Aerating a lawn

Hi,

After having a lawn company assess my lawn they have suggested one treatment I need is solid tine aeration. Thinking I wanted rge satisfaction of doing it myself (and save money) I had a go at the front yesterday. I used a fork and blimey it's certainly better than gym work out!!

What suggest do you have for tools than will be easier for me to use than my manual garden fork? I think I need to invest in something that makes it easier as I've still got 120m2 of the back to do!

Thanks for your help and any suggestions.

 

You can buy hollow tine aerators from most garden centres or the internet but unfortunately you still have to do the foot work.

There are also machines that look similar to lawn mowers that will take the hard work out of the job, but they are not cheap to buy.

 

We have a scarifier/aerator tool. It's electric and was about £80 from screwfix I think. If you're local to coventry you're welcome to borrow it.

 

Garden fork is the best way, you can get a full spit down. I really want a hollow-tine aerator though!

 

Slightly off topic, but I heard on the radio that some seismologists wanted to see if they could register if a whole school of kids jumped up and down at the same time. They got them all to jump on the school playing fields.

When they did hundreds of huge worms came to the surface

 

I had a manual hollow tiner , cost about £10 . Absolutely useless , the hollow tines keep blocking. I have a scarifier , not a raker , this slits the lawn and removes a lot of dead material . I probably scarify once every 18 months to 2 years . I then aerate with a fork the worst areas , correct it is bloomin' hard work ! In my golfing days the greens were hollow tined in early autumn with a tining machine . If your lawn is badly compacted this is what's needed , not a clue who does this or a target cost though
PS: you can also get a Cocker Spaniel who aerates your lawn by digging sodding big holes in it !

 

Have you seen seagulls doing the same @Zigs?



He keeps his head perfectly still in the process.

 

Since we moved to our present house I have put much effort into our lawn. I spoke to a chap who worked for one of those lawn treatment companies who will come round and sort lawns out. He advise aeration with a good old fashioned garden fork. Push in deep and pull back and forth to move the ground.
It was a laborious task but it made a huge difference !! The lawn picked up in a week or two and has thrived since.

I feed it every six weeks and spray weeds if and when they appear with Verdon..

The lawn was really bad when we arrived here but it's looking pretty good now even if I do say it myself. Will post a pic or two soon.

Charlie

 

That's something I've never done Charlie although I should, my front lawn is to big for me to go over it with a fork and having a dodgy ankle doesn't help. I have sandy soil which drains freely anyway which is a bonus.

 

Our lawn at the rear is not huge. Even so it did take some effort to get round it ! I cheated a wee bit and soaked it well several times in the 3 previous days so it would be soft. The soil here in the Vale of Evesham is I'm told as good as it gets !
The lawn was in a very sorry state as was a lot of the gardens especially at the front ! Wow was the front a mess ! Trees overgrown Conifers with the roots had buggered the drains even large roots that had allowed much retention of water up against the brickwork of the house which in turn caused damage to the brickwork. Hell was it a mess !

The rear took two years to get somewhere near. I re laid the gravel areas. Built the summerhouse and got it pretty much as we want it. Oh and I put in the wee greenhouse you can see up in the corner.

Rear garden









The front took a bit more effort and required a couple of larger tools .. We took out sixty tons of soil trees and debris . Re laid drains and just cleared away the lawn which was appalling anyway and started again . It really was a task but we turned it round in a week !

Front garden


My intention was to provide a good sized parking area as we have several vehicles. We are still planting around the edges and repairing the beech hedges and red robin hedge along the front.



Work in progress as they say ....

Charlie.

 

You've made a lovely job of your back garden. I had problems with my neighbours Conifer roots destroying my drains as well. They had broken through the old clay pipes and started to grow into my bungalow foundations. Luckily we managed to claim on insurance for the work that was done. The hedge was there before my neighbours moved in and they were kind enough to remove it. Since then I have grown Hebe's from cuttings for a new hedge for them and it's now 4ft high after three and a half years.

 

I use a simple aerator it's like think nails on a drum with a handle I have 3 kids so the grass takes a pounding throughout the year but I aerated last year in September and October and aerated yesterday and will do now once every month, it only has to be done once annually but there no harm in doing it more, I have noticed a hell of a differance in the grass thickness and colour, so see what this year brings me

 

Did you make the aerator yourself Jason?

 

No was bought of ebay its a proper aerator



Simple but works

 

That's something I need to invest in but what's the length of the spikes please? I have sandy soil and if they aren't long enough the holes will close as quick as they're opened.