The Best Dethatchers

Buying Guide

A healthy green lawn adds significantly to the curb appeal of your home. But lawn maintenance can be a lot of work. Luckily, there are plenty of tools that can help.

One of those tools is a dethatcher. A dethatcher helps remove the loose layer of grass stems, roots, and leaves that forms just above the soil but underneath vegetation. A thin layer of thatch can be a good thing because it acts like a mulch, moderating temperature and moisture levels. But, once it reaches a one-inch thickness, it can start keeping air, water and nutrients from getting to the soil. You also may have issues with insects and lawn diseases.

Preventing thatch buildup is the first step. Thatch forms when new organic matter accumulates faster than the old organic matter decomposes. So as tempting as it can be to water and fertilize your grass, too much of this can create thatch. Try to avoid overwatering your grass. If you use a fertilizer, make sure it isn’t too high in nitrogen.

But once you have thatch, it’s time to get rid of it. You can use a rake to pull it from the soil, but if you have a lot of ground to cover, or thatch is a regular issue, you can buy lawn equipment that will do that job more capably and with less manual labor.

Dethatchers, or scarifiers, can be manual or motor-powered. You’ll want to look at how powerful the engine is as well as how much lawn it can turn up in one swipe. You might also wish to find one that holds organic debris in a bag or tray.

• To determine if your lawn is suffering from a thatch problem, stick your finger through it. If you can’t easily find your way to the soil, chances are, water and nutrients can’t, either.
• Some grasses are worse about thatch buildup than others. Kentucky bluegrass and bermudagrass are among the worst.
• Before you begin dethatching, it’s best to mow your grass to about half its normal height. This will help you get to the thatch more easily. You should also mark buried utility lines, sprinkler heads and other obstacles before you get started.
• If you have cool-season grass like Kentucky bluegrass, you can either dethatch in the early spring or early fall. With warm-season grass like bermudagrass, it’s best to dethatch in late spring.
• Dethatching will leave a lawn full of thatch. You can remove the mess with a leaf rake, but some dethatchers come with leaf bags to make cleanup easy.
• After dethatching, you may see a few bald spots. You can purchase products designed to reseed empty patches in your yard.
• If you’re dethatching before reseeding your yard, you can find dethatchers that are ideal for that. They dig a little deeper into the soil, aerating while they work.