Scarifying & Aerating

Scarifying (for the most part) is an intensive raking action carried out by a specialist machine to remove moss, thatch and other debris that has built up in the sward.

It’s part of the ‘good housekeeping’ of your lawn and is normally done once a year (although it can be done twice a year or more) in either Spring or Autumn.

As it can be quite an aggressive operation, timing is everything. You should only scarify when nature will allow you to grow back the lawn; doing it in summertime can lead to scorch and desiccation and doing it in the winter means it will always look damaged until growth and recovery starts in the spring.

Aeration is the punching of thousands of small holes in your lawn, usually by a machine, using either hollow tines or spikes.

The function of aeration is to encourage gaseous exchange between the soil and the air, reduce compaction and improve drainage. It is also part of the ‘good housekeeping’ of your lawn and is normally done once a year. Spring and autumn are the main aeration times with hollow tines - winter is ok too, as long as the ground is not saturated.

Summer aeration is normally done with solid tines (spikes or slitters) although you do need to water afterwards to reduce the chances of scorch around the spike holes.

Yes! We offer both scarifying and aeration services.

For scarifying we pass the scarifiers over your lawn in two different directions to produce a diamond effect, we then lift the clippings (which can be substantial) and remove them for recycling before blowing the lawn to a nice finish.

Hollow tining or spiking are usually single pass operations to ensure an even distribution of aeration holes, we then lift the cores and remove them for recycling. Click on the link below to speak with us about your needs.

If you are on our lawn feed program we will be visiting very soon to apply a recovery treatment (as well as your regular feed if the work was completed as part of your regular schedules) so there shouldn’t be a need to do anything for the moment. A week after the Feed Team have been you can do a first cut where you ‘take the tops off’, after which you can resume your normal cutting regime.

For hollow tining the rules are about the same.