 | Bob Richardson has been in the rental industry since 1968 working in a rental store while in high school. After college he returned to Wichita and worked for his father at AAA Rent-All. In 1975 Bob and his partner Roger Overstreet bought the company that consisted of one store with 3 employees. Over the next several years AAA Rent-All grew into a six store company with 97 employees in Kansas and Missouri. In 1997 they sold the company to a "big box" company that is now currently based in Stockholm Sweden. Now 5 years later Bob is back in the rental business with one store taking care of customers the way he believes they should be taken care of... with a smile, good service and good equipment. You may contact Bob at R. Quip, (316) 722-7600. |
Consumer Products, Services & Information
2003-04-01 11:23:00
Are they all the same?
Question: Does aerating and verticutting and power raking do the same thing for a yard?
Answer: No. Aerating, verticutting and power raking are three completely different projects done with three different machines.Verticutting is done with a verticutter, or vertislicer. Verticutters have solid vertical knife blades on two inch spacing that cuts the grass and grooves the soil in existing yards. It is recommended that you go across the yard in two different directions to create a perfect seed bed for overseeding. The verticutter is available with or without a seed box to accommodate all uses, and sometimes is referred to as an ‘overseeder’.Power raking is done with a machine called of course a ‘power rake’. It looks similar to a verticutter but has different blades. Power rake blades swing on a mandrel and are made to remove thatch build-up in your yard. The process is similar to ‘scalping’ but differs in that it removes all the dead thatch since the blades rake the grass down to the dirt. This can be done on Bermuda and Zoysia grasses to thin them out. Some people will also use this on Fescue grasses before seeding. One drawback is getting rid of the the thatch after you power rake your lawn. A power rake also works well to break up clods after roto-tilling a new yard.Aerating is done with (you guessed it) an aerator and is good to use on all types of lawns. An aerator removes cores of grass and sod usually 3/4” in diameter. The purpose of aerating is to loosen tightly compacted soil. This will allow the roots to go deeper. It also allows fertilizer and water to do a better job of reaching the roots. You end up with a lot less run-off when you water too.All three of these machines are gasoline powered. It takes about as long to do any of these projects as it does to mow. These machines are usually available for rent at most rental center, and some lawn and garden centers.
