scarifying and aeriating
carol.udale
Posts: 2
After years of bald patches in my lawn, it dawned on me that I needed an aerator to put some oxygen back into my very wet soil. I have bought an electric aerator which also has the scarifier to get rid of moss etc. Which do I do first? Both need doing. Help!
0
Posts
It doesn't matter really. Aerators are simply making deep holes so that air and water gets right into the soil. Also, in many instances, people also want to brush in a fine topsoil mixed with sand after aerating. Scarifying can be done with or without aerating. I would scarify first and aerate afterwards if I was doing both in autumn time.
What aerator is it exactly? I doubt an electric machine will have any power for punching cores out of the lawn, or even to drive spikes to any depth beyond an inch.
Who knew you could even get an electric aerator, or do you have a garden the size of a golf course maybe!!
I use the lawn rake attachment first and then the 'scarifier' ... works fine that way round for us.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
The electric aerators do not punch holes in the ground but they do open up the surface. If you are dedicated and wealthy you can hire the machines or even a machine and its operator to do the job for you and take deep plugs of soil out. Then you brush in sand or grit and compost. However, there are two further considerations. If the water table is high you will not improve the drainage this way. It may also be that life is just too short to work so hard for a patch of grass.
It's only a tiddly back garden but I feel a total failure seeing all the muddy patches! Can't blame the dog as she does what she does all over the lawn and not all the lawn is so shabby. Never experienced them in other properties. You are right - I aerated and it barely scratched the surface, but it it did clear what should be raked out. In the worst areas I pricked with the gardening fork. The last of my grass seeds have gone down in the vain hope of improvement - thanks for your comments and answers.