How Do I De-Thatch My Lawn?

If you have ever looked at some else's lawn and wondered how they were able to grow it, I'm here to tell you that it took a lot of hard work and dedication on their behalf. Having the perfect lawn requires that you know how to take care of it in the winter as well as the summer months. There will be times when your lawn will need to be thatched and times when it will need to be de-thatched. This article offers tips on what you need to know to be able to de-thatch you lawn.

The first thing that you will need to do is to take a tour of your lawn checking for excessive thatch. Thatch is the thick mat of clippings, cuttings and stems that often build up between the green blades and the soil surface. You may need to actually get down on your knees so that you will be able to part the grass with your hands to see if the thatch has built up more than an inch.

You must develop a thorough understanding of how de-thatching works. The main purpose of de-thatching is to fix the problem that occurs when light cannot reach the soil surface any longer due to the thick thatch. When this happens, the thatch will have to be ripped out. When this is done, the lawn is going to look rough for a while, but in time, you should see new batch of healthy new grass shoots taking off.

The next thing that you will need to do is rake the grass with a stiff-tined garden rake or a rake that has been specially designed for de-thatching. Make sure that you sink the tines into the thatch so that you can pull out as much as you can without pulling up the grass.

If you still cannot see the ground after an extended period of raking, you may need to use a special de-thatching blade, which is a device that can be attached to your mower. If this is not an option for you, you may be able to rent one as well from a local lawn care dealer.

If the weather has been very dry, you may want to water your lawn the day before you de-thatch it. It is recommended that you begin running the de-thatcher at the farthest point from your home. This will allow you to get a feel for how the equipment operates before you hit the high-traffic areas of your yard.

At this point you must pay real close attention to what you are doing, because you want the blades to cut through the debris without scraping the soil's surface. You also will also want to make sure that you run the machine over each swath of lawn only once.

Your final step should be to use a leaf rake to clean up the piles of thatch that have been removed. If you use the methods in this article, you should have a beautiful healthy lawn in no time at all.