If you’ve discovered one or more cracks in the soil of your lawn, you might be wondering what caused it and how you can fix it.
Even if you’re inexperienced with lawn care, conventional wisdom should lead you to believe that this isn’t normal.
In a healthy lawn, the soil should remain closed and compressed. When it cracks, it will uproot nearby grass and plants while increasing the risk of erosion in the process.
Dryness and Soil Type
In most cases, cracking is caused by dryness as well as soil type. All lawns go through dry spells when they receive little or no water.
Most lawns can withstand these dry spells without ill effect. However, those consisting of clay soil may crack when severely dehydrated for a prolonged length of time.
Clay soil is highly porous, with the ability to absorb and release significant amounts of water. When it rains, clay soil will absorb the water, thus allowing it to expand.
During dry spells, on the other hand, clay soil will release water, causing to shrink. As the soil shrinks, small cracks may form. And if the soil doesn’t receive water, the cracks will expand to become larger and more prominent.
Aerate Your Lawn
To fix your cracking lawn, you need to water it. First, however, you should aerate it to loosen it up.
When soil is dehydrated, it shrinks to become more compacted. Aeration loosens the compacted soil by scoring it with hundreds or thousands of small holes, each of which is a few inches deep.
There are several ways to aerate your lawn, one of which is to wear aerating shoes while walking over it. Aerating shoes contain small “teeth” on the bottom that score the ground as your walk.
For larger landscapes, it’s recommended that you use a traditional walk-behind aerator. Walk-behind aerators contain a rolling mechanism that scores the soil as you push it.
Water Your Lawn
After aerating your lawn, set up a sprinkler to water it. Most lawns require about 1 to 2 inches of water per week.
Assuming your lawn is dehydrated, though – which it probably is if it’s cracking – you should give it a little more water. 3 inches of water over the course of a week should provide it with proper hydration.
By aerating and watering your lawn, you’ll encourage cracks to close while also promoting green, healthy grass in the process.
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Would adding peat to our clay soil help prevent the cracking? If not, is there something we could work into the soil to help with this problem.
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Hi Bonnie. Thanks for reading. Peat actually holds moisture so I do not recommend that. I’ve lived with clay-based soil almost my entire life here in Texas. What I would suggest is to top your entire lawn with about 1 inch of good quality sandy loam. It’s tough to work into the soil but if you aerate your lawn after you add the sandy loam it will help it to work into the soil a little better.
What kind of land can I use to replace the one that is gone and have the same level as the beginning thanks
Hi Francisco. Thanks for reading. I don’t understand your question. Please give me some more details and I’ll do my best to answer.
Hi , we are having huge crack that are spanning across the whole lawn. They can get pretty deel and some wide. What can I do to prevent this from occuring next year. We have no irrigation system for lawn. Only for foundation
Hi Francisco. Thanks for reading. I recommend you contact a local lawn care and landscaping company to take a look at your lawn and provide a plan to resolve the issue.
My yard is severely cracked with some of the fissures being about 3 feet deep and 2 to 4 inches wide. What recommendations do you have on how to fix them as they are becoming dangerous to our pets and small children?
Thank you for the great information. We just purchased a house and dealing with all the growing pains of a new house. It’s weird to see these kinds of comments on a helpful lawn care forum, but I was able to weed out the misguided information and follow your advice, Ken.
Thanks again!
HI ,i just curios ,we do aeration and seeding for last 3 years but for some reason about half yard still cracking and seeds have problem to grow.any advice please?
Good afternoon Ken, first time poster, long time listener. My lawn is not dry at all this time of year. in fact its almost swampy. But my issue is I have voles in my yard. they dig in my garden and hang out around my bird feeders. The burrows are starting to become an issue and i expect it to only get worse. Do you have any thoughts or experience in dispatching these little A-Holes from this plane of existence?
Thanks again!.
Hi
I have all kinds of cracks in my yard.
I need Help!!
Along with aeration, granular humic acid applied in spring and fall will help this problem of cracking. Apply at a heavy rate the first 2 times and then at recommended rates. If you have a farm supply near you, the humic acid cost is much less for 40 lb bags.
Hey Kay! I agree with you that acid really works! I take it all the time. It is also very inexpensive like you mention. But a 40lb bag!? WOW you must be tripping balls!!! But in all seriousness I generally just purchase a couple doses at a time. I also try and prep the area before i administer a dose. Such as having water all around and pleasant / motivational signs around the area. You can never be to safe. Thanks for posting and happy tripping!
I have some cracking in my lawn. I have Bermuda grass. What can I add to my lawn to address the cracks but not hurt the grass?
Good afternoon Roberto!
How is the crack getting into your yard? are there a lot of bums in your area? I would probably try to gather all the crack and keep a little for myself and sell the rest. Be careful though, the crack game can get dangerous fast! you might want to lay low for a while and buy a gun or two.
Thanks for posting and have a great day!
Good afternoon Roberto!
How is the crack getting into your yard? are there a lot of bums in your area? I would probably try to gather all the crack and keep a little for myself and sell the rest. Be careful though, the crack game can get dangerous fast! you might want to lay low for a while and buy a gun or two.
Thanks for posting and have a great day!