Types Of Spike Aerators: How To Choose The Best Tool For Your Yard

Spike aeration is the practice of pushing soil down to create penetrations in the surface of a lawn. This process helps to keep your lawn's soil in good health and gives the grass roots better access to oxygen, water, and nutrients. This process differs from core aeration, where bits of soil (known as "plugs") get taken out to make the penetrations. While core aeration is ideal for highly compacted lawns that face regular vehicular or foot traffic, and is touted as the best aeration method by lawncare professionals, spike aeration is acceptable for smaller, less-compacted lawns. Since the holes are made by pressing down on the spike points instead of removing soil plugs, spike aeration leaves no mess, and is generally a quicker, easier, process.

There are five types of tools you can use for spike aeration — pitchforks, manual handheld aerators, spiked aeration shoes, rolling spike aerators, and tow-behind spike aerators. This assortment of tool options covers virtually any budget and lawn size, and you should understand each tool's functionality and pros and cons before choosing the right type of aerator to use on your lawn. Below, we explain how each spike aerator works and its optimal use cases.

A pitchfork is the simplest spike aeration tool you can use on lawns measuring 500 to 1,000 square feet, or patches of a larger lawn that have become compacted due to traffic. To aerate with a pitchfork, thrust the tines into the soil to a depth of 4 inches, then wiggle them back and forth, then repeat the same step until you've covered the entire patch. This method may help you aerate your lawn for less, but it's not efficient for spacious lawns.

Handheld manual aerators work like pitchforks, but are more efficient because they have more tines at the end of the pole. For example, the Walensee manual spike aerator from Lowe's ($33.48) is equipped with 15 tines, so you can easily cover more ground with it than you would with a pitchfork. Like pitchforks, manual aerators are only effective for small areas. Yet another inexpensive tool worth considering for aerating tiny, mildly compacted lawns is the spike aerator shoe. These shoes are made with steel spikes at the sole, so you can wear them and puncture the ground as you walk.

If you're not feeling up to manually pushing tines into the soil, consider getting a rolling aerator, like the Brinly aerator from Lowe's ($189). This tool has spikes attached to a roller that sits on the end of a long handle. As you roll it forward, the spikes perforate the soil. Using this tool requires a bit less elbow grease than pitchfork aeration, but it's still not a time-efficient solution for large lawns or fields. To cover a large surface area quickly, buy (or rent) a tow-behind spike aerator. These contraptions feature spikes on a roller that gets attached to the back of a lawn tractor. You can weigh this aerator down with cinder blocks for better penetration.