How to Thatch or Aerate a Lawn

Dethatchers work best, but steel or thatching rakes work in a pinch.

Many homeowners take pride in their lawns, adding fertilizers and watering frequently to create a lush, green turf -- never considering that they may be smothering the lawn they hold so dear. Applying excessive amounts of water and fertilizer makes a lawn green, but the practice also makes the grass grow faster than it breaks down. This leads to thatch, a thick, interwoven layer of live and dead grass on the surface of the soil. Thatch prevents water from entering the soil and the formerly thick, lush lawn browns and dies of thirst -- unless you take steps to remove the thatch.

Things You'll Need

• Yard flags
• Power aerator
• Power dethatcher
• Rake

Instructions

1. Find any sprinklers or cables sitting on or near the surface of the lawn. Mark their locations with small lawn flags to avoid running over them with the machinery.

2. Push a power aerator over the yard in straight, parallel lines, in a manner similar to mowing a yard. The aerator pulls round cores of dirt out of the lawn. Make a second pass over the yard, moving in rows perpendicular to the direction you traveled in the first pass. Leave the piles of cored dirt where they fall on the ground.

3. Place the power dethatcher on a hard surface, such as a sidewalk or driveway. Adjust the blades so that they lie 1/8 to 1/4 inch above the ground's surface.

4. Push the dethatcher over the lawn in straight, parallel lines, the same way you aerated the lawn. Repeat the process until you remove the majority of the thatch from the lawn; this may take repeated passes if the thatch layer is especially thick.

5. Rake the yard and collect the displaced thatch. Dispose of the thatch with your yard waste or add it to a compost pile.

Tips & Warnings

• Yearly thatch removal keeps the lawn in good shape and makes the process much less arduous.

• Many garden-supply stores and equipment stores rent aerators and dethatchers. Manual aerators and dethatchers are also available.

• If you can't get a dethatcher, you can manually dethatch the lawn using a steel rake or a thatching rake. Using a steel rake can remove some grass if not done carefully. however.

• Powered dethatchers and aerators can be very heavy and require more than one person to lift them.

References

• Oregon State University Extension: Dethatch Your Lawn This Spring
• University of Minnesota Extension: Thatch Control in Lawns and Turf
• University of Illinois Extension: Lawn Challenge -- Thatch and How to Manage It
• All About Lawns: How Do I Aerate?