Aerating your Lawn - worth doing ?

[TomDunreedy]

Hi all,

Just wondering if it's worth aerating my lawn.

Whenever I water it puddles appear, it's as if the water doesn't soak into the ground (eventually it does)....will aerating it solve this surface water issue?

Is there a tool to buy?

A method?

I have about 75sqm of wintergreen lawn.

Any hints would be much appreciated.

Tom

[rhancock]

Sure it is!

However, you don't say whether you have a problem with your lawn, other than water not soaking in. Is it growing? Dead? Worn? Yellow? Brown? Purple?

If you're after a make over, then in order, I would:

De thatch - if you have dead grass layered underneath the growing grass, get a spring tine rake, (one with springy wire prongs) and rake ferociously! The idea is to pull out all the dead grass which collects under the growing leaves. It'll look terrible - you'll pull out a lot of green grass, and be left with a brown, sad looking lawn, but you're giving it space to grow, so its worth it. Particularly imporant with wide leaved grass like carpet grass as they will form a mulch layer and prevent new growth coming through, and a great work out too.
Sprinkle soil wetter over the surface - this helps to reduce surface tension and allows water to soak in
Aerate. You can do it manually with a fork - if you are into zen therapy, its great. Or you can use spiky shoes - I do and it takes me about 20 mins to do 100m2. Or you can get rollers and machines that'll do it for you from the hire shop.
Weed it if it needs it. I dig up weeds whenever I get in a bad mood - its great therapy. And I taught my 2 yo to pull them up and feed them to the chooks. or you can spray it with weedkiller
If you've got dips and mounds, top dress and roll as necessary.
Feed it - a whole thread on its own. I use whatever I've got around - dynamic lifter, tropic 5 in 1, thrive, seasol, green up. All have pros and cons, so I figure if I use all of them I'll get all the benefits eventually.
Water it last thing at night, or at least after the heat of the day to allow the water to soak in without evaporating and avoid windy days when most of your water will blow onto your neighbours. As much or as little as you like - unless you're in severe drought, your lawn will cope with whatever you give it or don't. Watering is the easiest, but least effective thing to improve your lawn.
Cut it long. You need to allow the leaves to shade the ground, so if you cut it down to the ground, the ground'll bake and go hard, so put the blades up high, at least 30mm is good.If you wanted a short answer, then yes, aerate, with spiky shoes. You'll look silly, but your lawn will love you for it. One tip, spray wd40 on the spikes - makes it easier.

[TomDunreedy]

Thanks mate.

No the lawn is not dead. I rolled it down about 4 months ago and it's doing fine BUT I'm seeing brown patches appear and it's really frustrating me - the uneven look of the lawn (maybe I'm fussy). The sprinklers are all working well and I've been watering well...
The problem I am seeing is that after watering the water simply sits in pools on top of the lawn and I'm worried if this water isn't getting to the soil/roots...

So soil wetter could be the go ?
And aerating the lawn ?

I fertilised the lawn about 3 weeks ago...

BTW - what's wd40 ?

Many thanks,
Tom

[rhancock]

Soil wetta is definitiely a good idea, and so is aerating. Both will help the water soak in. Don't over water - if the water's sitting on the surface for a long time, the grass will rot, and then when the water's gone, the grass will dehydrate. If the lawn's established, then once a week at most for about 15 mins. It should soak in within a 5 mins, if not, apply some more wetta soil a week after the first lot. You don't need to water if you've had more than 15 mins of decent rain in a week.

WD40 is a spray lubricant - buy it from Bunnies or from Super Cheap Auto.

I"m into organic gardening, so perfection isn't what I"m after, but whether it is or not, the best thing is to watch your lawn, and work out what it wants. So water for 15 mins when your lawn is sagging, unless you've had more than 15 mins of decen rain and cut once a week to 30mm, (once a fortnight or month in winter). Spring and autumn are the best time to fertilise, apply soil wetta and aerate, and all three are worth doing spring and autumn. Be careful with Green up fertilisers that contain high nitrogen to give you an instant green. They're ok if you want a quick show of green because you're having a bbq and you want to show off, but they won't give your lawn an all round feed. For that ou need a more even npk ratio.

[macca2]

In Perth with our sandy soils, using a soil wetter is absolutely essential. At least once a year in spring and then fertilise.
Macca

[TomDunreedy]

thanks fellas.
I guess a few more questions:
1. Can you actually get "spikes" to walk in on the lawn for aerating?
2. What wetting soil agent would you recommend?

Thanks

[rhancock]

Yes, I bought mine at Bunnings. They're like big green sandals with spikes sticking out the bottom. You strap them on and stomp around the lawn. I didn't find them very comfortable, so I screwed them to an old pair of shoes. I'll take a photo when I get a moment.

I buy whichever soil wetta looks like the best value. I usually go for a brand name I recognise.

[TomDunreedy]

thanks - I'm looking forward to looking like a clown stomping on my lawn....will let you know how I go !
Could i use golf shoes? or are they too short (about 6 mm long) ?

[Eli]

Could i use golf shoes? or are they too short (about 6 mm long) ?

Maybe the money would be better spent on a net and a bucket of balls...... Spilled beer could replace the wetting agent.

[rhancock]

The spikes on mine are about 40mm long!

[Sir Stinkalot]

I occassionally wear the spiked shoes when mowing ..... this gives a good coverage and kills two birds with one stone. I also attached them to an old pair of shoes as the ones from the hardware are fairly basic and not very comfortable.

[rhancock]

Now thats a good idea!

[wattlewemake]

I made a pipe out of a piece of curtain rod to aerate the soil. When ahead and did it after it had been raining for a few days so the ground was a bit softer.

The pipe produced approx 1/2" holes and I went about 5" deep. The soil clods from the the rod I just dumped on the lawn and were gone in a day or so.

I found that there were layers of hard ground that the water was sitting on top of and once I punctured it the soil took the water readily.

Now the rain soaks straight in instead of running off. Took a fair while to do but it was raining so there wasnt much else to do. No where as quick as with the shoes but a lot more effective I would think.

Shane.

[TomDunreedy]

ok - you reckon I could find those spiked shoes ???? Impossible. Bunnings reckons they were a safety hazard (what to beetles?) and they don't sell them anymore. I rang countless places and received a rather confused person at the other end of the phone. So I bit the bullet and simply bought an old-fashioned garden fork !!! Although it's back-breaking work I reckon it's worth it....create the holes then put wetta agent on the lawn, then watered it hard....I'll let people know the results as my lawn has brown patches/dead patches which I'm sure plenty of people have.

[rhancock]

I think that'd be the hardest, but most effective way of doing it!

[scooter]

ok - you reckon I could find those spiked shoes ???? Impossible. Bunnings reckons they were a safety hazard (what to beetles?) and they don't sell them anymore. I rang countless places and received a rather confused person at the other end of the phone. So I bit the bullet and simply bought an old-fashioned garden fork !!! Although it's back-breaking work I reckon it's worth it....create the holes then put wetta agent on the lawn, then watered it hard....I'll let people know the results as my lawn has brown patches/dead patches which I'm sure plenty of people have.

They were sold out here on clearance a couple of years ago. Were never much of a seller. The spikes were lethal looking things, wouldn't want the kids playing with them !


Cheers...................Sean

[rhancock]

Lethal looking, maybe, but not all that sharp or pointy, really. Most of my screwdrivers are more dangerous. Of course if you stood on the cat while you're wearing them, you'd do some damage, so maybe they should have a warning on them: "Do not stand on pets while wearing spiky shoes"

If I see some, I'll buy you a pair! Actually I saw some in an op shop recently.

[Geoff Dean]

I had a pair that I have just thrown out...I found them fairly useless.

They didn't stay on no matter what I tried and I found that I was getting stuck in the ground when I walked and would then try to either pull of my feet or trip me up.

I ended up hiring a lawn aerator for a half day and found this to be a far better option.

[rhancock]

I sympathise! I bought mine 3 years ago, and using them with the straps supplied was hopeless. Graham Ross had a pair on Better homes and gardens last week, and his fell off straight away!

So I've screwed mine to an old pair of sandals and they're just about usuable. I also found spraying them with lubricant helped too. Also try walk on a wet lawn, unless you've got heavy clay. In which case you will need more than a $ 30 pair of spikes!

The aerators you hire are certainly the best option if you can justify the cost. Kennards hire have one for $34 for 4 hours, so once a year its not too bad.

Or you could buy this one (http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Lawn-Aerator-Roller_W0QQitemZ270188869798QQihZ017QQcategoryZ2034QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem).

And if you really want the spikes, here (http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Aerator-Sandals-Repair-your-lawn_W0QQitemZ110198370185QQihZ001QQcategoryZ3186QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem)they are.

[rhancock]

or you could buy an ex hire one like this (http://usedequipment.nationalhire.com.au/jsp/s/item/149960?h=400%2CbyType%2F2%2CNewSearch).

But if I were buying one (which I might, next time I have to lay a lawn), I'd buy this one (http://www.goshoppingdirect.com.au/index.php?v=Product&id=36&pcid=13&PHPSESSID=3fcb7220e587def5e1cbc260cd4bd954). Here's (http://www.wsbc.com.au/aerator/index.asp)the manufacturers page.

[Sir Stinkalot]

I think it would be fair to say that the spiked shoes were useless as sold off the shelf. After about 5 minutes I gave up on the straps and bolted the bases onto a pair of old Doc Martins (now very expensive aerating shoes).

The first pair that I bought from B were impossible to get the spikes installed with the nylon nuts that they provided. I snapped a number of the spikes as it was impossible to get them to tighten. In the end I gave up and purchased regular nuts which seem to have worked .....

Looking back now it would appear that I have needed to replace much of the original purchase to make it fit for purpose ..... no wonder they don't sell them any more.

[Speed80]

I airate my lawn every year as i live at the base of teh hills and I have a small amount of clay in my soil. I hire a petrol powered airator from Kenards for around $80.

Once airated I use wetting agent and I find I use less water and fertiliser throughout the year.

All the best....

[TomDunreedy]

ha ha...amusing replies.
Thanks for the eBay link - what are these things? Collectors Items ??? They do look deadly and i do have a cat so I'll make sure i wear them when the cat is outside with me :)
Yeah saw the Kennards hire price which i thought was reasonable but I'm thinking long term and I'd probably aerate the lawn twice a year for life so I went the fork option. I completed it tonight (75 sqm lawn) and I'm quite sore!! But for twice a year it's not life-threatening...

I did see a aerator roller on eBay for $150...so that might be a good buy!
Still reckon the collector item sandals is the go (moreso as a fashion statement)...and I'll take the tip in screwing them to shoes...and mowing your lawn in them!
Thanks for all the responses - much help.....lets just hope i didn't spike my irrigation!!!

[rhancock]

Good luck! and don't run in the spikes on concrete, its like ice skating!

[TomDunreedy]

66821Hi all - thought I'd revisit this thread after an amazing dicovery...
Anyone get those Home Care magazines that get dropped off at your doorstep enticing you to buy some gadget (handy but unneccessary)..?
Well here in Perth it happens.
Anyway, today one was dropped off and you wouldn't believe what I saw in their catalogue.....

:)

[Arry]

66821Hi all - thought I'd revisit this thread after an amazing dicovery...
Anyone get those Home Care magazines that get dropped off at your doorstep enticing you to buy some gadget (handy but unneccessary)..?
Well here in Perth it happens.
Anyway, today one was dropped off and you wouldn't believe what I saw in their catalogue.....

:)

I have seen them there before.

One important question I have for you.
Did you build a house recently?
If you did, there could be lots of concrete and rock under your lawn. My sister-in-laws lawn was great except for a few spots, no matter what they did.

I suggested using a fork to spike in the lawn.

Incredibly they discovered entire internal house bricks under the surface. No wonder why it wouldn't grow. It is now starting to come back well.

[rhancock]

The Scout Group I attended in the UK had a large lawn in front of the building, which was laid over the top of the brick paving for the nursery it was built on. Grass grew very well with only a couple of inches of soil.

However builders rubble can contain all sorts of cr#p which will impact on your lawn, but mostly what it'll do is improve the drainage at that point so that the water will drain too fast. As usual the best solution is to build healthy soil before you lay the lawn so that it has more organic matter to hold water. If you're repairing patches, probably the only thing you can do is remove soil under the turf, and replace with very rich compost, possibly even with some peat mixed in to hold the water.