UKH

Slightly left field question. Has anyone tried aerating their lawn by stomping around on it with crampons on?

Did you get arrested? 

Did the lawn respond to the treatment? 

I was researching lawn aeration when all these spiky shoe attachments came up and I thought 'hang on, I've got a couple of pairs of very similar devices in the garage'.

Yep, done that - and I remember my dad doing it many years ago.  No idea whether it helped the lawn or not (there wasn't a control experiment).  It was the front lawn next to quite a busy road - no arrests made or comments from passers-by, though at one point my stepson opened his bedroom window and started blasting out Nancy Sinatra's "These boots were made for walkin' "...

Rick

it was certainly a minibus topic of conversation back in the 80s

I aerated my lawn using a scarifier and a foot thing with a spike on it. Not crampons, never thought of that.

The moss loved it and grew back stronger. 

Lawn care is a mystery to me.

Hollow tines

Yep, been there and done it a while back. My back lawn is a bit of a war of attrition for me. Large amounts of money have been ploughed into grass seed and weed killer with limited success. It was looking ok last summer but I'm admitting defeat and about to lay a plastic mesh layer over it all to stop my kids churning it into a swamp playing football (after the recent monsoons here). 

I did it.   Neighbour reported me to the RSPW  (Royal Society for the Protection of Worms).

Luckily all the blackbirds had eaten the evidence before the inspector arrived to look for proof of injured and dying worms.