This year, the Garden’s Main Lawn
area was cordoned off, the machine
operation creating considerable
interest amongst students and
visitors, and Terrain Aeration’s
Terralift set to work. The weather was
very good and dry, and the ground
was worked easily without the need to
use the Terralift’s JCB hammer drill.
The machine’s probe is driven down a
metre deep and highly compressed air
released up to a maximum of 20Bar
(280psi) to fracture the soil, opening
it up for aeration, drainage and to get
oxygen to the roots of the plant. On the
tail end of the air blast, dried seaweed
is incorporated which sticks to the
walls of the fractures and fissures
created by the main air blast. As
pressure drops, the seaweed is mixed
in the hopper unit where it swirls
around with the remaining air and is
then released. The seaweed swells in
wet weather and keeps the fissures
open.
On the Main Lawn the same process
was repeated in two-metre spacings,
so the underground fracturing is
thoroughly linked. In some extreme
cases this is demonstrated by water
fountains appearing from previous
probe holes. In this instance the
ground was found to be not as
compacted as expected and the
2,500sq metre area was completed in
two days, not the original three as had
been expected.
“The Terrain Aeration guys were
very good, prompt and efficient and
quite knowledgeable,” says Adrian,
“they backfilled the probe holes with
Lytag, lightweight aggregate and it
was as if they had never been there. It
was great to have everything back to
normal so quickly.”
The aeration treatment completed, the
lawn area was immediately open for
unrestricted access to the fountains,
glasshouses and horticultural and
“We know Terrain Aeration’s work re-built after the work but were found
from years ago when development to be compacted and the soil was not
had been done at the Station Road good. We had a waterlogging issue for a
Entrance and the lawn at the back couple of years. The Terrain Aeration
of Cory Lodge,” says Adrian Holmes, treatment rectified the problem and
Landscape and Machinery Supervisor we know from experience it’s a long-
at the Garden. “The lawns had been term solution.”
National Plant Collections.
Terrain Aeration
www.terrainaeration.co.uk
01449 673783