GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post

26-09-2003, 02:55 AM

(Chet Hayes) wrote:
(jin) wrote in message
. com...
Hi,
I have just bought a 2-cycle Mantis Tiller with Aerator/Dethatcher
attachment.
It took me about 30 minutes to figure how to dethatch the lawn. At
first it
appears that I am smashing the lawn. But with a little practice, it
seems to
work more or less.

Then I tried the Aerator. That seems like a nightmare. Instead of
cutting
slits on the lawn, it just pulls out all the grass. I have no clue
how it's
supposed to work.

I spoke to a Little Wonder support person, she said that there is one
type of
grass (most typically in the souther part of the country) whose roots
grows horizontally (instead of vertically) and the Aerator/Dethatcher
will simply not
work with lawns of this type.

But since my dethatcher works more or less, it's doubly highly
unlikely that
my lawn is of this type.

Anyone have any advice on that ???

Thanks,

Jin

Are you letting the aerator move freely across the lawn? If you're
trying to hold it back and let it stay in one spot, that would
certainly chew up the grass under it. An aerator is supposed to just
move steadily along, allowing the the tines to pierce the soil.

A real core aerator has hollow tines that takes about 3/4 inch plugs
of soil out, letting air and water in and de-compacting the soil.
The unit you have has knives instead of hollow tines, so it's less
effective, but still tries to do the same thing.

This might be a clue to his aeration problems..

I have just bought a 2-cycle Mantis Tiller with Aerator/Dethatcher
attachment.

Reckon?

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