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Airating Grass

#1 · 16th April 2025, 3:32 pm

Hi,

Complete beginner here. My grass was newly led last spring. While it initially grew nicely and densely, it is now showing patches of rather bare soil. From what I read, I suppose I should airate, feed and do top dressing.

A Magnusson hollow tine airator was bought to do the job. However, the soil mostly does not push through so it effectively became solid tubes instead hollow. Consequently, it's very hard to push into the soil, the soil is very difficult to get out of the tubes again and I suppose instead of opening up the soil it just compacts it even more.

I did water to the lawn a couple of times before and the soil is moist throughout.

Any ideas what went wrong and what I could do?

Thank you very much!

#2 · 21st April 2025, 8:10 am

Hi @gardenninjaa-josebus-org

Thanks for getting in touch about your new lawn. It sounds like your lawn was laid on very compacted soil, which can be an issue, as it can cause lawns to turn patchy and die back. If the hollow tine aerator isn't working the next logical step I would take is to use a garden fork and prick the entire lawn, laborious I know.

Insert the fork and wiggle it around to work over the entire lawn. Then, top dress the entire lawn with sieved compost and leave it for 2-3 weeks before mowing. Then, a couple of months later, top dress again with compost to help open up that top layer of soil. The next spring, you may find it easy to use the hollow aerator.

You shouldn't need to feed your lawn if it's been top-dressed with compost, and it will also help lock in some moisture before summer, so it should give your lawn the best chance!

My video guide below shows me top dressing a lawn with compost as an example.