The season of autumn will soon be upon us. With it brings those pretty warm fall colors in the changing of the leaves on the trees. Some of those pretty fall colored leaves may have fallen and accumulated on your lawn along with other debris over a period of time. This debris, along with roots, weeds, seeds and grasses accumulates into a thick layer on your lawn known as thatch. If it is not properly removed, it can destroy the health of your lawn. To prevent thatch from getting too thick, dethatching should be performed approximately every other year. Here are some tips and ideas on removing that accumulated thatch without destroying your lawn.
1. Don’t fertilize the lawn for at least 45 days prior to dethatching: This will make the process a little simpler if the lawn isn’t overly thick.
2. Dethatch after a light rain, if possible: Dethatching a heavily saturated lawn will cause the dethatching equipment to pull the soil and tear the roots of the lawn instead of slicing and lifting the thatch.
3. Mow the lawn to the lowest recommended height for your particular grass type: Bag up the lawn clippings before you start your lawn dethatching.
4. Dethatch with a vertical lawnmower: The knives will cut through the thatch and pull it to the surface. The blades should completely penetrate the top half of the thatch layer.
5. Use a cavex rake for small areas: Pull the rake across the lawn bringing the thatch up to the soils surface.
6. Set your mechanical dethatcher higher to start with: The blades can be lowered once you get used to working with the machine.
7. You will need to go over your area more than once: Make the second pass at right angles to the first pass.
8. Dethatching generates a lot of debris: This is what you want to accomplish, so remove all the debris once you’re finished dethatching.
9 Fertilize and water your lawn once you’re done with your fall lawn dethatching: This will penetrate the soil with beneficial nutrients its been lacking from the thatch.
10. Mild lawn dethatching throughout the year will help slowly remove thatch: This will enable roots to grow deeper into the soil eliminating the potential to rip your grass up by the roots with heavy dethatching.
Keeping these tips in mind should help with your fall lawn dethatching process. Always consult a reputable lawn care company for rental of your dethatching equipment and other supplies to keep your lawn healthy and looking its best throughout the year. Regular aeration treatments will also help prevent heavy thatch buildup.
Source: american-lawns.com/lawns/dethatching steps
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