From: tedkaz24@hotmail.com
Newsgroups: misc.consumers.frugal-living misc.consumers.house
Subject: Re: Lawn Aeration vs letting the squirrels and birds do it
Date: 26 Mar 2007 13:48:59 -0700
   posting-account=YRkiegwAAABkAwymC-JdO3N3AZVYR1Iq


trader4@optonline.net wrote:
> On Mar 25, 4:44 pm, Melinda Meahan - take out TRASH to reply
>  wrote:
> > Logan Shaw wrote:
> >
> > > Maybe it prevents it from running off, and thus saves water.  I don't
> > > know that it does, but I certainly sounds like that was the implication.
> >
> > Exactamundo.  When clay soil gets wet, it swells, which keeps water from
> > getting any deeper.  So you either have to do keep doing MAJOR
> > augmentation with things to keep is less claylike, or you punch holes
> > down deep so the water can get down lower so your grass doesn't die from
> > just having a sprinkle of water on the top.
> >
> > My bermuda grass survives just fine in this clay soil with aeration to
> > get the water going deeper.
>
>
> In addition to soil issues, aeration is important if a lawn has a
> thatch problem.  Thatch is dead and slowly decaying plant parts,
> mostly crowns, that exists between the top of the plant roots and the
> surface.  If it gets too thick, it becomes like a thatch roof and
> water won't penetrate.   That leads to insufficient water and promotes
> disease. Aeration punches holes through it, which not only lets water
> in, but also aids in the bacterial breakdown of thatch.

Aren't the Robins pulling worms doing the same thing, for free. Well
not totally free, I put a plate of water out for them, the big males
camp out all summer.