Mow-Aerator: simple solution enhances lawn-care

There’s more to maintaining a healthy lawn than just jumping on the ride-on mower now and then, but time-consuming and labor intensive tasks like aeration of the soil are often left undone. The solution is one we always like – do two things at once. The Mow-Aerator is a simple collection of brackets and one-and-a-half-inch spikes that attaches to a mower's tires and allows you to mow and aerate at the same time. The weight of the mower – whether ride-on or push - forces the spikes into the root zone to aerate the soil without the clods of dirt left behind by conventional aerators.

Aerating the lawn benefits the root system by allowing better access for oxygen, water fertilizers and nutrients plus additional space for roots to grow. The process also reduces run-off and prohibits polluting pesticide residue and fertilizers from being carried into storm drains and streams. Aeration is not needed every time you mow however so the Mow-Aerator is designed to be easily removed from the lawnmower.

Not due for release until spring 2008, the Mow-Aerator has just received the Popular Mechanics Editor's Choice award for outstanding achievement in new product design and innovation.

The company behind the invention, GAILCO Innovations, was founded by Gail Bowman whose husband Tim invented the device.

No pricing details have yet been released but with dedicated aeration machines running into thousands of dollars, its expected that the device will make the aeration process a much cheaper one.

Another retro-fittable device that applies the same principle in a slightly different format has also come to our attention. Invented by Sam Cartellone and Greg Cali The Bladerunna, can be attached to most push or self propelled mowers and there appear to be some advantages to this design given that the aeration occurs across the entire width of the mower (not just the wheels) but its application is currently limited to push mowers.