Let Your Soil Breathe with Regular Lawn Dethatching
Urban Eden Landscaping’s lawn care service includes thorough dethatching to promote healthier grass that’s free from weeds, disease, and dead areas.
Thatch refers to the ‘blanket’ of dead and dying weeds, leaves, and other debris that accumulates between grass and soil. And if not removed, turf and root-system problems will inevitably develop.
Thatch prevents seeds and fertilizer from penetrating the topsoil, so isolated efforts to revive your grass may yield disappointing results. Thatching is a critical part of responsible lawn care, and when combined with weed control, aeration, fertilization, or overseeding, your lawn will look and perform at its best.
Our landscapers and lawn care professionals offer comprehensive care for your lawn, ensuring that thatch is removed thoroughly and precisely in order to encourage healthy growth.
Grass requires porous soil in order to fully absorb sunlight, nutrients, water, and oxygen. By allowing debris to gather over time, lawns are stifled and root systems become shallow, leading to weeds and generally unhealthy-looking grass.
Why do Lawns Need to Be Dethatched?
Property owners can check to see how deep their lawn’s thatch is by digging out a section of turf and measuring the top layer of dead material. If it’s more than an inch deep, the lawn will need to be dethatched.
Even healthy, established lawns require dethatching. And it’s only a matter of time before lush, vibrant grass withers into a nutrient-poor, weed-infested wasteland without regular maintenance.
If your lawn has any of these qualities, it may benefit from dethatching:
- Soft and springy when walked on
- Persistent dry areas
- Brown or thin areas even after fertilizing or mowing
- Muddy areas
- Thatch that’s more than a half-inch deep
Will dethatching remove weeds?
Dethatching by itself will not necessarily remove weeds, but it will encourage healthy grass growth. Dethatching, aerating, and weed control work symbiotically to inhibit the plants you don’t want, and encourage those you do.
Thatch Inhibits Healthy Grass Growth and Decompresses Soil
Dethatching is sometimes compared to ‘combing’ or ‘brushing’ the grass and can be done on small lawns with a dethatching rake (and lots of energy!).
But, dethatching a large lawn requires special equipment that can handle the scale efficiently without tilling the ground. Some home improvement stores sell chemical products that claim to dethatch lawns, however, they mostly prove harmful to the environment and largely ineffective.
Lawnmowers can also be fitted with dethatching blades, but if it is not commercial-grade, it may cause damage to the lawnmower itself, and potentially, your yard.
The best way to dethatch your lawn in Vancouver, WA, is to call Urban Eden Landscaping. Our equipment is manufactured to handle both large and small lawns and will not cause damage to delicate grasses.
Our motorized dethatcher works by “raking” the grass with rotating blades and can be adjusted depending on the grass type and how far they need to penetrate. These industrial-grade machines rake, loosen, and remove large amounts of thatch quickly so you don’t have to spend hours raking.
After we complete the process, we’ll help you learn how to keep your grass’s thatch buildup under control year-round.