It’s summertime, and as we all know, the thatch season is here. As we all know, thatch grows very quickly. Tempe is actually one of the fastest-growing places in the world for thatch growth. So it’s not surprising that you may have seen a lot of signs on the thatch growing around the edges of the city of Tempe. Thatch growth makes it extremely difficult to keep our lawns thatch-free.
There are many ways to get rid of thatch, but most are expensive and annoying. This is why I like to use a power rake. A power rake is used to dig up and loosen thatch, along with any other debris lying underneath the thatch. It’s much easier to remove large pieces of debris when the ground is flat and open. It also helps cut back on the number of trips that your grass will need to be cut for thatching purposes.
Before I show you how to use a thatch rake properly, let me explain how the thatch on your lawn gets in the first place. Any grass in your lawn starts life as a seedling bed. The thatch that forms on top of your new lawn starts off the thatch layer, which can be removed with a simple power rake.
For instance, if you’re cutting a large perimeter section of thatch, such as around your walkways or yard borders, it’s a good idea to dethatch your grass. If your thatch layer is too thick, you can use a power raking tool and dethatch your lawn at that same spot. You need to make sure that you remove the entire thatch before you do this, or else you’ll be left with a large crater that needs to be filled with fertilizer. Another option here would be to hire a landscaper to make your lawn thatch for you.
If you are going to dethatch your lawn, the first thing that you need to do is to disconnect your lawnmower. You’ll want to do this because some thatch layers are quite heavy. Once your lawnmower is disconnected from the electric supply, you’ll have some time to put the lawnmower in reverse and hook it up to the power rake. It will probably need some repair work here and there, but you can usually get it fixed by adding a little oil to it.
When your thatch layer has been removed from the lawn, you need to do one last thing. This step will require you to have a powerful tool of some sort to help you. Get rid of the thatch along the edges of your fence or the area that has been dug up. By doing this, you’ll be keeping the clippings and cuttings down in the rake that you’ve been using. This will help you get more of the clippings from this piece of debris to your next cut.
After your thatch has been eradicated, be sure to put the lawnmower away. You can take your Thatch Rake and run it through the fence row you have just dug up. This should loosen up any of the grass that is still on the ground and let it go. It can sometimes be a little messy to thatch grass, but you can do this quickly and easily with a thatch rake.
After your thatch has been removed from your lawn, take a broom or rake and run it over the area you used to dethatch the grass. This will loosen up any of the clippings that may be left behind. If you have a power tool, you may want to use that to power through all of it. Once you have done this, you will be able to move on to dethatching small pieces of clover, alfalfa, and millet on the ground. Using a leaf rake again will do the same thing for larger pieces of grass.