Portland and Vancouver Metro Areas?
Dethatching
See the jam moss and dead grass your yard may have. Hundreds of peaple request for these services each year? complete lawn care service
affordable prices
Spring and Fall is the best time to do Thatching & Aeration
Services Available in Portland, OR and Vancouver, WA Lawn Thatching,
Lawn Aeration, Lawn Thatching Portland ,Oregon, Lawn Mowing, Landscaping Maintenance, Yard Cleanups, Bark dusting, Mulching, Pressure Washing, Gutter Cleaning, Moss Removal, Weed Removal, Leaf Cleanups, Lawn Care Services, Fertilization, Re-Seeding, Trimming, Pruning, Bushes Shrubs, River Rocks, Blackberry Removal, Ivy Removal, Commercial Lawn Maintenance, Commercial Landscaping Maintenance, Landscape Maintenance.
Lawn Dethatching
Lawn thatching Before
Lawn Aeration After Re-seed & fertilizer chatching
See the difference After Thatching Aeration & Re-seed Fertilizer
Lawn Thatch
How often should you dethatch your lawn?
Almost every lawn needs dethatching about once a year, or whenever the thatch reaches a thickness of about 1/2 inch. To check, just work your fingers into the grass and note the depth of the thatch layer. Dethatch cool-season grasses in fall, warm-season types in early spring
The best time to dethatch your lawn is when it's actively growing and the soil is moderately moist. For cool-season grasses, that's early spring or early fall. For warm-season grasses, dethatch in late spring through early summer (after the second mowing). That's when your grass is growing most vigorously.
When buildup outpaces breakdown, your lawn's thatch layer grows thicker. A thin thatch layer, less than 1/2-inch thick, is beneficial to lawn health. 1 It acts as an organic mulch to help conserve soil moisture and protect against big fluctuations in soil temperatures.
Lawn Dethatching, See below what is thatching and what should it do?
We recomend a combination, Thatching and Aeration Over-Seed Fertilization And mulch on the top
Why is Too Much Thatch Bad?
- Prevents water and nutrients from reaching the plant roots.
- Absorbs pesticide/fungicide, preventing them from doing their job.
- Reduces space available for new grass. When crowded by thatch, new grass tends to grow rapidly as they seek light and space, thus producing long, thin leaves with shallow roots.
- Grass root systems can grow into the thatch rather than into the soil.
- Harbors diseases such as bipolaris leaf spot, summer patch, and dollar spot.
Aggravates insect problems. Thatch favors insects by hiding them from their predators.
What is thatch and how to prevent it in your lawn?
Grass thatch is a tightly intermingled organic layer of dead and living shoots, stems, and roots that accumulate just above the soil surface of your yard.
It's not necessarily grass clippings even though they may contribute to the problem. Thatch accumulation is due to either over-fertilization, over-watering, and/or soil compaction of the lawn.
While a small amount of it is helpful as it helps regulate soil temperature and moisture of the lawn, too much of it interferes with air and water intake and makes proper lawn care difficult.
Too much of it can also reduce how effective fertilizers and pesticides are and increase disease and insect activity. Eventually, roots may start growing in the thatch, and since it does not hold much water, the lawn can become victim of drought.
Many people interested in lawn care aren't familiar with thatching; or know why they might need to be concerned. Thatch is a layer of living and dead organic matter that accumulates on top of the soil, just beneath the grass.
Thatch is mostly made up of living turfgrass stems and roots, and decaying or dead grass and debris in the process of breaking down and becoming part of the soil. Grass continually renews itself and thatch is a normal part of that renewal process. It's not unusual for a yard to have thatch. The older and more established a lawn is, the more likely it has thatch to some degree. Some thatching can be beneficial as it insulates lawn roots from extreme cold in winter and excessive moisture loss in summer. But sometimes, due to environmental factors or improper lawn care practices, thatch accumulates faster than the dead matter can breakdown and become soil. Excessive thatch (more than 1/2 inch thick) encourages pests and disease, discourages healthy grass rooting, and can interfere with some lawn care practices.
Lawn care can have a major impact on thatching. For example, excessive nitrogen fertilizer applications or frequent overwatering can contribute to thatch, because they cause the lawn to grow too fast. Some people mistakenly blame grass clippings dropped on the lawn after mowing as a cause of thatch buildup. Clippings are very high in water content and breakdown rapidly when returned to lawns after mowing, actually helping reduce thatch. This assumes lawns are properly mowed on a regular basis (not removing more than one-third of the leaf blade at a time) at the correct height.
Environmental factors that contribute to thatching include heavy, wet soils; alkaline, or high pH soils; and soil compaction. Kentucky bluegrass, hybrid Bermuda and Zoysia are notably prone to thatching.
Lawn Care Aeration and Thatching
If thatch levels accumulate to more than 1/2″ lawn problems may occur and the thatch will have to be controlled. You could use a garden rake - those with metal or steel tines - or a special dethatching rake to scrape out the thatch, but you risk tearing out live grass roots with it. Core aerating helps degrade thatch and also helps solve some of the causes of thatch. Core aeration followed by topdressing with compost will generally correct the reasons thatch is accumulating. Lawn care aeration slows thatching by pulling soil cores to the surface that, when left on the ground, act like topdressing. The holes created alleviate problems such as compaction or poor drainage. Topdressing is simply adding a thin layer (1/8″ to 1/4″) of good rich soil, such as mature compost, over the lawn and gently raking it down into the thatch. This adds beneficial microorganisms to speed thatch breakdown.
With proper lawn care, thatching is nothing to be overly concerned about...when you know exactly what to do.