How to Get Green Grass – Part One: Dethatching

How Dethatching Can Help you Achieve Green, Golf Course Quality Grass

I’m sure, at some point or another, most of us have envisioned having the perfect yard.  The best looking lawn on the block.  The talk of the town — lush, green and beautiful.  But if your yard is looking brown, dry, and dead, you aren’t alone.  Last week, I talked about how you can achieve the beautiful yard of your dreams in four easy steps.

1. Dethatching
2. Vacuuming
3. Aerating
4. Overseeding

This week, I’ll walk you through the first step — dethatching your yard.  I’ll also talk about the importance of dethatching and how properly dethatching can help your grass become on par with golf course grass.  (Pun absolutely intended.)

What is Thatch?

Thatch is that organic layer of dead grass, roots, and stems that can build up between the soil surface and layer of vegetation in your turf.  Thatch is created when your turf produces debris faster than it can be broken down.  Thatch tends to build up after time, which prevents water, oxygen, and essential nutrients from reaching your soil.

When you dethatch your yard, you are essentially combing your yard with a rake, removing that unhealthy layer of thatch.  When it comes to smaller yards, this can be done with simply a rake.  But if your yard is bigger than half an acre to an acre, a dethatcher will help you to save lots of time and energy.  Popular types of dethatchers include walk-behind dethatchers  and pull-behind dethatchers (to pull behind a riding mower.)

Why should I dethatch my yard?

It kind of makes sense that a thin layer of thatch is actually healthy for a lawn — it acts as a sponge to help hold in moisture, and also helps to protect the grass from excess sun.  But when thatch buildup becomes greater than .5″, thatch can hold in nutrients and water, keeping them from reaching the soil.  Because of this, too much thatch buildup stifles growth, turns your grass an unhealthy brown shade, and literally chokes your lawn.

If thatch continues to grow too thick, it can also block sunlight from reaching lower grass blades, and prevent water from soaking into the root system.  If water can’t reach the root system, it will continue to hold moisture in the grass blades, which causes bacteria and disease.

How do I dethatch my yard?

In order to tell if your yard needs to be dethatched, first dig up a small plug of turf.  Using a spade, cut a small section of turn (roughly 3″ deep) and inspect the layer of thatch – (the layer right between the soil and grass blades.)  If the layer of thatch exceeds 3/4″, that means your yard could greatly benefit from being dethatched.

The first step in dethatching your yard is mowing.  Mow your yard about half of the normal height – (but no less than an inch.)  Once your yard is freshly cut, then it’s time to dethatch.  Using a rake (for smaller yards) or a dethatcher, go over your yard, pulling out the thatch layer.  Dethatching creates a layer of dead grass on top of your lawn, which means that removing the thatch with a rake or lawn vacuum is absolutely necessary.  If you don’t vacuum after dethatching, then it’s only a matter of time before the dead thatch becomes matted down in the soil again.

Often times, dethatching can create bare spots in your yard.  Because of this, it’s a pretty good idea to overseed after dethatching — especially in problem areas.

When Should I Dethatch?

Finding the best time to dethatch really depends on climate region and grass type.  When maintaining cool-season grasses, the best time to dethatch is late summer or early fall.  But when it comes to warm season grasses, dethatching yields the best results when done in late spring or early summer.  Really, the best time to dethatch varies by region.  If you’re not sure, just keep in mind that the best time to dethatch would be whenever your grass is growing most rapidly.