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Aerating is no longer an important routine task in lawn care in the home landscape.
Periodic aerating of a lawn used to be considered essential to a lawn's health.
Compacted soil prevents healthy root growth and also prevents healthy colonies of soil microbes from growing under your turf. Aeration was held up as the solution to compacted soil. It is not. We now see aeration as a supplemental step in repairing a badly compacted lawn.
The primary solution is to add organic material to the soil. Aeration in concert with adding organic material can be beneficial for a year or two. But after getting the soil in shape with annual addition of organic material, the aeration step can cease.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT AERATION
If I do want to aerate, what time of the year is best? Spring is best so the turf has time to repair itself by winter.
Should I rake up the cores? No. They will break up from the rain.
Do I aerate the lawn with a single pass? No. Go over it in one direction and then again in the opposite direction.