Dethatching the Lawn

I’m thinking about dethatching the lawn. Maybe buy one at Home Depot or something. To pull behind my riding lawn tractor. I cut maybe 1.5 to 2 acres.

Is this a decent time to do it? As long as the ground isn’t too wet? I’m on sandy soil and it seems like it could take a good raking right now.

Any other tips or tricks?

i’m no lawn expert but i think its to early…….been told you should wait till it starts greening up!!!!!

for the record i dont thatch my lawn……i was also told the old grass helps keep moisture in and is a form of fertilizer as it decays!!!

i’m no lawn expert but i think its to early…….been told you should wait till it starts greening up!!!!!

2nd that!!! heard the same here

Roger I will take that into consideration. My grass has just started to green up. But it’s gonna be cold this weekend.

I’ve never dethatched a lawn either. But I think it would help my current lawn. I have some areas that really look good it I give it an aggressive manual rake. Lots of small sticks and pine cones and other debris kinda seems to be suffocating some areas. But I have too much to do by hand.

It needs to start to green up. Not necessarily the whole yard needs to be green. I always thatched in the morning on a sunny day, then leave it dry out, and finally bag it.
Currently no need to thatch because yard is too new.

I did mine last week b4 the rain. I had the time then. And looked terrible. Ran over the mole runs which I trapped out a couple days before.
I’ve done it late and early. Would rather do early. A little snow after I did it. I put down some grass seed and fertilizer b4 the snow..
I just have a little 2 footer that digs up stuff then a lawn sweeper after that. Amazing how many loads I had with the sweeper.
Looks darn nice now

I did it once and I’ll never do it again.
The yard looked terrible for at least a year.
Not sure it’s ever fully recovered.
It has never looked as good as it did before dethatching.

It’s way to early. The ground need to firm up or you will set the roots back. The ground needs to warm up and firm up or you will pull the roots of the grass loose.

I usually shoot for a nice dry stretch close to May 1. Let the roots take hold more as things start to really green up. If you do it now you’re way more likely to damage grass than help it

i have several neighbors that i would call “anal” about there lawns and none of them have done there’s yet. and i have not seen any of these lawn care guys out and about thatching lawns as of yet.

of course at the moment we still have agood blanket of snow covering most lawns!!!!

Sounds like I should wait a bit.

But there is some descrepancy (in my mind) between dethatching, power raking. At minimum I know my lawn could use a good raking.

The one I was looking at has tines not blades. More similar to a rake