How to Rid Your Lawn of Thatch

Do you water and fertilizer your lawn, put lawn products on it to kill pests and disease?

Are you getting maximum benefits from these products? If your lawn still looks poorly despite all the work and money you spend to make it look like a photo in a home and garden magazine, the answer is probably no.

Your lawn could be full of thatch that is preventing you from having that nice green, lush lawn you crave.

Thatch is a layer of decomposing grass stems, dead roots, and debris that is found between the soil and blades of grass.

A little thatch won't harm your lawn, but too much thatch can be detrimental. Too much thatch will prevent water and fertilizer from getting to the soil. So if you're watering your lawn, you're wasting water.

Also thatch provides a great medium for pests and disease to live and thrive. Any pest of disease control products you put on your lawn won't be able to penetrate thatch either.

Thatch is more likely to be found in lawns of certain grasses. They are: Bermudagrass, St. Augustine, zoysiagrass, bentgrass, and Kentucky bluegrass.

Walk on your lawn in your bare feet. Does it feel spongy? If you answer "yes", then your lawn is most probably suffering from a bad case of thatch.

But fear not, there is something you can do to rid your lawn of thatch. It's a process called dethatching.

This process involves cutting your lawn with knife like blades. This will bring the thatch up to the surface where it can then be raked up and disposed of. If you have a small lawn, there are special thatch hand rakes you can use. If you have a larger lawn that needs to be dethatched, you can buy or rent a dethatching machine.

Set the blades of the thatching machine so that the blades penetrate the thatch and an inch of the soil. The blades will bring the thatch to the top of your lawn. Then all you have to do is rake up the thatch and you're done.

After dethatching, your lawn will be able to take full advantage of water and fertilizer you put on your lawn as well as any other pest or disease control products you might use.

The best time to dethatch your lawn is just before its best growing season.

Even if you don't put a lot of extra water or fertilizer on your lawn, dethatching it can still be beneficial.