Hi - please bare with me as there is some background to this story.
My house (in the UK) is built on very sandy soil. Every time I dig over the borders, I pull out lumps of sandstone sometimes bigger than house bricks. 3 years ago I laid new turf, front and back. In preparation I dug over the entire site removing all sandstone / building material. I dug in some compost and applied some growmore, then prepared the area and laid the turf.
For the first year or so the lawns were great. As the years have gone by, the front lawn especially (which spends most time in the sun) now has brown and completely bare patches. I always apply weed and feed in the spring and use a lawn rake and apply autumn feed in the autumn.
Having read about the problems caused by compaction, I tried to aerate the lawn with a garden fork, however the ground is so hard that this is impractical. I decided that a power drill and 45cm masonry bit would be more appropriate. Having tested this on a small area, I can see that in the brown/bare areas I'm pulling up sandstone through the flutes of the drill and yet the green areas are much easier to 'drill' and remove soil.
My question is; given that it's beyond what I'm prepared to do to completely remove the lawns and replace them, would anyone like to comment on whether I would be wasting my time aerating the entire lawns in this way, when there is obvious sandstone underneath?
The problem is too acute to simple part the turf and lift out the offending objects.