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Very nicely done. I use a manual core aerator on my front lawn also. Is about 1000 sq ft. I admit I only put about 16 holes per sq foot tho, in areas with extra compaction I put a few extra. 2 tips that helped me alot are as such. 1. 3/8 paddle drill bit for cleaning the stuck tines. Cleans them out way better, but be careful you don't chip the tip of the tine. 2. Keep a bucket of dish soap and water near by, soak the aerator in it before you start and after any clogs. I use about a 1/4 cup dish soap to 2.5 gallons of water. I get much less clogs by using that technique I noticed. Thanks for the video and I look forward to the next one. 😁👍
You know, if my main lawn was 1000 sqft or less I could see myself just doing it manually 2-3 times per year at 16 cores per sqft. Decreasing the amount of cores could help me get through a full lawn in a single long day of labor then just do that 2 or 3 times a year and I save myself hundreds annually on rentals or hiring out the job. I'm curious about the soapy water trick; I'll try to remember that for the next time I decide to try this again.
@Turf Mechanic exactly my thoughts on it. 2 times a year manually. My backyard is 3000sq ft, but much like your hill, I try to minimally maintain it. The 1ksq ft in the front is the showpiece I get to focus all my effort on. As for the soapy water, I have a 2 tine walensee and I only had to unclog it 4 times in the entire front lawn. I have clay loam soil type. I did aerated 1 other time when I first got it without the soap and had way more problems. Just my experience it seemed to help alot.
My Yard Butler kept clogging on one side. I searched online and found a great tip that worked for me. Clean out the tine, place your drill bit onto and SOS pad and spin the drill to wind it around the bit. Then run it through the tine to clean it.
I used to aerate my grass with a manual aerator it's the best thing you could do to your lawn besides fertilizer and watering I bought a used Classen aerator on eBay and now I do it with the machine
I used a two prong Corona and call me crazy, but I found it so satisfying. I have clay but it’s had years of leaf drop from mature trees and was soft. Used a bamboo stake to clean it out after and a bit of mineral oil. Didn’t see this before I did the work, and def didn’t do 20 per sf, prob half that. Will go heavier next time. Thx! 🌿✌🏼
I applaud your effort. Bought a corona lawn breather from Home Depot. Piece of crap. Amazon has the landzie 3 tine aerator on sale for $99. Just ordered it. Here’s why. The tines are designed to manually exude the plugs. I was so tired of clogs and unlike one of your commentators I’m not dragging a soapy bucket around Landzie has the same design used by the British lawn care companies but at a much better price. Sure $99 isn’t cheap but I can’t tell you how frustrating it is having to use a tool that absolutely sucks. Lastly I know you are following some guidance on hole density but I’m sure I didn’t bother to be that precise and the results are amazing In my opinion aeration at any density pattern aeration is one of the best things you can do to improve your turf
Thanks BJ, it's a lot of work for sure especially with all the kids around the place I am constantly dealing with; lots of forced down time. I saw that Landzie aerator but only after I finished doing my 500 sqft lawn segment. Looks interesting and I'd love to try it side by side to see what I think. I actually finished my area with the Corona and felt like it was on par with the Yard Butler if not a bit better due to sturdier tines. Anyway, yeah, any holes are better than no holes so going below 20 per square foot will still probably yield great results too. I don't know how few is too few to make it worth doing but I guess if doing 10 per square foot instead of 20 is the barrier for someone to actually take on the job then it's probably worth it..as I've said before aerating is one of those jobs that most people want to do but few probably do it ever let alone with any regularity.
Blue Jay - How did the Landzie work out? I am using the Yard Butler right now its a lot of work for 1300 sq ft. I think the larger cores and the closer spacing of the Landzie looks promising.
@@kenny4540 The landzie is much better than the yard butler but it still wasn’t perfect. I have an area that is highly compacted due to construction and loss of soil. In that area the landzie did not drive more than a quarter inch. Surprisingly the yard butler went in the whole way with a lot of my force on it. The yard butler has a more pointed tine so it will go in but only to make a hole rather than extract a plug. Overall the landzie will pull plugs in all but the most cement like soil. I’m very pleased with its performance and having that extra tine is great. It feels good in your hand and is well built. If the soil is too wet the plugs get sticky and sometimes are slow to eject. Also too dry doesn’t give full plugs. So there is a sweet spot of soil moisture where the plugs come out like butter. I’m very pleased with it. Never had this much success with the yard butler. But the best method is the machine aerator and if you have a large area just either have it done by a service or rent one from the box stores. Don’t kill yourself
@@bluejay3945 Thanks for the info. I am watching Home Depot's website where they sell their used rental equipment. Hoping to pick up a used mechanical core aerator. Until then I will do it by hand ... Landzie looks like the right tool.
Very helpful video sir. I purchased a Truly Holey coring tool and have been having a heck of a time. My soil probably leans toward sandy, but it is definitely not clay, but is packed and in need of a coring job. I have an area of about 2000 sq ft I am trying to core. I use this area for practicing hitting golf balls and I want it like fairway grass. I have spent a lot of time working on this area over the summer, leveling, de-thatching, de-weeding, seeding, etc., and learned a lot in the process - like I should have done the coring first. It looks pretty good, but not great..so here we are. And I want to get it done this year still if I can and I want to do it manually cause I like a good workout. I realized pretty quick that I needed to water and pretty heavily to get the tool to even go in easy enough, let alone pull a core. When I heavily watered a 2x3 test area I was able to get some decent cores, so I know watering is the key, but a lot of them just broke up when pulled which I guess is due to the soil being sandy. And for the most part the soil was still on the dry side - so I need to experiment a little more with watering. Going to try and find the "over" watered threshold and adjust from there. If I can't get it right, I might wait until spring as you suggested....but I really want it done now so I can add some nutrients and over seed before winter so by spring, I have the look and feel I want. Anyway brother, thanks again for the great tips - at least now I know what I am up against. Well done mate !!! Well I gave watering a go and was amazed at how much water is needed to moisten the soil down 3-4 inches. After working on a small test area it ends up it's way to hard to get consistent results using a hose or sprinkler. I decided to just wait until next spring as suggested. For now just some de-thatching and over seeding before winter so I get a good start. Thanks again.
Seeing how much work and time it takes to do this manually it gives a better perspective on how to evaluate the value of renting or just buying an aerator.
Yeah, I'm actually starting to think about buying a mechanical aerator. The Billy Goat 19" model looks promising but it's a big ticket item that I'm not able to commit to yet, it's in the ball park of $3500 so...yeah, I'll probably keep renting LOL
@@TurfMechanic I wish someone would make an electric one for a good price, you would imagine that the device is pretty high torque which would make it even easier for an electric motor.
A drill! Nice tip, I literally gave up on coring and busted out a drill and mason bit to do it but it started overheating so gave up on that too. Can just use the drill to clear the clogs.
Dang man! You are crazy 😂😂😂 what a workout. I’ve got that same unit. It looks like your work produces much better cores. You’re right about the clogging. In the hard clay here it kinda just pushes things down. Great tips. Watering first definitely helps.
I reconsidered what I was doing probably a hundred times while doing it but dang, what it looks like now is insane! So glad I pushed through! I'll be mechanically doing the rest in the next few weeks but this is straight up cool right now; 500 square feet of green grass in late Feb!
Brian - Great video. In another one of your videos on aerating you us pi and the square root of the diameter (or something like that) to calculate the amount of surface area being remover and then say "it's just math". It may just be math, but you look like a fricken genius. I really enjoy your videos, keep up the good work.
Thanks for that Jason, yep, you question why you're doing it from start to finish, I was sore for a couple days too lol. This is right up there with using a thatch rake on an entire lawn!
yep, had a company mechanically do my entire lawn twice last year and I have a friend that is going to help me mechanically do the rest of my lawn and his lawn too probably in early to mid-March. Costs more but we can get 1000's of sqft done in just a few hours.
I am planning to manual core aerate this Spring,, and I am now hestitating whe watching your video lol hahaha.. great job..! and what a work out! 😆 my soil is still quite compacted (heavy clay), so I'm worried about the clogging, and I hope my body can handle to do 2000sq.ft 🤪🤪
aaah love how the family get involved.. That is SERIOUS aeration! Cant see me doing that (ok ok I'm not a true nut!), I really honestly would only prefer to use the machine and go over the same area a few times.
I bought a Honda FG110 tiller and purchased aerating tines. Albeit, more expensive than your traditional core aerator I hope that I’ll be more efficient - however the workout you’re pulling beats mine!
I'm tempted to buy something too but I don't want to be another lawn tuber that uses insane equipment on my channel lol. I support your purchase though, golf courses aerate often for a reason and owning a machine will make it much easier to do it more often than anyone in town! 😃
@@TurfMechanic The Honda FG110 has tines that perforate the lawn, albeit, without the preferred core plugs. I’ve learned that since golf courses are high traffic surfaces earth compaction is a proven fact…
The truly holey aerator on Amazon is way better than the yard Butler imo. Yard Butler clogged on me day one. The truly holey has bigger holes and open design so the cores fall out nicely. Check it out!! Also..I aerated lawn and overseeded in fall..how often do you aerate? Necessary?
Thanks for that, I just looked it up and watched their demo video. Looks like a good alternative and they say you don't plunge the entire tine into the ground. This looks like a cheaper alternative to the Landzie open core aerator. As for your question, I core aerate twice per year. I always try to do some of the job manually but the mechanical machine does most of the work on my lawn. I do it just before Spring in March and last year I did my second aeration job on August 30 just prior to fall. As others have said, if you already water fertilize and mow then aeration is the next best thing you can do for your lawn. Less importantly I also apply liquid aeration to the lawn a couple times a year or so; usually during the hotter parts of the year, late Spring and mid Summer just before a good watering session.
I live in Wisconsin I got me one of those two prong aerator. When do you recommend i start to put down my pre emergent and how many days after should I do the aerate ?
Hi, Im new to all this and lawn was quite bad after winter, I believe its because the seeds that I use was just a rye-grass and they died during the winter period. I over seeded lawn already, did a little dethatching (did't know about it before I did) with rake before. Garden is small, max 30 square metres, can I aerate even now when the new grass have germinated?
Had this done every year for 5 years never ever did a thing but make a mess. Grass was weak and died and just not healthy. 2years afterwards never did it and watered and dethatched it, fertilizer and some new seed, boom. Way better lawn.🤷♂️ im not a believer in coring but for a reference for a dirt sample its good.
You are one of the few people out there that I've heard from that isn't a believer in core aeration. Certainly the lawn will look better with dethatching, fertilizing and overseeding but I guess I'd just say that core aeration takes those activities to next level. I would suspect that only core aerating a struggling lawn wouldn't make as much difference but when added into the mix I would bet on that lawn performing well every time.
@@TurfMechanic Many user experiences show this is a useless tactic. Read studies out there and you'll fine at most, after 2 weeks, it showed no beneficial use. This is just done for monetary gain by turf companies.
Consider mechanical if you can spend the money, much more efficient but if done manually pair it with the other regular stuff in proper spring too. Good luck!
Noob question. Your video when you posted a few days ago got me out to buy a manual aerator and poke holes myself. I bought a new house (cool season lawn) that has a lawn in need of reseeding and overall care as there are tons of patches, thinning, weeds, etc. After i finish aerating, in a few weeks is it best to apply a pre-emergent such as tenacity, then overseed while also applying a top soil dressing? I did dethatch in the fall before the season ended to get rid of the excess. Any help is appreciated for this first time lawn diy’er. Thanks!
Nice to meet you Aaron! You're a brave man taking on a manual aeration job. 😃 multiple ways to go about it and for a first season lawn care enthusiast I'd recommend doing the pre-emergent and fertilize route in the spring with a mid-to late Spring topdressing of soil for low spots...then overseed late summer around end of August when pre-emergents have worn off. My video coming out on the 11th (probably) is exactly made for people like you, make sure to watch it before you decide. The overseed in spring with tenacity option can work too but it's more of a challenge because you'll have to do multiple rounds of tenacity apps and you'll still probably have weeds in the summer that may be hard to kill due to heat...not to mention tougher to get seed to germinate evenly in early spring than end of summer. I've got a lot of vids on all these topics with a lot more coming down the pipeline. Feel free to comment and question any time but I'm curious which option you ultimately go for.
I believe you since I've done it a number of times! :D How much space did you aerate, how many holes per square foot did you target, and how long did it take? I guess since I'm asking questions which aerator did you use? There's a lot of options on the market these days.
Wow! That's a lot of area to cover manually! Standing ovation! lol I thought about doing my 2500 sqft main lawn manually last year and quickly realized I just don't have the time for that much space. My full yard gets mechanically aerated twice a year but I always like experimenting with manual methods because I do learn a lot by going through the process.
Do you know if getting soil samples checked is worth the effort? I'm just thinking maybe there are certain supplements that should be applied before aeration.
yes, it's worth the effort since it's very simple to do. basic soil test kits by mail are usually sold in local stores and online and if you are good taking your soil to a local extension site you can usually get a nice look at where you stand. I personally don't do it enough but I try to not overapply anything either. I do lots of applications on my lawn as proved by all the vids on this channel but I always do light applications. ph is in my opinion one of the most underrated measurement you can take btw.
Ugh, I want to aerate but being as I have never done it before I am paying heed to what appears to be a machine that really has to be muscled around! True?
ppags84 is correct, the machines are self propelled but you have to manhandle them to get into tight spaces, corners, take curves or turns, turn them around for each pass, load and unload them to/from trucks and trailers, adjust them laterally on a lawn if they aren't exactly where you want them. They also grind pulled cores back into the turf so I find them to be messier too. Generally they are lass labor but even though they are self-propelled you will still be beat up at the end of the job.
Some people have that problem no matter what they do. Bigger tines of the mechanical machines may work better for certain soil consistencies or for soils that have lots of small rocks in the upper few inches.
That is ninja right there! Bigger tines may be harder to push into the ground but they may be less likely to clog. Cool idea for those that are handy in the welding dept.
@@TurfMechanic no the bigger tines aren't harder to stick into the ground they work just as good as the original ones they just don't clog any welding place would be able to attach them to the aerator just cut them off
Great comment haha. I decided to go for it and did my front lawn with the Corona tool. I split it into two days. I have roughly 1500sf and I just kept reminding myself what a great workout I was getting. Tines didn’t clog on me but were harder to get through in some of the drier spots.
@KT wow, well done! If you're anything like me you might have dropped 5 pounds in the process too! 😃 love hearing from people that have that kind of work ethic! I'm sure your place is going to look amazing this year 👊
@@TurfMechanic Thanks! I fell in love with plants and gardening 22 yrs ago but didn’t know squat about lawns. Your channel is awesome and much appreciated. I’m happiest when I’m playing in the dirt. Don’t own a scale lol. I’ll be 53 and have managed to hover around my HS weight of 110, give or take 10. Good genes I guess 😌
@KT nearly every day I'm cleaning dirt from my fingers and love it! With our late frosts many of our garden starts will go in from now through June, been spit balling doing some garden stuff here on the channel for a while now but I feel like I need to establish this channel a bit more before tiptoeing into the garden. Here's a glimpse into the future, ill be seeding clover onto my hill yard later this year to help the bee population near our garden and to slowly feed the planned Buffalo grass stand on the hill next to our chickens. By next year everything should be very low maintenance up here. 🤞Stay in touch KT!
It's actually early April right now :P In all honesty though we had a warm stretch from late Jan through mid Feb. It's snowing right now as I type this and our overnight temps this week are between 5-10 degrees. Winter always comes back when you live in cold territory
I recommend that in this video over doing this to a whole lawn, these are nice tools to have on hand for ocassional use but renting them or hiring a lawn care company to do it to a full lawn makes more sense. For those reading this though renting one of these means you need to be very strong or have a second person available plus you need a truck bed or trailer to haul the equipment- it's not as easy as running down to Blockbuster to pick up Cast Away for a day. 😁
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Very nicely done. I use a manual core aerator on my front lawn also. Is about 1000 sq ft. I admit I only put about 16 holes per sq foot tho, in areas with extra compaction I put a few extra. 2 tips that helped me alot are as such. 1. 3/8 paddle drill bit for cleaning the stuck tines. Cleans them out way better, but be careful you don't chip the tip of the tine. 2. Keep a bucket of dish soap and water near by, soak the aerator in it before you start and after any clogs. I use about a 1/4 cup dish soap to 2.5 gallons of water. I get much less clogs by using that technique I noticed. Thanks for the video and I look forward to the next one. 😁👍
You know, if my main lawn was 1000 sqft or less I could see myself just doing it manually 2-3 times per year at 16 cores per sqft. Decreasing the amount of cores could help me get through a full lawn in a single long day of labor then just do that 2 or 3 times a year and I save myself hundreds annually on rentals or hiring out the job. I'm curious about the soapy water trick; I'll try to remember that for the next time I decide to try this again.
@Turf Mechanic exactly my thoughts on it. 2 times a year manually. My backyard is 3000sq ft, but much like your hill, I try to minimally maintain it. The 1ksq ft in the front is the showpiece I get to focus all my effort on. As for the soapy water, I have a 2 tine walensee and I only had to unclog it 4 times in the entire front lawn. I have clay loam soil type. I did aerated 1 other time when I first got it without the soap and had way more problems. Just my experience it seemed to help alot.
My Yard Butler kept clogging on one side. I searched online and found a great tip that worked for me. Clean out the tine, place your drill bit onto and SOS pad and spin the drill to wind it around the bit. Then run it through the tine to clean it.
I used to aerate my grass with a manual aerator it's the best thing you could do to your lawn besides fertilizer and watering I bought a used Classen aerator on eBay and now I do it with the machine
That's awesome, I'd love to pick up a used unit one of these days. The new ones are still out of my price range but used might be OK.
@@TurfMechanic yes they are but I thought I was going to do it on this side aerating people's lawns the aerator really beat you up
I used a two prong Corona and call me crazy, but I found it so satisfying. I have clay but it’s had years of leaf drop from mature trees and was soft. Used a bamboo stake to clean it out after and a bit of mineral oil. Didn’t see this before I did the work, and def didn’t do 20 per sf, prob half that. Will go heavier next time. Thx! 🌿✌🏼
I applaud your effort. Bought a corona lawn breather from Home Depot. Piece of crap.
Amazon has the landzie 3 tine aerator on sale for $99. Just ordered it. Here’s why. The tines are designed to manually exude the plugs. I was so tired of clogs and unlike one of your commentators I’m not dragging a soapy bucket around
Landzie has the same design used by the British lawn care companies but at a much better price. Sure $99 isn’t cheap but I can’t tell you how frustrating it is having to use a tool that absolutely sucks.
Lastly I know you are following some guidance on hole density but I’m sure I didn’t bother to be that precise and the results are amazing
In my opinion aeration at any density pattern aeration is one of the best things you can do to improve your turf
Thanks BJ, it's a lot of work for sure especially with all the kids around the place I am constantly dealing with; lots of forced down time. I saw that Landzie aerator but only after I finished doing my 500 sqft lawn segment. Looks interesting and I'd love to try it side by side to see what I think. I actually finished my area with the Corona and felt like it was on par with the Yard Butler if not a bit better due to sturdier tines. Anyway, yeah, any holes are better than no holes so going below 20 per square foot will still probably yield great results too. I don't know how few is too few to make it worth doing but I guess if doing 10 per square foot instead of 20 is the barrier for someone to actually take on the job then it's probably worth it..as I've said before aerating is one of those jobs that most people want to do but few probably do it ever let alone with any regularity.
Blue Jay - How did the Landzie work out? I am using the Yard Butler right now its a lot of work for 1300 sq ft. I think the larger cores and the closer spacing of the Landzie looks promising.
@@kenny4540 The landzie is much better than the yard butler but it still wasn’t perfect. I have an area that is highly compacted due to construction and loss of soil. In that area the landzie did not drive more than a quarter inch. Surprisingly the yard butler went in the whole way with a lot of my force on it. The yard butler has a more pointed tine so it will go in but only to make a hole rather than extract a plug.
Overall the landzie will pull plugs in all but the most cement like soil. I’m very pleased with its performance and having that extra tine is great. It feels good in your hand and is well built.
If the soil is too wet the plugs get sticky and sometimes are slow to eject. Also too dry doesn’t give full plugs. So there is a sweet spot of soil moisture where the plugs come out like butter.
I’m very pleased with it. Never had this much success with the yard butler. But the best method is the machine aerator and if you have a large area just either have it done by a service or rent one from the box stores. Don’t kill yourself
@@bluejay3945 Thanks for the info. I am watching Home Depot's website where they sell their used rental equipment. Hoping to pick up a used mechanical core aerator. Until then I will do it by hand ... Landzie looks like the right tool.
@@kenny4540 come do my lawn if you buy one
Very helpful video sir. I purchased a Truly Holey coring tool and have been having a heck of a time. My soil probably leans toward sandy, but it is definitely not clay, but is packed and in need of a coring job. I have an area of about 2000 sq ft I am trying to core. I use this area for practicing hitting golf balls and I want it like fairway grass. I have spent a lot of time working on this area over the summer, leveling, de-thatching, de-weeding, seeding, etc., and learned a lot in the process - like I should have done the coring first. It looks pretty good, but not great..so here we are. And I want to get it done this year still if I can and I want to do it manually cause I like a good workout.
I realized pretty quick that I needed to water and pretty heavily to get the tool to even go in easy enough, let alone pull a core. When I heavily watered a 2x3 test area I was able to get some decent cores, so I know watering is the key, but a lot of them just broke up when pulled which I guess is due to the soil being sandy. And for the most part the soil was still on the dry side - so I need to experiment a little more with watering. Going to try and find the "over" watered threshold and adjust from there. If I can't get it right, I might wait until spring as you suggested....but I really want it done now so I can add some nutrients and over seed before winter so by spring, I have the look and feel I want.
Anyway brother, thanks again for the great tips - at least now I know what I am up against. Well done mate !!!
Well I gave watering a go and was amazed at how much water is needed to moisten the soil down 3-4 inches. After working on a small test area it ends up it's way to hard to get consistent results using a hose or sprinkler. I decided to just wait until next spring as suggested. For now just some de-thatching and over seeding before winter so I get a good start. Thanks again.
Seeing how much work and time it takes to do this manually it gives a better perspective on how to evaluate the value of renting or just buying an aerator.
Yeah, I'm actually starting to think about buying a mechanical aerator. The Billy Goat 19" model looks promising but it's a big ticket item that I'm not able to commit to yet, it's in the ball park of $3500 so...yeah, I'll probably keep renting LOL
@@TurfMechanic I wish someone would make an electric one for a good price, you would imagine that the device is pretty high torque which would make it even easier for an electric motor.
A drill! Nice tip, I literally gave up on coring and busted out a drill and mason bit to do it but it started overheating so gave up on that too. Can just use the drill to clear the clogs.
Dang man! You are crazy 😂😂😂 what a workout. I’ve got that same unit. It looks like your work produces much better cores. You’re right about the clogging. In the hard clay here it kinda just pushes things down. Great tips. Watering first definitely helps.
I reconsidered what I was doing probably a hundred times while doing it but dang, what it looks like now is insane! So glad I pushed through! I'll be mechanically doing the rest in the next few weeks but this is straight up cool right now; 500 square feet of green grass in late Feb!
You always have solid advice, thank you!
Brian - Great video. In another one of your videos on aerating you us pi and the square root of the diameter (or something like that) to calculate the amount of surface area being remover and then say "it's just math". It may just be math, but you look like a fricken genius. I really enjoy your videos, keep up the good work.
This is the grind of all grinds. Don't think you could truly appreciate how much work this is if you've never used that tool.
Thanks for that Jason, yep, you question why you're doing it from start to finish, I was sore for a couple days too lol. This is right up there with using a thatch rake on an entire lawn!
That's a lot of work your better of getting a machine or pay someone always a great show thanks again buddy
yep, had a company mechanically do my entire lawn twice last year and I have a friend that is going to help me mechanically do the rest of my lawn and his lawn too probably in early to mid-March. Costs more but we can get 1000's of sqft done in just a few hours.
I am planning to manual core aerate this Spring,, and I am now hestitating whe watching your video lol hahaha..
great job..! and what a work out! 😆 my soil is still quite compacted (heavy clay), so I'm worried about the clogging, and I hope my body can handle to do 2000sq.ft 🤪🤪
Good job Brian. Another nice video.
Thanks David; put a lot of sweat into this one! lol
aaah love how the family get involved.. That is SERIOUS aeration! Cant see me doing that (ok ok I'm not a true nut!), I really honestly would only prefer to use the machine and go over the same area a few times.
I bought a Honda FG110 tiller and purchased aerating tines. Albeit, more expensive than your traditional core aerator I hope that I’ll be more efficient - however the workout you’re pulling beats mine!
I'm tempted to buy something too but I don't want to be another lawn tuber that uses insane equipment on my channel lol. I support your purchase though, golf courses aerate often for a reason and owning a machine will make it much easier to do it more often than anyone in town! 😃
@@TurfMechanic The Honda FG110 has tines that perforate the lawn, albeit, without the preferred core plugs. I’ve learned that since golf courses are high traffic surfaces earth compaction is a proven fact…
The truly holey aerator on Amazon is way better than the yard Butler imo. Yard Butler clogged on me day one. The truly holey has bigger holes and open design so the cores fall out nicely. Check it out!! Also..I aerated lawn and overseeded in fall..how often do you aerate? Necessary?
Thanks for that, I just looked it up and watched their demo video. Looks like a good alternative and they say you don't plunge the entire tine into the ground. This looks like a cheaper alternative to the Landzie open core aerator. As for your question, I core aerate twice per year. I always try to do some of the job manually but the mechanical machine does most of the work on my lawn. I do it just before Spring in March and last year I did my second aeration job on August 30 just prior to fall. As others have said, if you already water fertilize and mow then aeration is the next best thing you can do for your lawn. Less importantly I also apply liquid aeration to the lawn a couple times a year or so; usually during the hotter parts of the year, late Spring and mid Summer just before a good watering session.
I live in Wisconsin I got me one of those two prong aerator. When do you recommend i start to put down my pre emergent and how many days after should I do the aerate ?
Hi, Im new to all this and lawn was quite bad after winter, I believe its because the seeds that I use was just a rye-grass and they died during the winter period. I over seeded lawn already, did a little dethatching (did't know about it before I did) with rake before. Garden is small, max 30 square metres, can I aerate even now when the new grass have germinated?
Had this done every year for 5 years never ever did a thing but make a mess. Grass was weak and died and just not healthy. 2years afterwards never did it and watered and dethatched it, fertilizer and some new seed, boom. Way better lawn.🤷♂️ im not a believer in coring but for a reference for a dirt sample its good.
You are one of the few people out there that I've heard from that isn't a believer in core aeration. Certainly the lawn will look better with dethatching, fertilizing and overseeding but I guess I'd just say that core aeration takes those activities to next level. I would suspect that only core aerating a struggling lawn wouldn't make as much difference but when added into the mix I would bet on that lawn performing well every time.
@@TurfMechanic Many user experiences show this is a useless tactic. Read studies out there and you'll fine at most, after 2 weeks, it showed no beneficial use. This is just done for monetary gain by turf companies.
It’s less of a “believing in it” thing and more of a “scientifically proven and widely accepted by professionals” thing.
@@TurfMechanic maybe I’ll give it a go one more time
Consider mechanical if you can spend the money, much more efficient but if done manually pair it with the other regular stuff in proper spring too. Good luck!
Noob question. Your video when you posted a few days ago got me out to buy a manual aerator and poke holes myself. I bought a new house (cool season lawn) that has a lawn in need of reseeding and overall care as there are tons of patches, thinning, weeds, etc. After i finish aerating, in a few weeks is it best to apply a pre-emergent such as tenacity, then overseed while also applying a top soil dressing? I did dethatch in the fall before the season ended to get rid of the excess. Any help is appreciated for this first time lawn diy’er. Thanks!
Forgot to mention when to also apply my fertilizer as well
Nice to meet you Aaron! You're a brave man taking on a manual aeration job. 😃 multiple ways to go about it and for a first season lawn care enthusiast I'd recommend doing the pre-emergent and fertilize route in the spring with a mid-to late Spring topdressing of soil for low spots...then overseed late summer around end of August when pre-emergents have worn off. My video coming out on the 11th (probably) is exactly made for people like you, make sure to watch it before you decide. The overseed in spring with tenacity option can work too but it's more of a challenge because you'll have to do multiple rounds of tenacity apps and you'll still probably have weeds in the summer that may be hard to kill due to heat...not to mention tougher to get seed to germinate evenly in early spring than end of summer. I've got a lot of vids on all these topics with a lot more coming down the pipeline. Feel free to comment and question any time but I'm curious which option you ultimately go for.
@@TurfMechanic thanks a bunch!!
Some great info on the lawn forum, I’m doing full Reno , has oversees instructions and examples as well .
I actually just manually aereated my lawn and trust me, it was messy, sweaty and back breaking.
I believe you since I've done it a number of times! :D How much space did you aerate, how many holes per square foot did you target, and how long did it take? I guess since I'm asking questions which aerator did you use? There's a lot of options on the market these days.
I did this last fall 3000 sq ft. Holes kept getting clogged. It was a pain in the ass
Wow! That's a lot of area to cover manually! Standing ovation! lol I thought about doing my 2500 sqft main lawn manually last year and quickly realized I just don't have the time for that much space. My full yard gets mechanically aerated twice a year but I always like experimenting with manual methods because I do learn a lot by going through the process.
Do you know if getting soil samples checked is worth the effort? I'm just thinking maybe there are certain supplements that should be applied before aeration.
yes, it's worth the effort since it's very simple to do. basic soil test kits by mail are usually sold in local stores and online and if you are good taking your soil to a local extension site you can usually get a nice look at where you stand. I personally don't do it enough but I try to not overapply anything either. I do lots of applications on my lawn as proved by all the vids on this channel but I always do light applications. ph is in my opinion one of the most underrated measurement you can take btw.
It’s great because if my wife complains that I’m eating too much junk foodI just tell her honey it’s ok I’m trying to bulk up for aerating season!
Ugh, I want to aerate but being as I have never done it before I am paying heed to what appears to be a machine that really has to be muscled around! True?
They are self propelled, but it is a good work out depending on the size of your lawn
ppags84 is correct, the machines are self propelled but you have to manhandle them to get into tight spaces, corners, take curves or turns, turn them around for each pass, load and unload them to/from trucks and trailers, adjust them laterally on a lawn if they aren't exactly where you want them. They also grind pulled cores back into the turf so I find them to be messier too. Generally they are lass labor but even though they are self-propelled you will still be beat up at the end of the job.
truth-teller :D
Looks like someone has nothing but TIME 👍🙀
LOL, yeah, if you can do this to a big space you "may" have too much time on your hands...or you just love your lawn and staying active.
I have heavy clay soil. That yard butler didn't do anything but clog up on me.
Some people have that problem no matter what they do. Bigger tines of the mechanical machines may work better for certain soil consistencies or for soils that have lots of small rocks in the upper few inches.
I cut the tubes off the manual aerator and weld the machine tines on it works much better no clogs
That is ninja right there! Bigger tines may be harder to push into the ground but they may be less likely to clog. Cool idea for those that are handy in the welding dept.
@@TurfMechanic no the bigger tines aren't harder to stick into the ground they work just as good as the original ones they just don't clog any welding place would be able to attach them to the aerator just cut them off
I might take on this project after I finish washing my car with a toothbrush and mowing my lawn with scissors.
Sounds about right! Lol 😂
Great comment haha. I decided to go for it and did my front lawn with the Corona tool. I split it into two days. I have roughly 1500sf and I just kept reminding myself what a great workout I was getting. Tines didn’t clog on me but were harder to get through in some of the drier spots.
@KT wow, well done! If you're anything like me you might have dropped 5 pounds in the process too! 😃 love hearing from people that have that kind of work ethic! I'm sure your place is going to look amazing this year 👊
@@TurfMechanic Thanks! I fell in love with plants and gardening 22 yrs ago but didn’t know squat about lawns. Your channel is awesome and much appreciated. I’m happiest when I’m playing in the dirt. Don’t own a scale lol. I’ll be 53 and have managed to hover around my HS weight of 110, give or take 10. Good genes I guess 😌
@KT nearly every day I'm cleaning dirt from my fingers and love it! With our late frosts many of our garden starts will go in from now through June, been spit balling doing some garden stuff here on the channel for a while now but I feel like I need to establish this channel a bit more before tiptoeing into the garden. Here's a glimpse into the future, ill be seeding clover onto my hill yard later this year to help the bee population near our garden and to slowly feed the planned Buffalo grass stand on the hill next to our chickens. By next year everything should be very low maintenance up here. 🤞Stay in touch KT!
Is good, hard work😁
It does make you feel good at the end of a day :) You sleep good those nights too!
Is it really February where you live? 😉
It's actually early April right now :P In all honesty though we had a warm stretch from late Jan through mid Feb. It's snowing right now as I type this and our overnight temps this week are between 5-10 degrees. Winter always comes back when you live in cold territory
Why not rent the machine for $60??
I recommend that in this video over doing this to a whole lawn, these are nice tools to have on hand for ocassional use but renting them or hiring a lawn care company to do it to a full lawn makes more sense. For those reading this though renting one of these means you need to be very strong or have a second person available plus you need a truck bed or trailer to haul the equipment- it's not as easy as running down to Blockbuster to pick up Cast Away for a day. 😁
I have the same one and took me 4 hours to do my 1600 sq ft. 🥵🥵
You are a beast getting it done in four hours! :D
My cape and mask definitely helped 🤣
Interesting
Exhausting :D
😀
Always clogged 😢
Rent the machine!
Yes sir! I will do it that way for the rest of the lawn! :D
Rent the machine
Good advise Angela, better advise as the size of the lawn increases too. 😀