Not, not affiliated with any vendors etc...

I have just cleared a ridiculous amount of thatch and moss out of a sad
tired lawn with a Bosch Verticutter AVR 1100. Unlike most rakers with
weak tines, this machine has flails made of 3x1cm approx steel sheet.

Seems very effective. Large lawn has yielded something like 5-7m3 of
varying matter. Whilst I have spend some time (4 years!) removing lumps
of concrete and large stones from the ground, I still hit a few rocks.
The flails have dents but show no signs of being terminally damaged.

This is the "lawn" that made me take a powered grindstone to my rotary
mower blade as it was so knackered a file was never going to sharpen it...

Now overseeded the lawn with my own blend of clovers (2 whites and a red
with a few wild "meadow" flowers thrown in to hopefully do something
interesting at certain times). I like clover in lawns - more tolerant of
the difficult conditions which mine faces (shade, dry in summer, lots of
clay). Hope it takes... To be honest not sure how the wild flower seeds
will behave - that's just an experiment...

Got 2 tons (I do not jest) of topsoil coming next week to fill in
various hollows. This will never be a bowling green but I would like to
deal with the 6" deep random troughs and holes...



The other device I'm extremely impressed with is the Black and Decker
36V Li-Ion strimmer. Lot more comfortable to use than my old petrol
Ryobi that finally blew up. Battery tools have come a long way over the
last few years.


Cheers

Tim