Can I Use A Shovel To Aerate My Lawn?

Yes, you can use a shovel to aerate your lawn. The purpose of lawn aeration is to reduce compaction by loosening the soil and introduce channels through which air and moisture can flow. While it's a crude method, Lawn Doctor states that you can use a shovel to cut into the soil a few inches and repeat in increments across your lawn. It stands among other gardening tools as a cheaper alternative to pricey machine aerators, which can cost over $100 a day to rent. However, there are some drawbacks to aerating your lawn with a shovel that you'll want to consider.

The first drawback comes from the fact that it's not very efficient. A shovel is only a single blade. It does not have separate prongs the way a garden fork or smart DIY aerator would, so it isn't able to leave smaller holes in the soil. Instead, you're creating one big tear in the earth and having to repeat the process across the entire lawn.

The big tear can also create another issue: root damage. There's always going to be some grass root disturbance with all methods of aeration, but the smaller hole left by traditional aerators tend to heal more quickly. Shovels are a common tool for removing sod, so it's easy to see how digging into the ground with a large shovel would cause some more noteworthy damage. In this way, it's not the most effective method of aeration.

While using a shovel can potentially be damaging and ineffective for whole lawn aeration, there is a way you can use the tool to your lawn's benefit. A shovel is excellent for testing to see whether or not your lawn actually needs to be aerated. Use it to try and puncture the earth. If it bounces back at you, or you really need to force it into the ground, the soil is compacted and needs aerating. If it easily sinks into about half the depth of the blade, there is no compaction — and, therefore, no need for aeration.

Granted, there are also other household tools that can be used for testing aeration that won't leave as noticeable a scar as a shovel would. Using a cordless power drill is a great aeration trick to revive your patchy lawn. You can basically use it to drill small holes into the ground that won't be super noticeable. Pushing a screwdriver into the earth is also another way to test for aeration needs, but it's not an effective method for larger areas. Still, if you're in a bind and can't justify the cost of renting an aerating machine, using your shovel will do the job. But the potential damage to your lawn may have you rethinking whether or not the cost of the aerator would have been worth it.