizable area of bareness from the historical good lawn. After firing them we hired Dean and now have a very good lawn back. It's alleged the driver spent more time sitting in the truck and making up the bills than the time to care for the lawn!! :ohdear:

I had it done...
 

I had it done by my lawn people for $100, and it did nothing that I can see that helped anything. To me, it was a waste, and I think St. Augustine grass would need it even less.
Tom

Thanks for your input. I am north of 466A, in Poinciana. Lots of St. Augustine grass around. Probably 10:1 St. Augustine to Zoysia around my house.

I am not a turf expert but I live on a golf course.The folks who runs the golf courses have turf professionals and they aerate the courses. Maybe different terms need different care.