If like me you enjoy the look of a fantastic Lawn then using a Garden aerator is one very important way to make sure you can achieve that. The confusion happens as some people confuse scarifying or scraping with aerating. It is worth pointing out the differences in these two processes as although both are important they are two distinct gardening activities.

This is a a process where one rakes the top of the grass or lawn surface to remove dead grass or moss and allows the garden to breathe. You can do this with a standard garden rake or with a Machine that has spikes on it and is rolled over the lawn. This is a good process to do and I normally do this once every three months but it has nothing to do with actual garden aeration.

This process is nothing more complicated than poking holes into your lawn. That's about it in a nutshell and there are many ways to do that. The purpose of these holes is to allow water and oxygen into the soil which in turn will promote healthy growth. This can simply be done with a garden fork or with a wooden shaft with a spike attached to the end. You simply go over your lawn and push the fork into the ground and repeat this every 6 inches all over the lawn area. You should always do this after rainfall or if the garden has been watered as the spikes can enter the ground more easily.

Clearly if you have a large lawn this can become a long and boring process to do and many manufacturers of garden equipment have come up with various solutions to automate and make this process faster and easier.

A really cheap alternative to purchasing a machine is to buy what look like garden shoes with spikes in the bottom of them. You attach these to your feet and simply walk over the garden. The spikes on the bottom do the work for you. usually there are problems with the attachments that hold these shoes on to your feet so if you are going to buy these make sure the attachments are strong and adjustable.

You can purchase machines usually with two wheels and spikes in the centre position that can then be pushed or dragged over the garden. Again this should only be done when the garden is soft. For many of these I have found that you have to place a heavy weight on top of the machine so as the spikes actually sink into the lawn.

There is a lot of debate as to whether you should by a solid spike machine or a hollow tine machine. The important thing is that you do actually aerate your garden, but if you are a purist then hollow tine is actually the preferred type of spike.