I missed the class David Hedges-Gower gave last month at Preston Bassett Nursery. My friend Liz went and ” took notes” for me, or rather she bought the book. The consequence of this missed talk is that Liz hired a lawn aerator for her own garden and then came over to me in order that I could do mine. This was a job I did not know I needed to do!
One serious bit of kit
Having decided to rent the machine, transporting it was the next issue as it weighs over 90 kilos. Unable to sling it in the boot of the car, Tina and her van were roped into the exercise. There must be a joke here,somewhere, how many women does it take….anyway,
petrol driven, the aerator propels itself in the way a lawn mower does. As it goes along the tines remove a plug of soil and spit it onto the lawn.
This is soil not something unpleasant, I promise.
My lawn is very sticky clay and this Winter has seen standing water for days. The heavy soil clogged the tines and it took a good hour or so to get round as I had to keep stopping to unblock the hollow steel prongs.
Although late in the season for aeration, our late, cool, wet weather meant we could carry out the task. So job done, I am anticipating a noticable improvement.
The book by the speaker, David Hedges-Gower entitled Modern Lawn Care is a really good “how to” guide. The book covers all aspects of lawn care, with clear photos to illustrate how to identify your type of grass. Subjects include the main techniques of lawn care such as aeration, scarification and mowing in a no nonesense kind of way that is user friendly, whatever your experience. There are helpful answers to common problems and a twelve month programme section. I suggest that if you would like to read up on how to improve your lawn this book will be the only one you need on the matter.
I believe you should be able to get a copy from that online book shop, you know the one, the one with clever tax schemes.
One final comment, thanks Liz.
digwithdorris.com 