A gardening expert shared the essential spring lawn care task that can help your grass become healthier and greener in time for summer
Ellen Jenne Senior U35 Spare Time Writer
14:45, 16 Apr 2026
A gardening expert shared the essential spring lawn care task that can help your grass become healthier and greener in time for summer(Image: elenaleonova via Getty Images)
Gardeners are currently applying the finishing touches to ensure a spectacular display come late spring and summer, but attention shouldn’t solely focus on plants and flowers. Proper lawn maintenance at this time of year is equally crucial.
Gardening enthusiast and TikTok content creator Michael Griffiths has urged fellow green-fingered enthusiasts to aerate their lawns during spring. This practice allows air, water and essential nutrients to penetrate down to the roots, promoting a healthier lawn in the long term.
The task requires nothing more than a garden fork. Simply pierce holes with the fork into the ground approximately four to five inches deep.
You want to make sure the holes are four to five inches deep(Image: Getty Images)
Insert the garden fork into the soil, then pull it back without removing it completely. Michael suggests repeating this process every six inches throughout the garden.
After aerating your lawn, you can either leave the holes unfilled or add horticultural sand to improve drainage. In an earlier video, Michael suggested incorporating grass seed.
The choice of lawn feed – whether summer or autumn varieties – depends on when you carry out the aeration, reports the Mirror.
Regarding the selection of autumn lawn feed suitable for your lawn, bear in mind that synthetic fertilisers consume considerable resources and energy during production and may cause environmental damage at their manufacturing sites.
Lawn aeration is the process of puncturing the soil with holes to enable air, water, and nutrients to penetrate the grass roots, alleviating compaction and enhancing root health.
A core or spike aerator, or even a garden fork, can be used to achieve this, ensuring the soil is sufficiently moist beforehand.
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Aerating your lawn encourages deeper root growth, reduces thatch build-up, and bolsters the lawn’s resilience against drought and disease. B&Q recommends giving your lawn a thorough watering to aid moisture absorption, adding that the optimum time to aerate is one or two days following rainfall, while the soil remains damp.
Given the unpredictable nature of spring weather, it’s advisable to avoid aerating after heavy downpours, as the ground may become waterlogged.
The Royal Horticultural Society recommends applying fertiliser ahead of forecasted rainfall. Should rain fail to materialise, however, it’s essential to water the lawn yourself.
Spring also presents an excellent opportunity to scarify your lawn and eliminate any residual thatch. Scarifying is a lawn maintenance technique that employs mechanical blades or tines to cut through and extract a dense layer of thatch — comprising dead grass, roots, and organic matter — from the lawn.
By thinning and clearing this layer, the lawn’s overall health is greatly improved, facilitating better airflow, water absorption, and nutrient penetration into the soil, while removing any competition for resources.
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