Mar 2019
Bann Hire tips on Moss Raking
Wed, 27 Mar 2019
"Dethatching" lawns refer to the mechanical removal from a lawn of the layer of dead turfgrass tissue known as "thatch." This residue is bad for your grass, as it keeps water and nutrients from seeping down to grassroots. Preventing thatch buildup is not nearly as big a part of lawn care as is mowing, but you should not overlook its importance to the long-term health of your grass.
Now that you know what dethatching is and why it is important, let's consider how and when to do it.
The How: Dethatching Proper or Core Aeration
While the process of thatch removal is what is technically called "dethatching," there are actually two distinct methods for dealing with the problem of thatch; which one you use will depend on the severity of the situation:
In dethatching proper, you use a moss raker
Core aeration requires a mechanical device called a lawn aerator
A moss raker is better than a regular rake which can be rented from any of our depots in Portadown, Banbridge or Lisburn,
In worse cases, core aeration may be necessary for dethatching lawns properly. If you have badly compacted soil, that is another reason to aerate your lawn.
You have two options when it comes to core aeration:
solid tine
hollow tine
Hiring these machines is the easiest and most cost effective way of dealing with this problem. When it comes to buying, not only is cost an issue but so is storage. Dethatching a lawn by means of a core aerator is probably not going to be a yearly task. Do you really have enough space in your garage or storage shed to store an extra piece of large equipment that you might not even use some years?
The When: the Best Time for Dethatching Lawns
When the best time is to dethatch your lawn depends on whether you grow a cool-season grass or a warm-season grass. If the former, dethatch either in early spring or the end of the summer. This is when the cool-season grasses are coming into their prime time for growth (which will help them recover quickly from the stress of being dethatched). Dethatch lawns composed of warm-season grasses in late spring, which is just when they are "coming into their own."
