Forum home› Tools and techniques
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

Lawn spikers

Guernsey Donkey2Guernsey Donkey2 Posts: 6,713
in Tools and techniques
Has anyone used or own lawn spikers that you wear with your shoes, so you walk around the lawn spiking as you go?  We hired a lawn spiking machine, but it cost £70 for a day, which isn't something we want to repeatedly hire at that price. 

Posts

  • Glenys 2Glenys 2 Posts: 169
    Hi I had a pair a few years ago but i could not get them to stay on my feet and i never felt safe if they got stuck in the grass
  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340
    I had a pair too - useless I'm afraid GD. Maybe there's a technique that works, but I didn't master it.
    I had a hollow-tine aerator too - that just blocked every time it went into the soil and took several minutes to unblock.

    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • Guernsey Donkey2Guernsey Donkey2 Posts: 6,713
    Thank you for your comments, I would rather know just how useful (or not) they would be before parting with my money.  What do you use on your lawns now to aerate the soil?
  • bradleywood32bradleywood32 Posts: 59
    I also was going to use the shoe spikes but read bad reviews about comfort and slipping off or prodding the sole of your foot. Then looked at hollow tine read reviews about always getting blocked and that you spend most of the time unblocking then you do using it.
    So I just opted for the old fork and wiggle.

    You could hire a garden firm to come and aerate for you
  • BenCottoBenCotto Posts: 4,718
    I was watching a video the other week from one of the GQT team - he forked and wiggled too.
    Rutland, England
  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340
    I use the sturdy fork wiggle, occasionally - I've covered about 2 sq ft over the last year :)

    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • ThebigeasyThebigeasy Posts: 190
    edited May 2020
    I do hiking and dont know if these would work as spikes would be flatter and shorter but crampons may work
  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    I just use a fork. I have a hollow tine aerator but as others have said, it gets blocked easily, and we have too many stones/pebbles in the ground for it to work well. A normal fork can be wiggled past most of them.
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
Sign In or Register to comment.