As you have probably gathered Des - I'm not a groundsman type gardener but I might know the answer to this
Sandier soils drain much quicker than heavy clay ones so (I think) brushing the sand into the holes is a way of getting sand into the soil under the turf and improves drainage.
Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
Thanks Topbird, that makes absolute sense. I'll be going out and buying a fork to aerate the lawn with (I can't find the one I used to have so must have chucked it before we moved house) as well as a bag or two of sharp sand, first thing Monday morning.
Might even invest in one of those backpack pressure spraying thingies too.
I've just seen a Lidl ad saying that from tomorrow (14/3/16) they will have their electric scarifier/aerator on sale at £59.99. Has anyone used one of these and what did you think please?
I have one(qualcast not lidl). It pulls out a lot of moss , and because there is a terrific amount at the moment, it would leave it bare. The birds are taking it for nests at the moment.
I bought one secondhand from ebay and its great. I know it only gets used once or twice a year but it does a really good job with minimal effort and really makes a difference to the lawn.
We have one, OH has used it all day, we have a mountain of moss, it's the same every spring. later, in early April we will use a weed,feed and moss killer. worth buying for that price, ours was 99.00 so go for it.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
It took a while, but eventually the penny dropped for me that by its very nature scarifying will make your lawn look as if its been used as a practice circuit for the chariot race in Ben Hur.
My own personal experience is that most areas of the lawn will recover after scarifying, but some will need help.
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As you have probably gathered Des - I'm not a groundsman type gardener but I might know the answer to this
Sandier soils drain much quicker than heavy clay ones so (I think) brushing the sand into the holes is a way of getting sand into the soil under the turf and improves drainage.
Thanks Topbird, that makes absolute sense. I'll be going out and buying a fork to aerate the lawn with (I can't find the one I used to have so must have chucked it before we moved house) as well as a bag or two of sharp sand, first thing Monday morning.
Might even invest in one of those backpack pressure spraying thingies too.
I've just seen a Lidl ad saying that from tomorrow (14/3/16) they will have their electric scarifier/aerator on sale at £59.99. Has anyone used one of these and what did you think please?
I have one(qualcast not lidl). It pulls out a lot of moss , and because there is a terrific amount at the moment, it would leave it bare. The birds are taking it for nests at the moment.
I bought one secondhand from ebay and its great. I know it only gets used once or twice a year but it does a really good job with minimal effort and really makes a difference to the lawn.
We've got attachments that fit the lawnmower. OH used it in the autumn. Now we have loads of bare patches so we now need to top dress and over seed.
We have one, OH has used it all day, we have a mountain of moss, it's the same every spring. later, in early April we will use a weed,feed and moss killer. worth buying for that price, ours was 99.00 so go for it.
Thanks all.
I think that's why they are called scarifiers. They scare the **** out of you when you see the apparent mess they've made of your lawn
It took a while, but eventually the penny dropped for me that by its very nature scarifying will make your lawn look as if its been used as a practice circuit for the chariot race in Ben Hur.
My own personal experience is that most areas of the lawn will recover after scarifying, but some will need help.