AERATION

Aeration is a key part of lawn care and helps to reduce compaction within your lawn, allowing water and air into the soil. They do this by pushing spikes in your lawn and opening up small holes in the lawn surface. However, there are a few different tools that you can use to carry this out:

Aeration Shoes - 5/10

These are the most ridiculous looking gardening products out there, so don’t invest in these if you are self-conscious. They are attached to your feet and have spikes on the bottom, so as you walk around the lawn, it will create holes in the lawn. 

When using this, you will need to find a methodical way to do this, which should not be too difficult. You will also want to have some sturdy shoes to wear these with.

You will be able to pick these up for around £10, if you can bear the shame of wearing them!

If you are looking for a pair, try the Gruntek pair on Amazon

Rolling Aerator - 8/10

The rolling aerator is a hand-pushed roller with spikes attached to the drum. The roller is then rolled up and down your lawn, causing small holes to be created in your lawn. These are really simple to use and allow you to cover a good sized lawn in no time. 

It can be a little physical to do this if the soil is not wet and will require some force to use it. However, if you find this the case you can wait for a wetter period or aerate a couple of times over the whole lawn. 

These can be normally picked up from £25, so they are more expensive than the shoes, but they do a much better job!

For a good option, try out the Oypla rolling aerator on Amazon

Hollow Tine Aerator - 9/10

A hollow tine aerator works in a similar way to a standard garden fork, but the main difference is the way in which the holes are created. Rather than simply forcing spikes into the ground to create small holes, this pushes hollow spikes into the lawn and extracts small plugs from the lawn. This is seen as the best way to aerate as the removal of the cone of soil creates the greatest reduction in compaction. 

However, if you are to try using this manual method of aeration on anything other than a small lawn, you will be there for quite some time. Plus, these can be very prone to clogging which can be very frustrating. So, you will want to take this into account when choosing which you go for. 

These can normally be picked up from £15.

If you are looking for a hollow tine aerator, try the Yard Butler which normally comes with glowing reviews.