I need to aerate a very compacted lawn sown on heavy (and I mean heavy) clay soil. Suggestions much appreciated but please read below first...
Over the past couple of years, I've tried the usual recommendations of plunging a fork in and wiggling it around a bit and a hollow tine aerator. Both of which might have worked if I weighed around 200kg! The lawn just sneered at me - even jumping on the fork and aerator, I couldn't penetrate more than a centimetre. I've had folk say that I need to wait for the right moisture conditions - believe me, such conditions never occur.
So, last week I fitted an 18mm diameter, 350mm long masonry bit into an SDS+ drill and set about the lawn. It was effective but surprisingly hard work. After one hour, I had peppered about 1 sq metre of lawn and overheated the drill. I estimate that drilling the entire lawn would take about 250 hours. Therefore not practical - and that's not considering the cost of replacement drills and bits or my time.
Does anyone know of a serious bit of kit for making at least 300mm deep holes of at least 15mm diameter in very heavy, compacted lawns? Maybe the sort of drill used for foundation piling? Doesn't matter if the holes are much deeper/wider - might be a good thing.
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
Over the past couple of years, I've tried the usual recommendations of plunging a fork in and wiggling it around a bit and a hollow tine aerator. Both of which might have worked if I weighed around 200kg! The lawn just sneered at me - even jumping on the fork and aerator, I couldn't penetrate more than a centimetre. I've had folk say that I need to wait for the right moisture conditions - believe me, such conditions never occur.
So, last week I fitted an 18mm diameter, 350mm long masonry bit into an SDS+ drill and set about the lawn. It was effective but surprisingly hard work. After one hour, I had peppered about 1 sq metre of lawn and overheated the drill. I estimate that drilling the entire lawn would take about 250 hours. Therefore not practical - and that's not considering the cost of replacement drills and bits or my time.
Does anyone know of a serious bit of kit for making at least 300mm deep holes of at least 15mm diameter in very heavy, compacted lawns? Maybe the sort of drill used for foundation piling? Doesn't matter if the holes are much deeper/wider - might be a good thing.
Thanks for taking the time to read this.