Aerating a lawn

Holy Diver

Right - my lawn has gone to sh1t so I think I need to aerate, fertilise and add seed.

Questions on aerating:

Anyone try aerating shoe spikes? Any good?

Manually doing it would appear to be too labour intensive so it is either shoe spike or sourcing a power aerator for hire

Thanks

sky6

I'm no expert but I think Shoe spikes wont be long enough to do a proper job. I think you need a dept of 2 inches to be able to reach the root system.

There is a role along spiker you can get on Argos etc. You push it along and the spikes rotate into the ground.

NIMAN

No expert, but I think the spiked shoes and roller type are fairly basic, and I have read that they compact the soil around the spikes. I have the roller type myself, and don't use it too often. But I would guess its better than doing nothing.

I think for proper aeration you actually need to pull plugs of grass out, to let it breathe.
See this photo:
https://amos.co.uk/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/1800x/040ec09b1e35df139433887a97daa66f/3/E/3E826D0EC9B542EFAC9CEC604CC29EBC.jpg

positron

Hollow Tine Aerator is what that yoke is called I believe. Like this one:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kingfisher-RC401-Gold-Lawn-Aerator/dp/B0060LSEQU