Dethatching and aerating are both lawn care practices that help keep your yard healthy. But how do you know which one to do first? And how often dethatch lawn? In this blog post, we will go over the differences between dethatching vs aerating, how they affect your lawn, how often you should be performing them on your property, and more!
What Does Dethatching Mean?
So, what does dethatching mean? Dethatching is how you clear your lawn of the dead and dying grass blades, allowing for new growth to come through. This practice can be done in a number of ways:
– Hard Raking over the yard manually
– Using a machine (a dethatcher) to pull up all that old grass without removing it from the yard
– Using a dethatcher attachment on your lawnmower to pull up all that old grass without removing it from the yard.
Why Is Thatch a Bad Thing For Your Lawn?
Thatch is how old and dead grass blades accumulate in your yard. It’s the thin layer of decaying matter that forms on top of healthy, green grass roots. If you can see an accumulation of this material in your lawn when it gets warm out – for example, after a long winter with only bare soil showing or if there was heavy rain – it’s easy to mistake this for an insect infestation or something else. However, thatch is how your lawn naturally decomposes old vegetation and keeps itself healthy.
If there isn’t too much of the material on top of your grass roots, you will need to dethatch it because it prevents nutrients and water penetrate the surface (basically “chocking” the healthy grass).
How Often Should You Dethatch Your Lawn?
Dethatching only needs to be done once every one to three years. It depends on how often you
Dethatching vs Aerating: What is the Difference?
After we know what does dethatching mean we need to know the difference between dethatching vs aerating since both are usually done at the same time.
As we mentioned above, dethatching is how you clear your lawn of the dead and dying grass blades, allowing for new growth to come through.
On the other hand, aerating is how you create holes throughout the yard so that water can easily penetrate into the soil. This allows air pockets around your roots which help them expand better while giving oxygen a chance to get down deep where it is needed. You can aerate your lawn in a number of ways:
– Using a machine/tool with spikes on it.
– Aerating your lawn by hand.
You can rent these machines/tools at Home Depot or any other local tool rental place.
How Often Dethatch Lawn
Now that you are familiar with the difference between dethatching vs aerating, you should know how often should you be dethatching your lawn? This depends on how much foot traffic the area gets and how bad the wear-and-tear already is in that particular section of grass, but it’s usually recommended to do this once or twice per year for healthy lawns.
How Often Aerate Lawn
Now that we know how often dethatch lawn of ours, we need to know how often you should be aerating your lawn? This depends on how much foot traffic the area gets and how bad the wear-and-tear already is in that particular section of grass. It’s recommended to do this at least twice per year (spring and fall work well).
Dethatching or Aerating First?
We now know what each process means and how it is done. The Question now is dethatching or aerating first?
If you are planning to do both then dethatch first, then aerate. The reason behind it is simply because if you do aeration first you create holes and if you are to do dethatching after the spikes will have holes to catch and it will make a lot of mess rather than doing what it suppose to. so remember, dethatching or aerating first? Dethatching goes first.
Dethatching Before Overseeding
As mentioned in the previous post, many lawn care providers do 4 different things at the same time for the best results. They do dethatching, aeration, overseeding, and fertilization. dethatching before overseeding because you want the new seeds to penetrate the ground better after removing all the dead grass and other organic material.
It’s important to know the difference between dethatching and aerating because it could make all of the difference in your lawn. You can use either one to maintain a healthy-looking yard, but knowing which is best for you will help you tremendously. Dethatch when there are pesky weeds growing up through your grass or if leaves have accumulated on top of the soil. Aerate where roots are compacted underfoot due to heavy traffic or overuse by pets. Make sure to do both regularly so that your lawn stays lush and green! Don’t forget the order dethatching before overseeding and aeration. Now that we know the difference between these two maintenance methods, let’s get out there and take care of our yards!
