Saturday, September 19, 2009
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Dethatching the lawn
Borrowed the tow-behind dethatcher from David. Dragged behind the Craftsman mower in 2 directions all Sunday afternoon. Held down by a 70# bag of sand. It left a covering of white fluff everywhere. Now the problem is raking it up.
Started in front with a large box. Trying to irrigate a little to ease the trauma. Still 80F days, but windless. Relatively mild weather.
Later thought of using a blue tarp instead of box.
Disposing in a pile in the back. Huge piles. Perhaps I will put some out for yard waste pickup every week to get rid of it. Would attract bunnies to nest in it.
Raking is tiring. So used the mower to try to windrow the thatch, before raking and collecting on the blue tarp. Took from 6-8:30pm one night. Ending up in darkness.
I will probably run the mower this weekend, and bag to pick up stray thatch left on the lawn.
And get a couple bags of winterizing fertilizer.
Reseeding dead spots near driveway and street front. I've suspected these are thatch related.
I got a $5 garden rake from Menard's to hand thin certain spots. I could grind the tines sharper.
I also bought a $12 dethatch blade for the mower (Arnold universal 16 in). Just in case I couldn't borrow David's implement. Haven't tried it. People say it can be brutal. Both hard on the mower and on the lawn. Some call it scarification. depends how low you set it. You're supposed to cut the lawn short first, before dethatching. And if you dethatch every year or every other year, it won't be so overwhelming or traumatic to the lawn.
Started in front with a large box. Trying to irrigate a little to ease the trauma. Still 80F days, but windless. Relatively mild weather.
Later thought of using a blue tarp instead of box.
Disposing in a pile in the back. Huge piles. Perhaps I will put some out for yard waste pickup every week to get rid of it. Would attract bunnies to nest in it.
Raking is tiring. So used the mower to try to windrow the thatch, before raking and collecting on the blue tarp. Took from 6-8:30pm one night. Ending up in darkness.
I will probably run the mower this weekend, and bag to pick up stray thatch left on the lawn.
And get a couple bags of winterizing fertilizer.
Reseeding dead spots near driveway and street front. I've suspected these are thatch related.
I got a $5 garden rake from Menard's to hand thin certain spots. I could grind the tines sharper.
I also bought a $12 dethatch blade for the mower (Arnold universal 16 in). Just in case I couldn't borrow David's implement. Haven't tried it. People say it can be brutal. Both hard on the mower and on the lawn. Some call it scarification. depends how low you set it. You're supposed to cut the lawn short first, before dethatching. And if you dethatch every year or every other year, it won't be so overwhelming or traumatic to the lawn.
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