How To Dethatch A Lawn With A Mower Attachment
A lawn can be dethatched using a few different methods, you can use a lawnmower attachment, rake your lawn by hand or hire in professionals to carry out the job. Those which decide to dethatch their lawn manually, by using a rake, may find this a more stressful or arduous task. If you chose to hire in professionals to complete this job for you, although this is a stress-free option, it will cost considerably more than other options available to you. Using a lawnmower attachment seems to be the most cost efficient and less strenuous option.
This article will explain why you need to dethatch your lawn, how to prepare your lawn for dethatching, how to dethatch a lawn with a lawn mower and how to tend to your lawn after you have completed the task.
Why Do You Need to Dethatch Your Lawn?
Your lawn can become thick and spongey over time, this can then form a ceilover your grass after an extensive period of time. This ceils then covers your grass’s roots and its soil, stopping both water and air from reaching down to it. Dethatching your lawn helps to stop this build up and rejuvenate your lawn. It is common practise to dethatch your garden every year, but it can be done whenever the thatches thickness reaches to about half an inch.
You will know when to dethatch your lawn as the thick mat-like layer will be very bouncy and spongey, it is best to test your grass by walking across it barefoot or pressing your lawn with your hands. If the lawn is firm to touch then you definitely do not need to dethatch your grass, but if it feels like your feet or hands sink into the grass it is time to tend to it, these next steps will tell you how to prepare for dethatching and how to do it.
How to Prepare Your Lawn Before Dethatching
Before you go straight into the dethatching of your grass it is important to consider the height of your grass. Dethatching with shorter grass makes it much easier to do so you may want to mow the lawn prior to dethatching to make it more effective. If you do need to mow your lawn prior to dethatching, it is vital to remove all grass clippings from the lawn to make it easier to manage when carrying out the activity. It is also important to remember not to prep your lawn or dethatch it if it is wet.
Adapting the height of your lawnmower is important before attempting to dethatch your lawn. Your lawnmower should be set at an optimum height, not too high or too low; many professionals suggest that if your mower has ten height levels, to go for levels 5 or 4.
Just as an addition, purchasing a catcher for your lawnmower is a great investment; it is a time saver especially with compared to dethatching without one. Without a lawnmower catcher you will need a rake to collect all of the dethatched grass that is left behind after the treatment.
How Do You Dethatch Your Lawn?
After taking those preliminary precautions and preparations the first step of dethatching a lawn is changing the mower blade. You need to swap out your normal blades for dethatching blades and then you can tackle your lawn.
To dethatch your lawn simply uses your mower as you would normally, there might be some resistance and more movement than normal, but all in all it is a painless action. Ensure that you are keeping an eye on your lawnmower catcher as you tend to your grass.
If the catcher gets full then you can empty it as you go and keep this to use on your compost pile. Otherwise you can bag up the leftover debris and dispose of it as you see fit.
Now the task of dethatching is complete you must tend to the needs of your lawn, treating every spot differently. You should bathe your lawn extensively using sprinklers where possible to rejuvenate the grass. It may also be prudent to use some fertilizer on those spots that were seriously damaged or left bare from dethatching.
Aftercare Tips
Once you have bathed your lawn and treated bald or damaged areas with fertilizer to help it recover, it will look very messy at first. The aftercare you give to your grass will really determine how well your grass grows back. In some of those areas that are very bald you should plant some seeds into the soil to help it better repair, if you decided to do this then extensive watering is necessary. If you follow the aftercare steps well then, your grass will flourish, and any thinning or weak spots will repair with ease.
Conclusion
Although dethatching is an easy task it can be life changing for your lawn. It is important that you tend to your lawn with enough time to repair it, while this method will rejuvenate your lawn it is important to catch any bald spots or needs for dethatching in enough time to make a difference.
The overall task is simple and easy to follow, it can be done without any additional help or expensive parts or additions to the kit that you already own and use when attending to your lawn. It is a worthy job to undertake with huge benefits and rewards.