Straight after my request for guest posts/articles Doug Smith shares this labour saving idea for light aeration of the green. This follows on from Rob’s recent post on hand fork aeration. I’ll let Doug do the talking now:
Hi John, I have been reading your advice on green Aeration, the one on using a fork, I too have used a fork todo the job, but only for a short time, I found it took far to long, and very hard work, so I gave it some thought,and adapted my lawn mower, [see photo,] I use it on my home lawn, twice a month, and on the Bowls green.hope this is of some use to your readers.Regards Doug Smith
Thanks very much Doug for sharing this with us and hopefully it will be the first of many from readers in the coming months.
Interested in Doug Smiths mower/aerator adaptation.
Would he divulge mower width(Honda rotary?)
Make of aerator (website would be helpful)
Any stress on attachment point on mower?
Regards
R Hill
Thanks for your feedback
I agree its an interesting and resourceful use of equipment
I’m sure Doug will be happy to share
Cheers
John
Hi R Hill, Pleased that you find my Spiker adaptation interesting,
the mower I am using is a mountfield rotary mower, I got the spiker from a garden shop.they come with a long handle, that I removed, and bolted it on the front of the mower. I have found that, as long as the lawn is not hard, it dose not put a strain on the mower, that I have seen,
the mower is 35cm wide, and the spiker is 30cm wide, you can get them wider.
Do hope this is of some help.
Doug Smith
Thanks Doug
Following on from the mention of hand or ‘raise’ forking. I do find a fine pronged fork is a very useful tool for spot work. Increasing the depth of root growth on recently sown patches, and targeting areas needing a wetting agent are two particularly good uses. Varying the depth of pentration on dry patch is always worth doing. I think it usually only effects to a depth of a couple of inches but John will be able to advise on this. Also for getting air into anaerobic patches although in my experience sometime cutting these out during the closed season and building up the surface with the same sized grain top dressing is all one can do. I would be very interested in others thoughts on this, and also other spot work techniques people have discovered.