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:

1. 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.
2. Sprinkle soil wetter over the surface - this helps to reduce surface tension and allows water to soak in
3. 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.
4. 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
5. If you've got dips and mounds, top dress and roll as necessary.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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!