On Sat, 30 Mar 2013 15:13:17 -0000, Janet wrote:



Has anybody had any experience with one of those? Are they worth
using/buying?

Some of our lawn is almost pure moss now; there is too much of it for
hand-raking/scarifying and we can't find any powered machine on the
island to borrow or hire (either petrol or electric) or even, any
contractor who owns a machine and could be paid to do it. The last
resort, would be buying an electric one of our own.

ISTR hearing long ago that electric ones were pretty useless but that
may be out of date.

Janet, Isle of Arran

I used to have one and would sum up its qualities in a single word -
none. My lawn not then being that mossy, it was intended as a pure
scarifier as I had (have) a lot of lawn. But it tore out as much good
grass as dead. Plus I have developed an aversion to most electric
tools in the garden as I don't like extension leads and nothing has a
lead long enough to go everywhere.

I now use one of these
http://www.wolfgarten-tools.co.uk/mu...oval-rake-30cm
and whilst it involves a lot of hard work, I think my waistline
benefits a fair bit. I've divided the lawns into sections and don't do
everything every year.

I now have a couple of mossy areas where trees/shrubs have grown
enough to provide that bit too much shade and I tend to leave the moss
alone in those. It's green and often more resilient than grass! If you
want to remove the moss, then you need to deal with the underlying
cause of it - it's only a symptom and all the work in the world won't
keep it away if the conditions are right for it.

Cheers, Jake
=======================================
Urgling from the East end of Swansea Bay
in between feeding half the UK bird population!