Aeration and Your Inground Irrigation: Keeping Your System Safe

The Department of Horticulture at Cornell University has called soil compaction the “single most difficult and harmful environmental or abiotic condition” that can impact your lawn. Simply put, your plants' and turf's roots can't grow in compact soil thanks to increased density and decreased soil drainage. The easiest way to alleviate soil compaction? Aerating the soil with professional aeration services from Nutri-Lawn Burlington.

Aerating your lawn with plugs will break up packed soil and enable your turf to develop a stronger root system. Once treated, your lawn will be able to receive the water, air, and nutrients that it needs to stay healthy.

Can I Aerate My Lawn if I Have an Inground Irrigation System?
This is a great question, and one that we hear all the time at Nutri-Lawn Burlington Inground Irrigation. The answer is yes. While our lawn care specialists use high powered aeration equipment in order to administer the treatment, they do so in a way that won't conflict with your inground irrigation system. Here's what our technicians will need to know before performing an aeration treatment on your sprinkler-equipped property.

Placement
Lawns that are outfitted with a Burlington Inground Irrigation system require special attention from our aeration technicians. First things first, make sure you give our technicians a quick heads up when booking your aeration appointment. If your system was installed by our Burlington Inground Irrigation department, chances are good that we will have marked the sprinkler heads during the installation. If your system is from another provider, it's important that you mark the placement of the sprinkler heads. This can be done by purchasing several small marking flags from your local hardware store. Place these flags next to each Burlington inground irrigation sprinkler head.

Installation
There are a number of building permit laws that dictate the depth at which a Burlington inground sprinkler system must be installed. This is typically between 15 and 23 cm under the turf's surface. This is well below the depth that most aeration machines plunge. Of course, it's always better to be safe than sorry. If you had your Burlington inground irrigation system installed by a contractor other than Nutri-Lawn, you may wish to contact them to find out if there are any areas on your lawn where the piping is located in shallow ground. Our aeration technicians can then manually aerate this areas, rather than risk damage with their aerators.

Manual Aeration
One solution to aerating around inground irrigation sprinkler heads and areas with shallow piping, is to manually work the ground. This requires out aeration technicians to us a special tool to amend the soil around your sprinkler heads. This techniques accomplishes the same principles as an aeration machine, only no earth is removed – thin slits are inserted into the lawn in order to increase airflow.

Aeration Aftercare
Your Burlington inground irrigation system will really come in handy once our aeration technicians have wrapped up their treatment on your lawn. Regular, deep sprinkler waterings will help ensure that your lawn's turf develops a strong root system and avoids future compaction issues.

From aeration to irrigation, Nutri-Lawn Burlington has you covered! Now's the perfect time to book your core aeration treatment in order to protect your lawn against summer drought conditions. Worried about grub damage? A core aeration treatment will help improve the results of a beneficial nematode treatment. Contact our Burlington Inground Irrigation department today for more information on system installations, or contact our lawn care service desk to book your aeration appointment now.