Easy to use? Any tips? Am I going to maim myself with the thing? Have decided that instead of seeding our lawn's bald patches, I might remove the whole thing. All info welcome...
put some coco coir over the bald patches and mix in your grass seed then soak It will fill out the patch really quickly as the coir encourages excellent root growth and retains water better than soil
Do you mean a turfing iron or a motorized device? A turfing iron is simple to use but it does depend the nature of the soil underneath...a fine loam and its easy....lumpy as favoured by builders hiding rubbish under grass then it can be quite hard work slicing. Of course if its some new fangled device then I don't have a clue since the thing I've used was probably blacksmith made for Capability Brown.
There alright if the lawn is flat, any low spots the blade doesn't follow the contours and your left with turf patches which need a spade, but there ok, its a bit stop/start if your on your own!
Also if it is incorrectly set up or the soil is not moist enough (or too moist) it can skip. Beware what is below the soil, if you hit a decent sized rock the the blade can be ruined very quickly & they aren't cheap.
if you're relaying a complete lawn and it's a fair size, why not rent bobcat.....much more fun and you can get it properly level for the returf...
Had some big bad dead patches this year, (due to a moss killer remedy), tried to reseed those areas to no avail, so re-turfed over the top and cut them in with a sharp spade, success!
Don't think I haven't been tempted to hire a mini-digger. Boys' toys! I may do the same - dig out the worst patches and put partial turf down. Put down seed last year, which grew, but seems to have gone bald again.
