Growing plants is a work that is fulfilling and gives you a sense of accomplishment. Gardening brings you closer to earth. The direct contact with mud and dirt, the open sky and above all the green plants – all these have the ability to imbibe in you a feeling of oneness with nature. However, farming or gardening is not a light task. Tilling, fencing, watering, throwing away weeds – one has to do a lot of work. But all these will seem nothing to a person who loves to see a plant grow from a seed.
One of the important tasks that one must do to ensure good health of the soil is to aerate it. Aeration creates tunnels in the soil that allows air to circulate through the tunnels and at the same time these tunnels help the roots of the plants to go deeper.
Grelinette and Aeration
There is a great tool available in the marker to help us in the task of aerating the soil. The tool is known as grelinette or broad fork as it is popularly called. It is a tool that has sometimes attached to a horizontal bar. There are high and long handles.
To aerate the soil with this tool one has to first drive the tines inside the soil. Then as he pulls the handles of the tool downwards, the prongs come outward leaving channels through them. These channels allow air to circulate through them. There are many types of grelinettes to choose from. Online stores like http://grelinette.pro will give you a fair idea of each of the variations of grelinette.
What Makes Grelinette So Special?
If you use broadfork or grelinette, somebody might ask you why you are not using a rototiller. He will give reasons for using rototiller – Automatic, easy to manage and what not. However, rototiller actually harms the soil more than it helps. Unlike grelinette, a rototiller turns the soil upside down mixing the topsoil and subsoil. This mixing actually harms the soil. Rototiller displaces the worms found in the inner portion of the soil. These worms help in fertilizing the soil and displacing them works against the health of the soil. A grelinette only loosens the soil without disturbing the rizophere much.
Besides, using a grelinette is like doing physical exercise. You have to hop on to the horizontal bar to push the prongs inside the soil. This is equivalent to performing mild exercise.
Some people say grelimettes are not so helpful in hard soil and soils with rocks and stones. However, modern versions of grelinettes can work the soil even if there are stones or the soil is hard and clumpy. These modern, more efficient grelinette can be found on online stores like grelinette.pro. Grelinette is immensely useful to those who follow the no tilling scheme. Grelinette is a great tool to maintain soil-health. Your plants will thank you if you use grelinette.