Cutting the Grass



Looking at aerating my grass over Easter.

Anyone recommend a decent aerator?

Is it better to kill the moss off before scarification?
 
SAFCTEES said:
Looking at aerating my grass over Easter.

Anyone recommend a decent aerator?

Is it better to kill the moss off before scarification?
Click to expand...

I bought this one a couple of weeks ago and on with mine the is weekend:

Kent & Stow Stainless Steel Hollow Tine Aerator | Van Hage Garden Centre

A traditionally styled, high quality Kent & Stowe Lawn Aerator 4 Prong made from stainless steel and beautiful ash wood. This tool is the perfect height for easy working, as well as eliminating the need for bending and reducing back strain. It has quality guaranteed with its 15 year guarantee...
www.vanhage.co.uk www.vanhage.co.uk

I wouldn’t want to use it if the ground was a lot dryer but it’s not been too bad on most of the lawn. I’d say my lawn is medium size (10m x 6m) again if you have a massive lawn might want to consider a machine one. If you have kids I’d recommend bribing them to pick up the plugs as you go and save a job after.

On a simple subject, after aerating do you just add a thin layer of top soil, seed and feed?

Im a first time aerator so not sure what to do now I’ve made shit loads of holes all over.
 
SAFCTEES said:
Looking at aerating my grass over Easter.

Anyone recommend a decent aerator?

Is it better to kill the moss off before scarification?
Click to expand...

Lawn sand I would highly recommended to get rid of the moss. From experience the grass appears to come back better than when using moss killer.
Best advice is keep working all through winter with this sand on the moss patches. Completely reseeded all the patches yesterday.

Answer to your question I would always get rid of the moss first then scrape it up and replace it with some top soil.
Easy to plant the grass seed on top.
 
SAFCTEES said:
Looking at aerating my grass over Easter.
Anyone recommend a decent aerator?
Is it better to kill the moss off before scarification?
Click to expand...
Check the lawnsmith links I've posted above.
Actually his April diary came out today.


How bad is the moss? Easiest is to kill first and rake out - BUT if you rake out first, then spray, then its the stuff the rake can't get to that gets all of the spray, and gets killed, rather than being left behind - so its better to spray/spread after really.

Machine aerators are too bulky & expensive for home purchase, and I've never seen anything that does hollow tine in a "home user" machine. I hired one last year for about £120. Or you can buy a manual one. Back breaking work, I imagine.
Herr Lipp said:
I bought this one a couple of weeks ago and on with mine the is weekend:

Kent & Stow Stainless Steel Hollow Tine Aerator | Van Hage Garden Centre

A traditionally styled, high quality Kent & Stowe Lawn Aerator 4 Prong made from stainless steel and beautiful ash wood. This tool is the perfect height for easy working, as well as eliminating the need for bending and reducing back strain. It has quality guaranteed with its 15 year guarantee...
www.vanhage.co.uk www.vanhage.co.uk

I wouldn’t want to use it if the ground was a lot dryer but it’s not been too bad on most of the lawn. I’d say my lawn is medium size (10m x 6m) again if you have a massive lawn might want to consider a machine one. If you have kids I’d recommend bribing them to pick up the plugs as you go and save a job after.

On a simple subject, after aerating do you just add a thin layer of top soil, seed and feed?

Im a first time aerator so not sure what to do now I’ve made shit loads of holes all over.
Click to expand...
Again, there's a guide to all this on the lawnsmith's site, or watch the Premier Lawns channel on youtube if you prefer your lawncare advice with an Irish accent :)
 
Still haven’t built the bullet and done it. A few of my neighbours get a gardener in and they had theirs done last Monday, far too short to my eye and looks like to quite mossy as well, I’d be raging if I was paying for that.
 
Charlestonian said:
Still haven’t built the bullet and done it. A few of my neighbours get a gardener in and they had theirs done last Monday, far too short to my eye and looks like to quite mossy as well, I’d be raging if I was paying for that.
Click to expand...
I really don't know what the rush is with wanting to cut the lawn this time of year.
It is the 1st day of spring - and people just need to take stock of the situation.
If the ground is too wet - then don't even think about it.
There will be some good windy days ahead, which combined with the sun, will dry out the turf.
Then it will be good to give it a HIGH cut.
 
Butcher's Coat said:
I really don't know what the rush is with wanting to cut the lawn this time of year.
It is the 1st day of spring - and people just need to take stock of the situation.
If the ground is too wet - then don't even think about it.
There will be some good windy days ahead, which combined with the sun, will dry out the turf.
Then it will be good to give it a HIGH cut.
Click to expand...

Agreed, it’s been soaking the back end of this week, it’ll probably be Easter weekend at the soonest for me, mine is just starting to grow now.
 
Given the back lawn a bit of a raking yesterday and today. Lovely conditions, soils still moist, not too much moss this year as I raked then put lawn sand down last year so mainly thatch. 2 skip bags full mind. Do the front tomorrow then I’ll switch the cassette over to the scarifier before putting some more lawn sand down then oversees in a couple of weeks.

Lawn is looking surprisingly good after this which is a good sign.
 
Marcosplace said:
Expensive machine to scarify etc??? ... a good quality wide rake and a pitching fork is needed instead.

And a bit of time if the lawn is large ...
Click to expand...

Can get a basic eletric rake for £60 at Aldi/Lidl that makes its 100 times easier. Raking 150sqm of lawn over and over doesn't sound fun.
Mine was £120 and has lasted 6 years so far. Did some repairs on it in the winter, and its almost as good as new now.
 
Flared Hicks said:
Given the back lawn a bit of a raking yesterday and today. Lovely conditions, soils still moist, not too much moss this year as I raked then put lawn sand down last year so mainly thatch. 2 skip bags full mind. Do the front tomorrow then I’ll switch the cassette over to the scarifier before putting some more lawn sand down then oversees in a couple of weeks.

Lawn is looking surprisingly good after this which is a good sign.
Click to expand...
Nice one.

Mine looks ok, till you get close to it. That bare patches on the "new section", I looked earlier and its all AMG/POA. I'm seriously thinking of spraying roundup on a 25sqm part, then raking it out in 3 weeks time when its time to overseed.
Can't see the point when 25% of the grass in that section is AMG/POA. Pissed off, but what else can I do?


Also, there are, and I'm not exagerating, about a thousand sycamore saplings growing in the lawn. 4 massive trees overhang our garden, the seeds get everywhere.
regular cutting should see they die out of course. Although I pulled them by hand last year and filled a 10L bucket!
 
Fitted 3 more runs of the french drain today. My back is killing but it’s done now. I watched a video on how to test your drainage, you dig a 30cm x 30cm x 30cm fill with water, then the following day once it’s drained refill with water and measure how fast it drains out over the following hour. Turns out it took 3 days for my first full to drain out. No wonder it’s always muddy after some rain. Hopefully I’m on the way to fixing that.

Plan for tomorrow is to overseed then top soil with compost. Front grass could do with its first cut too.
 

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