First Home Facts

New To Lawn Care? Learn How To Dethatch Your Lawn

If you're a new homeowner, you might not know everything you need to about your lawn; specifically when it comes to thatch and how to get rid of it. Each year during the spring and fall, your lawn should be dethatched so that weeds, dead grass and leaves don't come between your grass and the soil it loves so much.

However, if you've never done this before, you might wonder how to go about it, so this guide is here to help:

Step 1: Inspect the Lawn

Walk around your lawn to see if it's mushy. As you're walking around, you'll feel as if you're smashing down the lawn instead of walking on solid soil. If this is what you feel, follow the next steps to rid your lawn of thatch.

Step 2: Pick Up a Dethatching Rake and a Couple Supplies

To remove thatch from your lawn properly, purchase a dethatching rake. It's a tool that looks somewhat like a regular rake, only a little different. Instead of having thin, long wires at the end, a dethatching rake has wider curved blades on both sides of the rake that cut through roots and weeds and yanks them to the surface of the lawn.

In addition to a dethatching rake, you'll also need a regular rake and a pair of gardening gloves.

Step 3: Mow the Lawn

Set your lawnmower to cut the grass to about an inch above the soil. This is at least half of what you would normally cut it, but doing this allows you to get to the thatch easier.

Step 4: Dethatch the Lawn

Use the dethatching rake to remove the thatch just like you would a regular rake with one key difference. Even though the motion is the same, pull the rake harder and slower than you do a regular rake, so the blade can pull more thatch up with it.

Step 5: Rake the Lawn

Put on your gardening gloves and use the regular rake to pick up the thatch you've pulled up from the soil. You can put the thatch in the yard waste bin for the sanitation department to pick up, on their next scheduled day, or use it in your compost pile.

Remember to dethatch your lawn twice per year, in the spring and summer, to keep your lawn thriving and looking great. The longer you allow dead leaves, grass or roots to interfere with your lawn's connection to the soil and the nutrients it provides, the more of a risk you'll have that your lawn will turn brown and lose it's natural beauty.

To learn more, contact a company like Seabreeze Property Services with any questions or concerns you have.


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