h a l f b a k e r yRenovating the wheel
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Aerating lawns is beneficial for the lawn, but is a tedious
and/or messy process. You can hire a big machine which
punches out large (1cm diameter, 10cm long) cores of earth,
but it leaves your lawn
(temporarily) looking like a bad day in the Somme.
Meanwhile, we know that high-pressure water
jets can cut
steel (OK, they usually have abrasives in the water, but
still).
Proposed, therefore, is a water-jet aerator. Using a very-
high-
pressure pump, it delivers a row of water jets which will
slice
through the soil. They can either operate continuously
(effectively slitting the lawn at, say, 2cm intervals) or
intermittently (thereby creating an array of tiny holes).
Each hole (or slit) will be much narrower than a
mechanically-
made hole, which will somewhat reduce their effectiveness.
But the holes (or slits) will be much more numerous.
Best of all, if the pattern of holes (or slits) is dense enough,
it
will kill most of the chafer grubs or leatherjackets in the
lawn.
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// looking like a bad day in the Somme. // |
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You don't want to borrow the Krupp 5.9 again, then ? |
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Yes please, but only for the grouse. And only if you can sort
out that recoil spring problem. |
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It's sorted ... to be fair, it's a genuine antique, over 100 years old, and we did tell them it wasn't designed for that, but Sturton just wouldn't listen - as usual. |
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To their credit, it did work perfectly; the flavour and texture were amazing, and the idea had quite simply never occurred to us. |
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The foliage may eventually grow back ... |
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The trick is to scatter a little corn just inside the muzzle. |
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It was the idea of sticking it on with hoisin sauce that was the stroke of genius. |
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That was no Hoisin sauce. That was Rentisham's. Please tell
me you didn't... |
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// it will kill most of the chafer grubs or
leatherjackets in the lawn.// Isn't one of the
major
reasons why wildlife, (especially birds) is in
terminal decline a serious rate of extinction of
insects? |
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No, I think it's the serious rate of extinction of birds that's the
problem there. Clearly, if insects were in short supply, birds
would eat them all and therefore they wouldn't need
eradicating. Do try and keep up. |
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The 2-4 Litres per minute has to go somewhere. It's not going to make muddy holes because the water can't get away fast enough , is it? |
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To an extent it will - the water will create silt in the holes,
which will partially refill them. So each hole will be less
effective than the large core taken by a regular aerator.
But: |
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(a) We can make many more holes (or parallel slices)
(b) This will probably be doable with a domestic device;
nobody owns a mechanical aerator; so it's more likely to get
done more often
(c) It will be less uglifying to the lawn and
(d) It will kill the grubs that can kill a lawn, without using
pesticides (or nematodes, which are very expensive). |
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A hole is quite natural, ugly or not. A water hole is a different spectrum of environment. Though, if it changes the culture of the soil, it might be a good thing, The tilling worms will be annoyed into movement. |
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I knew who wrote the above anno as soon as I read the
second sentence. |
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Such ideas will gain you many plaudits at Buchanan Towers. |
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What about an icicle device ? |
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Water jets will only go to a limited depth, and tend to create mud. |
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We suggest a machine resembling a commercial ice-cube maker, but instead of cubes it produces tapered, pointed icicles of selectable length. |
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These icicles are then driven into the ground by a hydraulic mechanism. |
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The amount of water corresponds exactly to the volume of the hole created (in fact slightly less, because of the density change when water freezes). |
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Nutrients and fertilizers can be included in the icicle, as long as they don't unduly affect the freezing point. |
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And best of all, any moles on the receiving end of a sharpened ice stake can have their whole day ruined, at little or no extra cost or effort to the gardener. |
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