Dethatching: How To Do It Correctly

One of the best ways you can improve your lawn is to detach it. Now, this is an easy process, but many people don’t really understand much about it.

Why should you do it at all? When’s the best time and a whole bunch of other questions you really need to understand before you get started. This isn’t a textbook course. It’s to help your lawn look better and make it easier for you.

What is dethatching your lawn actually doing?

Is it necessary? Well, the short answer is for most lawns, it’s going to really help because dethatching is basically raking your lawn to get rid of anything that shouldn’t be there. That includes things like twigs, acorns, pine needles, and of course, dead grass. Still, all that junk will surround the good grass blades, and that’ll cause you two problems.

• First, that dead mat will prevent things like water and fertilizer from getting deep into the soil.
• The second problem is it also prevents your healthy grass from spreading out easily and giving you a thick, healthy lawn.

It’s necessary, yes

When is the best time of year to dethatch your lawn?

People commonly do it in the spring in fall, but the real answer is you can do it any time of year with a couple of exceptions.

Doyle Mathews Lawn Expert

Pro Tip: Please don't do it during the winter, and you want to avoid the hottest time of the summer. Don't detach any lawn if the temps above about 85 degrees on any regular basis for what's the simplest and the fastest way for a homeowner to detach their own lawn.

Well, in the old days, you had to rent a machine it was heavy and expensive. And I no longer recommend doing that. Now we’ve got too much better ways.

You can get one of these rakes. It’s designed for dispatching your lawn with less effort (you can buy it here). Now, if you’ve got a smaller lawn, this is a great option.

If you’ve got a medium-sized lawn or a larger one like mine, or maybe you’re just lazy, get a machine like this (GreenWorks make this thing). And it’s absolutely amazing.

Every time I use this tool, I am still blown away. It’s cheap, and it’s easy to use, and it is fast. So if you’re going to do any sizeable lawn, this machine is a much better way to get that thatch and debris up.

Are thatches a free type of fertilizer?

Why go ahead and remove it? Well, thatch is organic and will eventually break down. But there’s too much of it for your lawn to use, and it’s not a very good fertilizer. And if your goal is to have a really great-looking lawn, you’re going to want to remove the thatch and give it regular feedings of good fertilizer.

If you remove all that thatch, are you just going to make more room for weeds to grow?

The answer is you’re trying to make more room for your grass to grow. And there will be, of course, some weeds that will take advantage of that. But the goal is to encourage good thick, healthy growth in your lawn, and you’ll eventually crowd out the weeds.

Can a dethatcher destroy my sprinkler heads?

And if you’ve got in-ground sprinkler heads, you might be wondering if dethatching in long will damage them. The good news is if you use the rake, the Groundskeeper, or the GreenWorks electric dethatcher, you won’t hurt them at all because they use spring-loaded times. So when those times hit the sprinkler head, they actually fall back without causing any damage.

But if you rent a machine, you will definitely destroy your sprinkler heads because their blades are rigid steel. And here’s a great tip. If you’ve ever gotten moss on your lawn and want to get rid of it, you can actually do it mechanically. Many people know you can use a regular rake, but if you use your D fashioned rake, that muscle comes right up. Still, a better option is again to use the GreenWorks machine, and that electric dethatcher will remove all the moss from your lawn can make a harrowing job a little bit easier about all that Sachi removed from your lawn.

Is dethatching bad for the environment?

It isn’t. If you handle it correctly, go ahead and compost it, mix it with soil or leaves and it will completely break down. Another reason to detach your lawn is when you’re done, it just looks better because it’s helping all of those grass blades stand right back up again. It’s kind of like combing your hair. When it comes to your lawn, lots of things can make those grass blades fall.

How many times a year should you detach your lawn?

The real answer is it’s up to you. But for most people, at least once a year is going to be ideal. Detaching your lawn is so much easier than it used to be. You don’t have to rent anything or buy any chemical, and it’s simple to do, and the result is well worth it.