If it is March, it must be time to start top dressing lawns with Transform's Lawn Conditioner. We use this instead of aerating, liming and fertilizing lawns with chemical fertilizers.
Aerating may be productive in dry climates, but aerating in Vancouver during the spring does not make any sense. Powered aerators are large, extremely heavy pieces of equipment. The aerating tines are attached to a great big roller. A weight is placed in the roller to ensure the roller is forced down, embedding the tines deeply into a lawn. As the roller rolls, the tines roll over the lawn.
This system works perfectly on nice, dry lawns. As the tines are rolled out of the lawn, the small cylindrical plugs of turf fall out of the tines, leaving the tines empty for the next go round. Great idea!
However, there are no nice, dry lawns in Vancouver in the spring. On average, Vancouver receives 75 cm, or 2.5 feet, of rain from November to February.
When someone rolls an aerator over a lawn in March in Vancouver, after the first rotation, the tines are filled with muddy turf. Filled tines mean that all subsequent rotations of the roller are simply pushing the turf aside to make a dent. Few plugs fall out of the tines, so the lawn is not being aerated, but compacted. With all the water already in the soil from 75 cm of rain falling, the last thing a lawn needs is more compaction.
What Transform's Lawn Conditioner does is give life to the soil in which the lawn is planted. The Lawn Conditioner is filled with healthy microbes and nutrients. Add this as a top dressing to a lawn, and the soil comes alive. When soil is alive, it attracts the under the earth life, like worms, that in turn aerate the soil.
If you still feel the need to aerate in Vancouver, do it in September when the ground is dry. Add some compost as a top dressing, and your lawn will be set for the winter.
We buy our Transform Products (http://www.transformcompost.com) through Greenway at Marine Way and Greenall in Burnaby (sales@greenwaylandscape.ca).
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