How to Oxygenate Grass

Apply 1 inch water to the grass two days before you intend to aerate the area. Moist, soft soil is easier for the aerating tool to penetrate. On the other hand, if it has been raining and the area is so wet that the soil sticks to your shoes, wait to aerate after the excess water evaporates. Oxygenate cool-season grass at the end of summer and warm-season species in late winter or early spring.

Walk up and down the grass patch pushing a sod-coring tool into the ground every few steps. This manual aerator, which looks looks like a three- or five-prong spading fork with a "T" handle, removes plugs of soil from the grass. Removing soil allows remaining particles to spread out, making room for air to circulate. Leave the soil cores on the ground to decompose. Use this aerating method on small lawns, as it becomes exhausting to manually push a coring tool into the ground repeatedly.

Use a powered aerating machine -- available for rent -- to condition a large lawn. If you mow the area to be treated with a push lawn mower, choose between a gas-powered or electric model. To operate them, push either machine as if you were cutting grass. If the area is so wide that you use a riding lawn mower, choose an aerator to tow behind the mower. Select a machine with hollow or spoon-shaped tines. Either design removes soil cores instead of pushing the soil below the surface, which contributes to compaction. Push or tow the machine north to south, then east to west to thoroughly aerate the area. Leave the cores on the surface.

Spread ¼-inch-deep layer of compost over the aerated area. Rake the compost into the aeration holes to improve the soil structure.