Are lawn scarifier thingys worth having?

[Seahorse]

I've stolen most of my lawn for veg growing but do have a bit left for the kids to play on Chap over the road from me has an old manual scarifier for sale for a few quid. Are they worth having?

Claire

[pigletwillie]

Yes, but only if you have a lawn!

[jaykay]

I bought an electric one from B&Q recently with the aim of rejuvenating a tired looking lawn. WOW - what a difference in a couple of weeks. It took about 30 mins to do the lawn (10 x 10m approx). The thatch that came from the grass (and went into the compost bin) was amazing but the lawn looked a bit of a mess. Now the grass has started to regrow and looks very healthy. My purchase was well worth it but I'm not sure if a manual scarifier will be as effective as quickly.

[terrier]

I had a green lawn that I thought had too much moss. I was advised to dose it with mercurial sand and then scarify it. This I did. I ended up with no lawn. There had been so much moss there was virtually no grass! It did of course mean I ended up with a much better lawn after I re seeded. I scarify a few sq. yards at a time with a lawn rake now, it keeps me out of mischief.

[Snadger]

The problem with scafiying moss out of lawns is that you are just applying a short term solution to a long term problem!

The underlying problem of why you have moss needs to be considered, ie is the lawn too damp, shaded or compacted?

Until these issues have been addressed by installing drainage, cutting down nearby trees or aerating to break through a surface pan, you may find that the moss just keeps returning!

The best manual scaifier is a grass rake btw!

[nick the grief]

Yes, but only if you have a lawn!

I was going to say that piglet

[Seahorse]

Thanks everyone. I reckon it's worth me buying if he still has it tomorrow then. Given the amount of bikes/trikes/footballs/paddling pools that are a major feature of my lawn, it's never going to be immaculate but every little helps!

Claire

[Alison]

I agree with what has been said above, we don't have much lawn so I tend to aerate and rake by hand but if it's going cheap then go for it. As said though, it can be quite scary how much moss comes out of it even if you didn't think your lawn was that bad!

[Nicos]

We borrowed MIL's and took out about 1/4 of what we thought was lawn
It wasn't until we saw how much was gone that we realised how compressed our soil had become over the years.
Well worth doing- can you buy a shared one with other family/friends???
Certainly MUCH easier than raking and raking and raking........

[TonyF]

I use a Wolf hand scarifier (multi headed swap head thingy)- great for under the trees, following a good raking with the grass rake/spring tines. I was doing it only yesterday and managed to get loads of the thatch off the 'lawn' - a term used advisedly.

And straight into the composters, so even better.

And if you do it manually, great exercise.