REVIEW – I’m making holes in my yard! The Berry & Bird Lawn Coring Aerator Tool is made for promoting the health of your lawn, with a design intended to simplify the job. How did it do? To the review!
What is it?
The Berry & Bird Lawn Coring Aerator Tool is a tool that punches holes into your soil to promote air circulation, water, and nutrients for healthier grass.
Hardware specs
- 39.4″ tall by 11″ wide
- Aeration plugs are 0.8″ wide by up to 4″ deep
- Solid ash wood handle
- Stainless steel coring tines
Design and features
The Berry & Bird Lawn Coring Aerator Tool is a sturdy piece of hardware, designed for punching holes in your soil to promote healthy root systems for your lawn. The entire tool measures about 40″ from end to end. It’s also kind of pretty to look at.
The shaft and handle are made from a solid piece of wood with a thick, contoured T-handle at the end of the shaft.
The business end of the Berry & Bird Lawn Coring Aerator Tool is made from stainless steel, with four hollow tines that create the holes in your yard. Those angle-cut ends are designed to help cut through the soil, weeds and roots to get to business.
Above the tines is a flat foot bar that you’ll be stomping on to drive the tines into the soil.
Operation is pretty simple. You select the area you want to aerate and stomp on the foot plate…
… then you pull it out and repeat as necessary to cover the area you are aerating.
As you continue to work, the excess soil plugs get pushed up through the top of the tines. Those plugs will eventually work their way back into your soil.
That’s just about everything you need to know! Simple construction, solid components, and an ergonomic design are built for long-term use.
Performance
I do have a lawn service that aerates my lawn with a machine, but that thing can’t get into tight corners. I’m also trying to get grass to grow in some of the high-traffic areas around my patio. Enter the Berry & Bird Lawn Coring Aerator!
There’s nothing to complain about in the general design. It’s a solid piece of kit. I could not find any obvious flaws in the welds or assembly.
The ergonomics are fairly straightforward, with a long handle and the foot plate designed to reduce fatigue. Here I’m aerating those bare spots in my backyard for seeding and deep watering later. This area is very dry, and required some extra stomping to get the holes punched where I wanted them.
My manager is out there checking my work. She is a stickler for the details.
I’m also hitting some other spots that have been overgrown with ground cover so that I can get some seed in there. Here the ground is damp and much softer, and the aerator punches through with ease. Berry & Bird does recommend that you soak the work areas for better performance.
I like the size of the Berry & Bird Lawn Coring Aerator Tool for hitting those small areas like bare spots around my landscaping. It’s easy to get up close to edges and whatnot. But do keep in mind that there is some exertion required. It’s not hard, but the nature of the hollow tines requires a bit more force than a solid-spike device. The upside is that the pulled plugs leave more space to get water & nutrients to those roots. You’ll also need to do some waggling and pulling to get it loose if it gets stuck in firmer soil.
And this, in my opinion, illustrates the best use case for this tool. The Berry & Bird Care Aeration Tool is ideal for small areas of your lawn. It’s easy to use and convenient to bust our for patches you want to touch up. But I don’t think it’s as effective for large areas. If you’re doing an entire yard, I think you’ll find that to be a lot of work (and stomping) with a small tool like this.
Two additional notes from what I’ve experienced so far in my testing. Your last dirt plugs will stay in the tines, so I recommend cleaning it out between uses to help prevent eventual rust. You’ll need to push them out.
The other thing I am keeping an eye on is the stability of the build. The tines are connected to the shaft by a single rod you can see here. I have noticed a little bit of waggle at this point after using it several times.
That may be perfectly OK, particularly if you’re only using it in spot work. But I’m keeping an eye on it as a potential fail point after long term use. This is another reason I would recommend this tool for smaller areas and spot use.
What I like
- Simple construction
- Easy to use
- Good for smalll/tight areas
What I’d change
- No major issues to report so far
Final thoughts
The Berry & Bird Lawn Coring Aerator Tool is perfectly fine for what I would consider “light duty” work. It still requires some stomping and waggling in practice, but it does a nice job aerating small areas and patches of your yard that need help. It also seems very sturdy, even with a little play in the connection point between the shaft & the tines. I’ll update this post as I use it more and get a more complete sense of durability.
Price: $32.99
Where to buy: Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided by Berry & Bird.
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I have used this type of lawn aerator, but unless your lawn is very wet,the cores do not push up through the hollow tines and you are forever poking a screwdriver to remove core
Mr.Patterson, Have you tried Dwarf fescue seed in those tough areas? I completely redid my front yard and seeded Drarf Fescue, it started growth in 6 days! Withstands wet/dry, shade/sun, kids/dogs even animal pee. It bounces right back up!!!!!! Thank You for the review on the aeration tool by Barry & Bird! I’ll be lookin into those! Mahalo🌺🪷